ECGS Bushing Poll

I realize the topic has been beat to death but I hadn't seen a poll on the topic yet. I'm mostly curious about needle bearing failure rates on trucks lifted 2"-3". There is no doubt that the ECGS bushing is an upgrade from the needle bearing. Sorry if there is a similar poll out there somewhere.

 

If you pull your front left axle. Do the bushing. In the mean time, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

 

small lift here no issues yet, went from 20.5" hub to fender and 22" post front lift. So I am not really your target market, did not vote... Sometimes I think I hear it but hard to tell with all the other noises

 

There’s been a few polls on this so you may not get the best results.

Another contributing factor is many people replace the needle bearing during their lift install prior to it ever failing, that’s a big group not voting.

 

Regarding the first sentence: I figured that was the case, just wasn't having much luck finding a thread with a poll.
On the second note, I agree, there is a subset with no option to select. Although the data set will not be large enough to form a definitive conclusion I'm curious about a couple things in reality. a) The needle bearing is an inferior design and I wonder if there is a similar failure rate between lifted and stock vehicles
b) If somebody did lift their vehicle and kept the needle bearing, was the needle bearing failure rate mitigated by using a diff drop.
Seems like if you read threads on the subject you will basically die if you don't replace NB. I'm a numbers guy so I created the poll to satisfy my curiosity. Thanks all for humoring me.

 

1.5” lift all around no problems. Every truck is different. I do have the bushing so if it does fail my bro will install for me. I also installed diff drop , carrier bearing.

 

Not sure if anybody is interested or not but I can post up results as they roll in, the more respondents I have the more accurate the results become. That being said, the sample size will doubtfully ever become large enough to draw any kind of accurate conclusion.
As it stands:
Regardless of lift or not 33% or respondents reported NB failure
With a lift, failure thus far is 36%
Stock configuration failure is 29%
Of those respondents with a lift:
No diff drop NB failure is 27%
With diff drop installed NB failure is 9%
I will update these figures as the data grows.

 

Here is an older poll on the topic.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cv-axle-needle-bearing-replacement-poll.500521/

 

You left out on your poll - lift installed and ECGS bearing installed at same time. No apparent issue. Just preventative measures.

 

Installed the ecgs bushing withe lift. I just did it because it’s a known weak point, rather not have to deal with it later

 

You forgot the option for "had symptoms and pulled the NB and after inspection nothing was wrong with NB"
That would be my vote. I have the NB somewhere in my toolbox just wasting space.

 

Those would've been valid options and if one sat down and thought about the possibilities they could get pretty extensive. With 50 respondents the results at this time are as follows:
24% Chance of failure whether lifted or not

13% Chance of failure without a lift​

29% Chance of failure with lift
3% Chance of failure if lifted with diff drop
26% Chance of failure if lifted without diff drop

 

I was one of the early 3rd gen ECGS bushings. 2 1/4" lift.

I did the needle bearing as a hail mary, then replaced with solid bushing.

We actually had no idea if the diffs were the same, but I just hammered it in.

 

Thanks for the stats! Looks like a diff drop isn't such a bad idea after all. Not sure why everyone dumps on diff drops -- it's a solid concept.

 

Lifted both of my 3rd gens and installed the ECGS Clamshell bushing when I did the lift.
Used a diff drop on both trucks.

 

You mean the 9 people who voted for those two options? Lol

 

Well my ECGS bushing failed.

 

What happened to it? Burned up?

 

Or Im ignorant idk.
I have a lot of in/out play at the diff.
No up/down.

EDIT: I'm stupid, carry on. Its normal.

 

This, that's me. If you lift, just do it while you are in there. It is obviously as issue and the part is only like $65. Put it in and forget about it. Or I guess you can lift without it and have to keep second guessing every noise and vibration thinking that you might grenade a diff.