Contribution for elastomeric bushing development for the lower control arm of a compact vehicle

This paper aims to demonstrate the development of an control arm elastomeric bushing to be applied in a compact vehicle that initially works with a hydraulic bushing and presents noise problems. The laboratorial tests shown that the elastomeric bushing has similar performance to the hydraulic one, regarding stiffness and fatigue. When applied on vehicle, it was proved that the elastomeric bushing has good performance regarding handling, durability and the most part of ride requirements, being better than hydraulic bushing in some of the items, although is not so good in other ones. In conclusion, for an unbalance till 10 grams, the new elastomeric bushing has similar behavior when compared to hydraulic bushing, in fatigue and durability performance, solving the noise problem and getting substantial cost reduction for the component, and could be applied as an option to replace the hydraulic bushing.