hi guys,

so after getting an alignment + new front tires(balanced), my steering wheel starts to shake a little when going more than 70mph. I got quote from dealer saying compression rod bushing badly torn for 969$. is this price reasonable? will this cause steering wheel to shake at high speed?

thanks in advance

 

No. Anything at the dealership is overprice. It's a super easy DIY

 

It took me about four hours to do both. If you live where salt is applied, sometimes the bushing corrodes to the unibody stud. Many posts on this.

Definitely use an impact to remove the nut holding the cr stud and brace. A breaker bar may damage it.

I bought OEM bushing and reused the rods. Now urethane options are available.

If you have never done suspension work have a friend who has help.

 

I noticed your in the bay area. You can try to contact bythabay here on the forum. He knows Nissan's/Infiniti's and has more than reasonable rates. I think hes located now in Santa Clara.

 

^thanks

 

The oem compression rod bushings are horseshit. I have gone thru 4 in the past year. Check out this post...https://g35driver.com/forums/g35-sedan-v35-2003-06/399972-my-struggles-reviews-compression-rod-polyurethane-bushings.html

Check out the bushings here...
http://www.armstrongdistributors.com/infiniti.html

They sell them on amazon for 50 each. Well worth it in my opinion. Check out pictures of them installed on my car at http://www.northernlightsmediasolutions.com/infiniti

It's really not too bad of a project to do yourself as long as you have someone to press the bushings in. I had the same vibration problem a high speeds like you're saying and now it's like a new car! :-)

 

^looking good..unfortunately I have no place to work on my car atm.

 

I just replaced my compression rods check the lower front control arms in my case bad vibration and popping sound was caused by a combination of control arms an compression rods which are vary easy to replace. I went with the new oem stuff from napa lower control arm was 100 or on ebay which is a bit cheaper but no warranty. Also ordered brand new around 50-70 $$ range for compression rod $55 (what I payed on ebay) hope tht helps in my opinion a better idea to just replace parts as a whole. Was Pretty easy to install even with my back surgery.

 

I did my compression rods last weekend and my lower control arms today! I'm sick of redoing these every year and a half, so I added hockey pucks to my lower control arm bushings...saw a guy that did it in a nico forum, looked like a good idea. I drilled a 1 inch hole in the puck just off center with a spade bit on a drill press. Then trace out the control arm with a pencil and carefully chisel out a 1/4 inch from the hockey puck until it is flush with the edge of the oem bushing when put on. It slips on right over the oem bushing, and adds a nice bit of stiffness where our suspension needs it the most!

 

How's the hockey puck holding up?

 

Sorry for the delay terrorx7...after taking it to the dealer for a free inspection, I ended up taking the hockey pucks off after a while. They caused a major shudder when I would brake, and some squeaking noise as well due to the material they are composed of. They did provide some nice stiffness, but too much - my tires were wearing unevenly. Took them off, replaced both front STRUTS (with OEM sport struts even though my car didn't have that out of the factory, only thing different with the upgrade is a bit stiff of a strut), and the issues all subsided. After everything I've dumped into my suspension, I believe the place to start when your suspension is making noise is the struts (and obviously strut mounts with it). Then move on to upper control arms, then lower control arms, and finally compression rods - unless you can clearly see the compression rods are worn.

It's not hard to grab a hold of any of the ball joints (while they are still assembled and tight) and see if there is any up and down movement as a sanity check. If you find one that is janky, replace the arm it's connected to.

 

lol 2 1/2 years, that's definitely a delay. Good info though, thanks for the follow up.