[kheiney]

I took off my front strut assembly to investigate bumping sound on the front left.(already disconnected the sway bar, wasn't that).Once I got the shock out I was pushing it down to check it out. I pushed it down against my workbench and when it got to the bottom the seal exploded and covered everything in oil :-( . I've never had one do that, are you now supposed to bottom the shock out?
After I cleaned up that mess I checked out the lower control arm. It is very squeaky as I move it up and down. The front bushing also doesn't hold a perfect shape when fully down. Can you replace just the bushings?

 

[DopeEffect]

You can replace the bushing but you need cutting tools in order to get them out because simply pressing it out wont work. The bushing itself is contained in a metal sleeve. Revshift offers replacement bushings but I have grown to dislike their bushings. They don't hold silicone very well since the inside of the bushings are smooth instead of being cross hatched. They might of changed their design since the last time I bought bushings from them but that was over 2 years ago. either way they've held up well, just the occasional squeaking when its cold out. Technically you're supposed to lube them up every so often but if the bushing were cross hatched, you'd have to do it at most once a year versus a few times a year.

If you don't care about any of what I mentioned above then just buy a new control arm and call it a day.

Also with the shock itself, you're supposed to be able to fully compress it with some force. If they are incredibly hard to compress or take a long time to return to normal after compressing then they're bad. Also if they make any loud noises while compressing them they're also bad. It should be a pretty fluid movement with little to no noise from the shock.

 

[AAIIIC]

I took off my front strut assembly to investigate bumping sound on the front left.(already disconnected the sway bar, wasn't that).Once I got the shock out I was pushing it down to check it out. I pushed it down against my workbench and when it got to the bottom the seal exploded and covered everything in oil :-( . I've never had one do that, are you no[t] supposed to bottom the shock out?

You probably shouldn't bottom it out, but I would agree that it isn't normal for doing so to cause the thing to fail. My guess is it was about ready to do that already.

After I cleaned up that mess I checked out the lower control arm. It is very squeaky as I move it up and down. The front bushing also doesn't hold a perfect shape when fully down. Can you replace just the bushings?

I don't know of any replacement rubber bushings. You can get poly bushings from Creative Steel or Revshift; they'll cost you nearly as much as new (aftermarket) front control arms from Dorman or Mevotech. Note that the Creative Steel bushings are designed with grease zerks, so they can be relatively easily greased periodically to prevent any noise.

 

[kheiney]

After just replacing the failed front shock everything seems to be fine. I'm going to let the lower control arm be for now.