Skoda just quoted me £181 to replace my FARB. This includes bar, bushes, labour and vat.

Bearing in mind the 19mm Skoda FARB costs about £60 and the bushes about £10, and it takes about 2 hours apparently, that sounds right. But they said they've never done a geometry re-alignment after changing one, so it doesn't include it. I thought you had to do one?

Awesome GTi quoted me £113.85 for the bar replacement labour (almost identical labour charge to Skoda), and £77.63 for geometry work. And a Neuspeed 22mm FARB would set me back £183.43. But at three times the price of a standard one, I doubt I'll go for that!

I trust Awesome GTi to work on my car more, but Skoda is tempting me because it's easier to drop the car in on a week day. I'm also a bit confused about this geometry check, and if it needs doing.

What do I do?!

Or should I man up and do it myself on the drive?

FYI I want to replace my FARB as it's rusted to hell and creaking like a mother, even with new bushes.

Cheers chaps

Skoda quoted me £190 to do mine last year as the bar had corroded under the bushes.

I took it to a local independent who did it with genuine VAG parts for £140. I don't think the geometry had to be done afterwards.

When I told my dealer they got all stroppy and said I should've gone back to them and they would have matched the price...

I believe I could've got it even cheaper if I'd shopped around a bit. Wasn't brave enough to do it myself... I think you have to drop the subframe?

Not sure why you are replacuing your front arb but this migth be useful info for you.

I had a look at my front arb this weekend (bar had corroded badly underneath the plastic sleeves and was creaking something awful). Decided to take the halfway option by removing the plastic sleeves and then simply replacing the bushes with smaller bore equivalents. Only needs £10 worth of parts so I figured it was worth a shot.

Key learning, no need to replace the bar at all in my case! Old bushes came out easy, plastic sleeves popped right of with a couple of taps with a chisel and then 20 mins with a bit of emery paper had the bar looking good as new.

Replaced bushes with 17mm bore equivalents and added plenty of copper grease. I also replaced the clips and bolts but I don't think that was really necessary.

Total time was 2 hours all in (inc lots of tea breaks and chatting with my dad) and there was no need to drop the subframe (just need to undo the arb links where they meet the arb).

FARB is now dead quiet and car is nicer place to be.

Total spend was £10 and 2 hours in the sunshine (inc tidy up).

Hope that is useful.

iep

R32 23mm front bar with powerflex bushes cost around £85-£90

I had mine fitted at Awesome and was quoted 2 hours but they did it in 1 1/2 and charged 1 1/2 labour + geo set up.Cost for fitting was £160'ish.

to change the FARB mate you need to drop the SF sorry.

dont think its a good idea to do it urself unless you got a ramp / lift.

all the best mate. Y not get the 21mm std octy ARB? or the R32 23mm one? then its new and uprated.

so long as you got the 22mm rear on on it should be good. even better if you got the 28mm neuspeed RARB lol.

billy

R32 23mm front bar with powerflex bushes cost around £85-£90

I had mine fitted at Awesome and was quoted 2 hours but they did it in 1 1/2 and charged 1 1/2 labour + geo set up.Cost for fitting was £160'ish.

soz I wasnt fast enough lol

I know where your coming from iep, as I've thought of that solution too. But in my mind that's only going to be a temporary solution to a long term problem. The bar is still going to rust, and eventually wear away until it gets so thin that it cracks. This might take something silly like 5 years of driving to happen, but it's still going to happen one day!

I've replaced both of the droplinks, bushes, clamps and bolts myself already. Which was easy, but now instead of knocking, I have the damn creaking! A temporary fix is for me to whip out the plastic sleeves and re-grease the bushes, which is what I'll probably do on Friday afternoon. But I'm looking into a more permanent fix to this problem, hence the new bar.

As far as I can see, for changing the FARB its:

-Remove 4 bolts holding up the subframe, while supporting it.

-Remove 4 bolts holding the steering rack to the top of the subframe. Then hold up the rack with a strap or something to support it in position.

-Remove 2 bolts holding the dog-bone mount to the front of the subframe

-Then lower the subframe until there's a 19mm gap to slide out the bar! Not sure whether you take the bar out to the front or to the rear though, can't figure out what's easiest without looking. Anyone know? Lummox?

