C4 "Dog Bone" control arm rebuild?

Can the control arms on a C4 be rebuilt?

Seems like the arms could be machined out to accept new bushings?

You can press the whole bushing out, it has a steel sleeve.

Twin_Turbo said:

You can press the whole bushing out, it has a steel sleeve.

Click to expand...

There is no outer sleeve, only the inner that the bolt rides on.When you press them out the inner sleeve commonly seperates from the deteriorated rubber
You just cut the bushes off flush with the arm and drill the old rubber out.
Poly bushes are split so they just push in from each side.

Who said anything about an outer sleeve? There's a steel sleeve in the middle, If you remove it you can simply cut the rubber side off one end and tap out the bushings with a socket and a hammer. Related to this, the prothane and energy suspension bushings are junk. Prothane is junk for pretty much anything (sloppy install in C3s and a lot of other cars), they are too wide so the bushing is very tight in the knuckle and moans and groans. The sleeve just sits in there doing nothing at all. The only way to remedy it is to sand down the sides. No idea who makes a decent bushing....maybe Doug Rippie has something that works..not sure.

Are the poly replacements for the dog bones and bat wing very durable? The control ams look like there might be some pretty good twist in them.

The batwing ones are. Anotehr tip, the poly bushings for the batwing go in from both sides, the stock ones (that do have an outer sleeve) go in from one side that side of the bore is chamfered the other not. It's a major PITA to get the bushing in on the non chamfered side so just file a good chamfer on it and lube the bushing. i wouldn't recommend poly for this application either. Just like camber rods, these things not only rotate but also twist due to the pendulum motion. All the poly bushings I have used on C3 camber rods turned to crap rather quickly, the bushing simply breaks into pieces.

Rod ends..... my choice! :idea: