Mevotech Supreme Suspension Parts - Junk!

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Nick1994

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I'm speechless.

My Jeep had a clunk up front in April, turns out the original sway bar links at 22 years and 145,700 miles were wearing out. The bottom bolt hole was wallowing out.

A buddy of mine is a mechanic and I can order wholesale parts through him at his cost. They didn't have any Moogs in stock so I figured I'd try the Mevotech "Supremes". How bad could they be, right?

I put them on, did a few hundred miles of mostly highway driving, and one trip out to Butcher Jones Off-road Park. At 146,202 miles I peeked under, and the driver's side sway bar link's upper bushings were almost totally gone! The passenger's side was starting to wear, but not horribly. I had the driver's side warrantied out and put the new one in. My mechanic and I thought I might not have tightened them enough, so this time I snugged down both sides pretty good. I took the Jeep out off-roading again and did some highway driving. It now sits at 146,357 miles. I decided to peek underneath at them. I'm speechless, they're both completely worn out!

130 of the 154 miles on the driver's side link were highway miles. 24 miles of off-roading. Toast.
657 miles on the passenger side, about 50 miles off-road. Toast.

I'll see if I can get some Moogs, but might just end up getting new ones at the dealer. The originals made it almost 146,000 miles...

The Jeep has new Moog coil springs, new Moog Problem Solver control arms, and new Monroe Severe Service shocks.
First pic is the driver's side, 2nd pic is the passenger's side.

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Can you not just replace that bushing with some form of aftermarket high performance part built for your intended usage? Seems like it would come right off and you could pop a new one on there.
 
Originally Posted By: ctechbob
Can you not just replace that bushing with some form of aftermarket high performance part built for your intended usage? Seems like it would come right off and you could pop a new one on there.


That's some pretty severe use, but the factory parts would have shrugged it off like it was nothing.
 
Originally Posted By: ctechbob
Can you not just replace that bushing with some form of aftermarket high performance part built for your intended usage? Seems like it would come right off and you could pop a new one on there.
I could, but the bottom bushing would likely explode after a while.
 
You may want to consider JKS sway bar disconnects.

That’s a lot of flex to put your sway bar through IMO.
 
Was going to ask, isn't it common to disconnect the swaybars when rock crawling? Seems like an awful lot of abuse on a part that wasn't really meant for that. Not disagreeing that those bushings might indeed be junk, but they are also likely not rubber. Rubber is probably going to give a lot more than the poly that it looks like those look to be made out of.

I'm not a suspension engineer, but I've worked on a fair few. I wonder what Jeep was thinking with that design. How hard would it have been to bend the end of that swaybar 90 degrees and connect it just like the lower connection. Just seems like there is an awful lot of twisting on that bushing at full compression. Doesn't make sense to me...maybe it was cheaper? Anyrate, that's not what this thread is about, just me wondering out loud......
 
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I would go rubber on the top bushings and see what happens.

Some parts can't handle poly bushings at both ends, especially on a part made to flex like this. There used to be give at both ends and now there's none at either... I've seen links snap where high quality poly was used at both ends.
 
It's really a shame what has happened to the aftermarket replacement parts for our vehicles. In regards to suspension parts, when MOOG was so highly respected back in the day, they were all I used when replacing OE suspension parts and they'd outlast the OE part. I trusted that what I was buying(MOOG) to be the best and they lived up to their reputation and I've personally never had to use their Lifetime warranty.

However today, if I want to replace a suspension parts and am going to keep the vehicle for any extra length of time, I have gone and may still go to the dealership to buy OE replacement parts at double or triple the cost. GEE, I hate doing it but sometimes it's the only way/trust.

Same goes for MONROE Shocks/Struts and I say this based on personal experience. They use to be the last shock/strut that I would need to put into my vehicle almost never needing their LIFETIME Warranty. Now, I'm even replacing them every 2-3 years after the OE.
 
Were the bushings overtightened? Moog gives instructions to only tighten until the bushings swell, then back off by 1/4 turn. This is also a poor design by Jeep to have the bushing on the sway bar flex instead of having a typical ball socket. Other vehicles, like the Ford Ranger has a similar design, but the OEM bushing has a curved edge to somewhat relieve the stress. Does not make sense in a 4x4 where the wheels could flex quite a bit to have such a design.
 
I'd say upgrade to some sway bar disconnects for your offroading... 24 miles of offroad park on bushings that look like they were designed to reduce highway road flex..

How long would they last without offroading?
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
I would go rubber on the top bushings and see what happens.

Some parts can't handle poly bushings at both ends, especially on a part made to flex like this. There used to be give at both ends and now there's none at either... I've seen links snap where high quality poly was used at both ends.



That's what I was going to say as well.

The ones in the picture are harder and will last longer than many rubber ones. But they can't handle extreme pressure like rubber and bounce back. I use the harder ones as it can slightly firm a ride up. But I would use a very soft rubber for off roading the way the OP uses it.

Just replace the bushings with soft rubber ones and it will probably work fine.
 
I'd go poly: Energy Suspension or Powerflex

What is the point of paying a premium for OEM mushy grandma stock parts? Might as well upgrade them while your are there and disconnect the sway bars when you off road.
 
Mevotech is horrible junk and in this case operations are a bit severe which just over taxed the poor quality parts. They need to be softer but not necessarily rubber, there are different durometer shore hardness of poly but those will found on specialty parts.
You could replace the top ones with some from energy suspension and try them or go OE.
 
Well, I took them into my mechanic and he warranteed them out through Parts Authority for new Moog ones.

The Moog's bushings are much harder, a real polyurethane I think. The Mevotechs were pretty soft.

We'll see how they go, if it doesn't work out I'll probably just get sway bar disconnects and have them shortened (they're longer for lifted Jeep's).

It's oily under there from spilling power steering fluid all over since I changed the pump.

 
Originally Posted By: ctechbob
So, did the Moog's work out?
I’ve just done highway driving, haven’t taken it out to the desert. It’s also been hibernating in the garage.

I’ll update it once I put some abuse through it.
 
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