My idler arm bushings are shot after less than a year and 6k of use. A little bad-roading but mostly tarmac. Why are they so fragile? At 7 bucks for the pair and 20 minutes to change, I'm not exactly throwing a sh-tfit, but it'd be nice to throw something longer-lasting in there. I can't find anything other than Beck Arnley, unless I want to buy a whole idler arm assembly... for $90 and up.

Also, my power steering is all kinds of strange. It's notchy, intermittently stiff, mostly when turning right but also left. It has no leaks I can find, but the fluid was normal a few months ago and really low last week. It was a golden color like motor oil, but the FSM calls for Dextron, which is usually red. I did no maintenance to the system for the last two years and it only started having problems recently. As an aside, the previous owner has long been confirmed to be a clueless idiot. I added some fluid and nothing's changed. Belt is new and on the tight side of normal; no squealing. Sounds like internal seals not working somewhere, right? How do I tell if it's the pump or the box? Or at 30 years old, should I just install seal kits for both while I'm at it?