BEWARE: Pics of cheap bushings Granatelli

I bought a set of Granatelli LCA and the bushings are advertised as polyurethane. During the installation process one tore. It seemed to tear pretty easy. I called Granatelli and they wanted to charge me $20.00 for one bushing and $15.00 shipping. I thought this was pretty high. $35.00 for one bushing. I eventually got the parts supplier that I bought them from to get Granatelli to send me one. Well when I got it it looked different. It looks a little more shiny and has a different pattern on the bottom. (see pic 002,) I also noticed the original ones have a unique smell. If anybody has ever been to Harbor Freight tools knows the smell when you enter the store. It is a cheap rubber smell. The new one did not have any odor at all and looked similar to the Energy Suspension bushings I used in the past. I was curious if the original bushing was indeed cheap so I attempted to tear it with a pair of channel locks. It tore pretty easily. (see pic 005 ) I was able to stick a screwdriver in the bushing and get it to break apart. I can not imagine these cheap bushings lasting very long. I would not run these witout being concerned for they will not last.. The replacement one they sent me however, was very durable and would not tear with lots of effort (see pic 004). I am not sure why Granatelli sent me a good one and the arms were equipped with junk. Any matter I now have to replace all the cheap bushings with good ones. I am looking into replacing them with Energy Suspension Bushings. If I cannot find good replacements then I will buy some better LCAs like Steeda or MM. I paid $150.00 for the LCAs so I guess you get what you pay for.Live and learn. Becareful buying from Granatelli. They are unfriendly on the phone and tried to charge me $35.00 for one bushing. At this rate of $35.00 each it would cost me $280.00 to replace all eight bushings in these arms if I bought them through Granatelli. And the arms were only 150.00 complete. It just dosnt add up. Beware of this company.

https://home.comcast.net/~perkin50/002.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~perkin50/003.jpg


https://home.comcast.net/~perkin50/005.jpg

Here is a few more pics of the bushings. I always thought polyurethane was polyurethane. Guess I was wrong.

https://home.comcast.net/~perkin50/006.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~perkin50/007.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~perkin50/008.jpg

Look at pic 006. It shows what the bushing looks like after it breaks apart. I cannot believe they would put such a cheap bushing in the control arm.

Look at pic 007. You can see a small divot were I attemped to tear the bushing with the channel locks but it would not tear and only left a small divot. I wish these bushings were in my control arms.

Blk91stang said:

I was in the SAME dilemma. I got J.R.Granatelli on Corral.net to send me some new ones for free. They took care of my pretty good talking directly to Granatelli. told me they got a bad batch of bushings which I believe since they turned to crap so fast.

Weight Jacker Lower Control Arms

1.5 years of street usage

Pics of the carnage

Old Vs. New

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I will e-mail Granatelli and see if they will help me. I will update this thread on how it turns out.

Thanks for the info. I will e-mail Granatelli and see if they will help me. I will update this thread on how it turns out

I e-mailed JR through Corral.net and he responded and said he would send me six more bushings to replace the ones that seemed to be poor quality. I recieved all six yesterday and all is well. JR did said that the bushings in the picture were natural rubber.