Now that doesn't seem too bad to me. Unless I'm missing something?!

Hmmm decisions....

R32 23mm front bar with powerflex bushes cost around £85-£90

I had mine fitted at Awesome and was quoted 2 hours but they did it in 1 1/2 and charged 1 1/2 labour + geo set up.Cost for fitting was £160'ish.

That sounds like a very tempting option there Jay.

Only problem is that if I beef up the front bar, then I'll have to fit a rear bar to balance it out! And there starts the money pit of suspension tuning!

Still, you've given me food for thought....

Thanks everyone for your advice so far

if you get the whiteline mate its £150. and with it you wont need to put new suspension on the car as it will feeo soo much better.

billy

soz forgot to say

I dont think the bar is flat mate, it has bends in it in places iirc so it will need a bit more room to get out.

billy

Hi Bodge, fair enough, I can see where you are coming from. A new bar is probably the best solution.

However, for the price of 2 new bushes (£3.70+vat) you could solve the problem for the next couple of years at least. The corrosion on the bar is very unlikely to get to the point where the bar is likely to fail. Even if you have to whip the clips off and re-grease every year or so it's still a huge saving over a full new arb.

Of course though, it is your choice and I know what you mean about trying to come up with a permanent solution.

Meantime though. If you do remove the plastic sleeves this Friday, you'll find that the old bushes will no longer fit (far too wide a bore once the plastic sleeve is gone). So, even if you use this as a quick fix you'll still need to get a new set of bushes to tide you over. Part umber is: 1J0411314S.

Cheers,

iep

to change the FARB mate you need to drop the SF sorry.

dont think its a good idea to do it urself unless you got a ramp / lift.

all the best mate. Y not get the 21mm std octy ARB? or the R32 23mm one? then its new and uprated.

so long as you got the 22mm rear on on it should be good. even better if you got the 28mm neuspeed RARB lol.

billy

i dont think the standard octy one would fit mate, im not 100% but i think the VRS bar is a slightly different shape because it goes around the driveshaft differently:thumbup:

Hi Bodge, fair enough, I can see where you are coming from. A new bar is probably the best solution.

However, for the price of 2 new bushes (£3.70+vat) you could solve the problem for the next couple of years at least. The corrosion on the bar is very unlikely to get to the point where the bar is likely to fail. Even if you have to whip the clips off and re-grease every year or so it's still a huge saving over a full new arb.

Of course though, it is your choice and I know what you mean about trying to come up with a permanent solution.

Meantime though. If you do remove the plastic sleeves this Friday, you'll find that the old bushes will no longer fit (far too wide a bore once the plastic sleeve is gone). So, even if you use this as a quick fix you'll still need to get a new set of bushes to tide you over. Part umber is: 1J0411314S.

Cheers,

iep

Cheers for the part number buddy. Do know what model they are off out of interest?

I've just given both the bushes a good blast all round with white lithium grease, to see if it will get rid of the noise for this weekend, because my car sounds like an old horse cart at the moment. Not cool!

soz forgot to say

I dont think the bar is flat mate, it has bends in it in places iirc so it will need a bit more room to get out.

billy

Good point Billy. Forgot about the dip in the bar which is slightly off centre!

I've just been and had a good look at it, and I'm contemplating DIY.....

Yeah i paid £190.00 for new front arb and bushes amd re-alignment at Skoda when i first had the car about 2 years ago now ! So £180 dont sound to bad for a main dealers, i use a good independent now though!

i dont think the standard octy one would fit mate, im not 100% but i think the VRS bar is a slightly different shape because it goes around the driveshaft differently:thumbup:

Yeah I think the standard bar has U-bends on the end, as the droplinks mount to the wishbones and to the other side of the wishbone to the vRS. Or something like that!!

A good shot of grease has shut the bushes up for now luckily.

Think I'm going to research DIY a bit more.

Hi Bodge, the part number I gave is for the new type of bushes which are actually for the octavia.

The new type arb doesn't include the plastic sleeves so needs smaller bore bushes. By removing your plastic sleeves you basically convert you old bar to the new bar.

Cheers,

iep