Need a bit of advice

[PhilH]

My vrs felt loose at the front (and back) for quite a while but today doing steady 65 it suddenly felt horrible and dangerous. I always suspected something wrong / worn in the front left corner, today it felt as if the wheel was about to fall of. When I jacked the car up to have a look I found out that when I put a screwdriver between the subframe and suspension arm and lift it will move!?!?!?! Is that normal or are they ******d? The car is on 70k miles and is quite crashy over potholes, sometimes the steering wheel judders under heavy braking.

Below are photos of the rear arm bush and ARB bush on the left hand side.

And a video featuring the screwdriver

Any advice greatly appreciated

Phil

[PhilH]

Well thank you..

I`m not sure how I`m going to digest all that information :rotz:

[David 8]

Well thank you..

I`m not sure how I`m going to digest all that information :rotz:

Have you tried searching.

Seeing as these faults are quite possibly two of the most common too these cars you'll find that the subject has been "done" many times

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/replacement-arb-bushes/142396/?highlight=Roll+bar+bushes

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/santas-been-delivered-my-powerflex-bushes/149924/?highlight=Roll+bar+bushes

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/creaking-suspension-wishbones/148142/

If search roll bar bushes or wishbone bushes you'll find what you're after, however if you can't be arsed Ive done it for you ....see above

HTH

[David 8]

Just watched your Vid and too be honest that bush doesn't look too bad, at a guess I would say your Roll bar is the main issue here.

[iep]

I'm not convinced that worn ARB bushes would cause judder under braking or any sort of straight line instability TBH. The ARB is purely there to help while cornering. It might make a bit of noise when the bushes are worn (especially over spreed bumps) but should not affect straight line handling.

I do agree though that the bushes look okay. I have certainly had worse on previous cars with no change in handling at all.

Have you looked at the ball joints? A worn ball joint will cause all of the issues you have listed and should be replaced asap before it seperates completely.

Cheers,

iep

[David 8]

I don't know, surely if the bar is moving side to side it would cause some sort of negative impact on the overall feel of the car, after all it connects ot the droplinks which in turn connect to the shocks.

[iep]

Even when totally gubbered, the ARB bushes will not let the bar slop around side to side (unless they are completely absent).

Even then however, they are connected to the shocks via drop links with universal joints at each end. These allow a large amount of side to side play without transmitting any force to the shocks. Even then, the point at which the arb link attaches to the shock is such that it has virtually zero 'steering moment' and so should not alter the side to side handling of the car even if force is applied at that point.

While I agree that you want these bushes to be in reasonable nick, I can't imagine any situation where a lose ARB would cause so severe a handling degradation that you'd think the front wheel was lose.

Cheers,

iep

[David 8]

That told me .........................:rotz::rotz:

[iep]

Sorry Fatty5000, didn't mean to go off on one there

I spent altogether too many weekends earlier this year debugging the worn suspension on my old VR6.

Cheers,

iep