Hey guys, Stephanie with americanmuscle.com, here with a review of BMR's Red Lower Control
Arms with Poly Bushings for 2005 to 2014 Mustangs.
In this video, we're gonna go over a few different topics when it comes to these rear lower control
arms.
We're going to talk about the benefits of upgrading control arms, the materials and
construction of these particular arms and we're gonna talk about the install as well.
I'll go over the install in more detail later, but I can tell you right now that I'm going
to call this install a one out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter.
BMR's Rear Lower Control Arms are going to be a good option for the S197 owners that
are looking for a fixed square steel lower control arm that isn't going to add a lot
of harshness to the ride quality through extremely stiff bushings but that is going to help with
traction and wheel hop issues.
Traction and wheel hop are issues that the factory suspension allows for and the more
power and torque that your car is making the worse the problem will get because the stock
components will allow for more deflection.
The bushings in these control arms are gonna stop a lot of the deflection that the stock
rubber ones allow for.
One of the main reasons why the stock setup has so many downfalls is because soft rubber
bushings are used.
The soft bushings allow for a more comfortable ride that's more forgiving and an overall
better experience for the average driver which is why they're used from the factory.
This however is bad news for those of you that wanna be able to get power and torque
to the ground, but you have to keep in mind that stiffer options are not always a better
choice for you.
If you take all the flexibility out of the suspension then you're gonna end up with an
extremely stiff ride quality that isn't really gonna be fun for cars on the street.
You can quickly create an uncomfortable ride and you also have to consider the shock that
will then be transferred to the car in the suspension.
Keeping that in mind and knowing that bushings play a big role in the equation here, these
BMR Control Arms have a heavy-duty 95-durameter polyurethane bushing, and this bushing is
used on both the chassis and the axle side.
This type of bushing is a stiffer bushing for less deflection which is a good thing.
Less deflection means less movement and flexibility and therefore improved traction.
This particular bushing is made from a compound that's stiffer than the factory bushing but
it also helps to dampen MVH at the same time so you're not looking at an uncomfortable
ride quality here.
The other thing about these bushings is that they're internally fluted which is going to
help keep the bushing lubricated and silent.
Your other option instead of poly bushings like these is to go with spherical bearings.
BMR does have a set of fixed lowers that come with this setup if you think those are more
inline with what you're looking for.
The spherical bearings are going to be at the top of the chart when it comes to stiff
bushings.
They'll offer the least amount of deflection because they connect the suspension solidly
to the chassis.
The trade off is more MVH so harsher ride quality.
The bearings can't absorb shock like bushings can so the shock is then transferred directly
to the suspension and the chassis.
These are also a box steel design that's heavy duty and TIG welded for strength.
These arms are going to be a lot more rigid and offer more support than the factory stamped
steel arms do, so they're a definite upgrade for sure.
They're also five pounds lighter than the stock arms are.
These are powder coated red so not only are they going to look nice, but they also have
some corrosion resistance which is nice since they are a low hanging under car suspension
part.
Now in case you guys were shopping around you may have noticed that BMR offers another
set of fixed lower control arms with poly bushings with a lot of similar features but
at a different price.
These offerings are slightly different, though.
The lower control arms I have with me here are TIG welded while the others are MIG welded.
These arms are slightly different in size as well.
These arms are 1.25 x 2 inches while the other option is 1 x 2.
They're small differences, yes, but I just wanted you guys to know that they are different.
The last thing I wanted to talk about with these is the fact that they are fixed.
Now when it comes to lower control arms there are a lot of choices, you can go with a fixed
setup or an adjustable one or even a double adjustable arm.
One's not necessarily better than the other, it all depends on your setup and the specific
reason for the control arm.
Generally speaking a fixed lower control arm isn't a bad option at all, where you're really
gonna want the adjustable arm is in the upper control arm.
But adjustable lowers are good for lowered cars because you do have more room for adjustment
there.
But with these arms to retain the factory geometry just make sure that the offset end
of the arm is installed on the axle side with the offset portion of the bushing facing towards
the rear diff.
As far as price, these control arms are gonna cost a little under $150.
Fixed lower control arms range anywhere in price from $105 to $400 depending on brand
and bushing setups, so you have a lot of options there.
The spherical bearing option that I mentioned from BMR that I mentioned earlier are gonna
cost more, and they'll be about $200.
So the install here is really pretty easy and we're gonna call it a one out of three
wrenches on the difficulty meter.
You can plan on spending about two hours on the install.
I'll give you a quick overview of the install so you can decide if this is something that
you'd like to try for yourself or not.
The brake cable does run through the control arm so you'll have to detach that so you can
remove your old control arms.
One thing to note here is that poly bushings can be noisy if they're not properly greased
so you're gonna wanna make sure that you really grease these before installing and after they're
on the car.
Once you grease the new control arm bushing, you're ready to install, and you're gonna
want to make sure that the narrow end is forward for the geometry reason that i mentioned earlier.
And just a side note, if you're using jack stands, torquing the arms down to spec might
be a little bit difficult because it can me hard to get the amount of leverage that you
need for 130 foot-pounds of torque.
And the process for the install is going to be the same for both sides.
Wrapping things up here, these lower control arms from BMR are a fixed control arm with
a box steel construction and polyurethane bushings.
These are stiffer bushings that are gonna eliminate some deflection and provide better
traction, faster launches, and less wheel hop.
You can check these control arms out along with all of your other options for the S197
Mustang right here at americanmuscle.com.