Few issues...

Just as I base I have a 99 Cherokee, AW4, 242, 4.0, D30-8.25.

34's and The RE 5.5" with RC drop brackets

1. Control Arm bushings. These are the third set of arms I have had on the jeep, started with procrap, then to RC, then to the RE's with superflex joints. On all these arms the bushings on the lowers have turned to garbage. Everytime I come to a stop or take off, go in reverse and hit the brakes, its just pop clunk pop. I wheel my rig... but I don't expect RE bushings to be gone in 3 months.

Any ideas how to prevent this?

2. After wheeling a local trail (waterfalls, big rocks, rough terrain) I leave the trail to have my steering feeling VERY tight. Driving down the road at 35 it takes alot to turn the wheel and it won't center right at all. Just feels generally sticky. I checked my box, pump, links, and everything "looked" okay.

Any clue what this issue could be?

3. Brown coolant. It gets oddly foaming looking and is definitely brown. Someone said it could be a blown head gasket but someone else told me that it was a chemical reaction from me mixing green and orange coolant by accident.

I see a lot of people complaining about not keeping bushings in the links. I don't know what to tell you other than possibly trying to install Jimmy Joints...


Looks for bent linkages, or damage to your ball joints, they play a bill roll with responsiveness to steering; although its usually the other way around... Maybe something it up with the steering box.

It probably has more to do with using water from a hose or something. The blocks are iron so they tend to leave rusty residue in the system. Try using only distilled water with a coolant change.

Hope I could help.

1. Bushings - did you eat the rubber bushing or the Superflex? We've gone a full season on the flex joints and they were still tight when we replaced them. I hear people complain about eating up the rubber ends.

2. Was your "check" just visual, or did you pull things apart and inspect?

3. Clea, flush, refill.

Rubber or Poly bushings? IF rubber, try some poly ones. Otherwise, like stated, johnny joints.

DieselSJ said:

1. Bushings - did you eat the rubber bushing or the Superflex? We've gone a full season on the flex joints and they were still tight when we replaced them. I hear people complain about eating up the rubber ends.

2. Was your "check" just visual, or did you pull things apart and inspect?

3. Clea, flush, refill.

Click to expand...

Rubber end, complete trash after 3 months of use. I would have expected more from RE.

Check was visual, but as for the linkage what you can see is what you get, if it was bent you could tell.

I think I will do a complete flush soon, seems like that's what it needs

1: I just replaced my rubber bushings on my RE control arms. Although I got about 3 years out of them and not 3 months. I would just replace them with new rubbers and be done with it. New bushings are about $30 shipped, If RE doesn't warranty them.

2: I would suspect the pump is going out.

3: Do the complete flush. If that doesnt stop the "brown" look of the coolant, you might have a bad head gasket on your hands, ie: oil mixed in with the coolant. Might not be a bad idea to check your oil filler cap. If there is some "white,milky" stuff on the bottom of the cap, then thats the sign of coolant in the oil.
Do the cheaper flush first, then start investigating further if that does not fix the issue.

Just fyi, I know that the 00-01 heads were the bad casting years, but 99 might not be out of the question either.

IIRC the rubber is in the short end? You can order new ends with flex joints. That is assuming you have adjustable arms. Otherwise you can get just bushings. I agree that 3 mos is a little short. What catches my interest here is that you are blowing bushings out of every arm you have installed. How are your angles on your arms? Have any pics?

Depending on how old the bushings are RE will WARRANTY them. If you purchased them when they were having problems with them they will take care of you.

From mid 2008 to March of 2010 RE had a known problem with there neoprene control arm bushings. They were having them made in the US and had problems with the material.

When they found out about this in March they went back to the old Rubber they used to be made with a long time ago that never had problems but was more expensive. We have not had any problems with the Rubber bushings and feel like they are one of the best bushings available.

We discovered this when I replaced 3 sets of bushings in my LJ crawler in under a month after only getting 40 miles on them on the third set. The first set from 2005 lasted for 5 years on 40" Interco Iroks and LTBs at 25,000 miles of trails only.

After learning of this problem I had to call every customer we installed them on and warranty replace over 200 bushings for free at our shop for customers that we recommended and RE to and installed on their vehicles.

Even after all this I still went with the RE long arm on my XJ simply because it is still the best "kit" available.

I would give RE a call and see if you can't get them warrantied first!

DieselSJ said:

IIRC the rubber is in the short end? You can order new ends with flex joints. That is assuming you have adjustable arms. Otherwise you can get just bushings. I agree that 3 mos is a little short. What catches my interest here is that you are blowing bushings out of every arm you have installed. How are your angles on your arms? Have any pics?

Click to expand...

No pics, but they are almost flat. No crazy angle on them at all.