Just picked up 2 new drop links from GSF (£29.79 all in), and I have 2 new ARB bushes from Skoda already. So the plan is to fit the lot this weekend....

I have some 3in1 White Lithium Grease, is this going to be OK to use on the rubber bushes?

Any hints or tips on doing this job would also be great before I get stuck in!

P.S. I already have the new shape bush clamps on the car, so that's covered.

I also think the plastic sleeves on the bar are split, but that's just based on what I can see from the outside, so this might be a pointless excercise, but I'm going to do it anyway! As long as the sleeves are in there, then I guess it should be OK. If not, I'll try again with TT bushes (designed to run without sleeves so a bit tighter).

Cheers guys!

Take the sleeves off and run the bush direct on the bar, it will save you doing it again when water gets under the plastic collar and brings the creaking back. The Grease is fine, personally I opted for copper grease when I did mine but that was because I had some to hand.

Easy enough job to do with just enough room to get a 13mm socket in there.

I covered the bush, inside of the bush bracket and the bar with grease to eliminate any chance of missing anything.

HTH

Ian

TBH they are pretty straight forward to change, it may be easier to change the bushes with the droplinks disconnected? (i did my bushes a couple of months after the droplinks though)

I don't remember seeing any plastic on the ARB, but mine was a Elegance not a vRS.

The price from GSF seems steep for droplinks though, I'm sure i paid less than £10 each from Skoda about 3 years ago, unless they have shot up in price since then?

Lithium grease is OK on almost all plastics and rubber. Never use any petroleum product or solvent as it kills the rubber as does WD40 (50% solvent).

Did you get new bolts with the ARB bush clamps? These should be replaced as should the nuts on the drop link pins.

TBH they are pretty straight forward to change, it may be easier to change the bushes with the droplinks disconnected? (i did my bushes a couple of months after the droplinks though)

I don't remember seeing any plastic on the ARB, but mine was a Elegance not a vRS.

The price from GSF seems steep for droplinks though, I'm sure i paid less than £10 each from Skoda about 3 years ago, unless they have shot up in price since then?

Yeah the vRS roll bar is different to other octavias. They are thinner and have the plastic collar.

Also the vRS drop links differ from normal. Instead of being a steel or plastic short link to the wishbone, they are always steel and about a foot long, and connect to the strut instead with spherical type ends. I guess that explains the price difference.

Lithium grease is OK on almost all plastics and rubber. Never use any petroleum product or solvent as it kills the rubber as does WD40 (50% solvent).

Did you get new bolts with the ARB bush clamps? These should be replaced as should the nuts on the drop link pins.

No I didn't bother, I'll be re-using the clamps and bolts this time (I'm budgeting for a new bar at some point this year). But the drop links came with new nyloc nuts, so I'll be using them.

Cheers for the info on the grease.

Thanks guys, have a good weekend

Take the sleeves off and run the bush direct on the bar, it will save you doing it again when water gets under the plastic collar and brings the creaking back. The Grease is fine, personally I opted for copper grease when I did mine but that was because I had some to hand.

Easy enough job to do with just enough room to get a 13mm socket in there.

I covered the bush, inside of the bush bracket and the bar with grease to eliminate any chance of missing anything.

HTH

Ian

Are they not a bit lose without the sleeves on? Good news if not!

I'm always a bit liberal with the lube.....

Are they not a bit lose without the sleeves on? Good news if not!

I'm always a bit liberal with the lube.....

No only if the bar has corroded and worn under where the sleeve was sitting but if it has then you can get 17mm bushes to get round this.

The new arb design has no sleeves and a metal collar each side that the bush sits against to stop the bar moving side to side. Skoda must have realised the plastic sleeves are crap and addressed the issue.

Lex, I wish I had listened to you!!

My arb has started creaking really loudly today, like never before. Only happens while turning at low speed (at roundabouts mainly), and I'm fairly certain it's the bushes/plastic collars. I should have bloody pulled the collars off like you said. Garrr

The bushes, clamps, bolts and droplinks are all brand new. But 2 weeks after fitting, I have this damn creaking.

I'll try and jack the car up this weekend and pull the codding collars off to see if it goes away. If it doesn't cure it, then I'm gonna have to shell out for a new bar. Not good.

It never used to bloody creak like this!

I know that creaking only too well, bloody drove me mad

Those plastic collars are the devils work, Whoever designed them should be shot :thumbdwn:

At least they have addressed the problem with the revised bar.

Good luck mate hope you can get it fixed. Remove the bushes, lose the collar's and use copious amounts of grease where the bush sit's and it should be creak free for a very long time.

Ian

I did 1 of my droplinks last week when I did my suspensionl, the muppets at gsf sent me 2

Of the same side

I did 1 of my droplinks last week when I did my suspensionl, the muppets at gsf sent me 2

Of the same side

Shockingly my main dealer did the same :eek: fortunatley I noticed before I started the job