So I did my Energy Suspension lower control arm Polyurethane Bushings on the passenger side due to time. Enough to show how I did it with some help. I will remake a how-to when I have the other side done.

The OE bushing is not a part that can be bought by itself. A new arm already come installed new bushings, so it's a good option if you don't want to go through the hassle of removing the old bushings and drive new ones in. You can always replace the ball joints later, but why not replace them when they can fail eventually.


Remove the cotter pin and the castle nut, but do not reuse the cotter pin. If you're changing the ball joint anyway, don't worry about destroying the boot. Use a ball joint removing fork or similar tools to detach it from the spindle. Remove the two nuts and the bolt that is bolted onto the lower control arm.


This is where I messed up. Check if the front lower control arm bolt is in the way of anything before you begin. If you have an automatic, you'll need to drop the suspension crossmember sub-assy to gain access to the bolt on that side.


Then you just remove the bolt and nut that holts the back of the arm.


The arm will come out after some effort.


Now to the first time-consuming part: torching the bushing off the arm. The small ones aren't too hard to melt


A video can worth a thousand words. Heating up the rubber long enough will get it to burn itself. The bigger one will take quite some time to be burnt off.


Make sure the holes is as smooth as possible (no rubber residue). You can use a file to get the remaining rubber off.


The metal sleeve inside the big bushing is reused. It's sandblasted for a smooth finish and rubber-free after scrubbing most of them. The actual bushing (centerpiece) is pressed in as careful as possible. The metal sleeve is pressed inside the hole. Once you put the top and bottom caps on, feel free to lube them so you can have a much easier time sliding it back later.


The smaller bushings are best to be lubed and placed inside the hole. Then the metal part of the bushing is driven into by a small bushing driver.

Since only one side is installed, it's not very difficult to feel the difference. No, it's not something that will make your car ride stupid rough. How long will it take to do everything? 4 hours is a good time for a shop, but I'd say a good day so you can have some beer with your friends and have a good time.

For the MOOG ball joint, it comes with a separate grease fitting (or better known as zerg fitting). Fill the ball joint with a grease gun, then put the supplied regular screw back on.

Thanks. Planning to get this done soon.

So I finally got the other side done last Saturday. I will compile a how-to when I completely fixed the alignment instead of following this thread for a cleaner look.

For those who have a 1ZZ 5-speed or 2ZZ Matrix, please check if there's anything in front of the driver's side (L) lower control arm bolt. Not the one almost next to the firewall because it has a nut on top. If there is not, then your procedure does not involve in removing the subframe and you'll have less headache while doing this.

Undo the 2 bolts holding the driver's side arm before dropping the subframe.

To drop the subframe (except 4WD), there are four bolts to remove. In addition to that you must remove 3 bolts and 3 nuts located at the bottom of the subframe. Doing so will allow you to drop the entire subframe with the tranny mount disconnected to it. The 3 bolts and 1 nut is very obvious in the picture. The other two nuts are in the 2nd and 3rd hole from the left in the picture. I took this picture right below the cat facing the front of the car just like what the service manual shows.


Now, you're supposed to disconnect the front sway bar and steering rack from the subframe. Since I did this at school, I used two tranny jacks. You're supposed to suspend engine and tranny as part of the procedure. Instead, I used a tranny jack to hold the engine and tranny. The other is used to hold the subframe to keep it dangling. I recommend you to disconnect the end-links for this. Once the subframe comes down, you're able to the take driver's side lower control arm front bolt.

I have a feeling that the driver's side is pretty much worn and it is. Notice the cracks on the bushing. It's around and down to the other side of the bushing too.


It does not require much effort to use something strong enough to twist it like the suspension moves. The passenger side is not anywhere close to this bad.


So we melt the rubber again to drive them out and make sure the sleeves are free of rubber. Use a file/wire brush or similar things to remove the residue.



The small one is easy. Lube the new bushing, stick them into the hole, then press in the metal sleeve. We have a press, so it only took a few minutes. For the big one, find some thick, flat metals to drive the bushing inside the hole. You can use a little bit of the grease that came with the package to lube the top of the sleeve so you'll have an easier time to press it in. When you press the metal inside sleeve from the original bushing, get it as perpendicular to the bushing the best possible. That may save you some time trying to line-up the inside sleeve with the holes on the subframe later.

Once that is done, you just put everything back on in the reverse order. Depending on how you feel, you may want to get the SST (Special Service Tool) that line-up the subframe with the chassis. The 4 big bolts that holds the subframe to the chassis has a particular order to be tightened. Make sure you tighten the two closest to the firewall first, then the other two.

Keep in mind that you MUST do an alignment asap after doing this. I didn't do it and my front tires are shredding in a few minutes after the install. Since time was up, I had to drive the car home and wait until earlier today to align the car. I knew the car was toe-in, but not a whopping 4 degrees toe-in. That is enough to destroy the tires.


For those of you who are looking forward to get this done, you may be better off paying someone to do it unless you have access to a lift or other equipment that will allow you to do so. If you own a 1ZZ 5-speed or 2ZZ 6-speed, it's a good time to replace the front lower control arm bushings when you need to replace your clutch. By then you can also install front sway-bar along with this too. I have yet to set my alignment back to where I had it, but it feels good to have the bushings fixed. Feels very solid and it's not something that will make a car ride stupid rough.

Nice write-up, Bally!

dropping the sub frame? are you sure?

i dont think thats required

It is required on Matrix with automatic transmission, which means all first gen 1ZZ auto 2WD and 4WD and 03 2ZZ auto will need to drop it. That is why I ask you guys to verify if the transmission is in front of the driver's side lower control arm front bolt. You can undo the bolt, but you can't take it out if the transmission is in the way.

makes sense