I have done a few searches on here as I know this comes up a lot but I cant find the answer to my question.

I know I need to replace my front ARB bushes and from what I have read I think the bar is 19mm but lots of people say they replace them with 17mm bushes if the plastic sleeve is broken. I have also read that Skoda did get rid of the bars with the plastic sleeve on the later models?

My question is how can you tell if you have an ARB with or without the plastic sleeve and can you tell the sleeve is broken before you remove the old bushes as I don’t want to order the wrong ones.

your correct with most of that although everyone i've spoken to just remove the plastic sleeves anyway as these are frequent to cause the problems

look down the back of the engine bay to check or put a wheel on full lock and peek inside the wheel arch. On early vrs the bar is 17mm with plastic sleeves so it uses 19mm due to the extra plastic, with this removed it becomes a 17mm bar so 17mm bushes should be used. Youll also need new clamps.

Edited 8 March, 201115 yr by Liverpool-Lad

Thanks for your help people, when the car was up on a ramp for the MOT last week I did have a look under the car at the bushes/ARB but I could not tell if it had a plastic sleeve on or not and I could not see any sign of it cracking but I didn’t think to measure the thickness at the time.

Some people say the later ones don’t have the plastic sleeve but im unsure on mine as its an 2003 and smack bang in the middle of the production run lol

If it does have the plastic sleeve on is it hard just to remove it anyway?

apparently you just cut them off - in all likelihood they will have cracked so will be even easier to remove

Mines is a 54 plate and it had plastic sleeves. Both were cracked so were removed,and 17mm bushes fitted.

so is it just 2 of each of these I need?

this is listed as 19mm Bar (0AR) (17mm hole)

http://www.vwspares.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=259

and

http://www.vwspares.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=263

are those the correct part numbers?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Skoda-Octavia-Anti-Roll-Bar-Bush-and-Bracket-ALL-SIZES-/130493320309?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1e62020c75

Bit cheaper & yes you need the 17mm hole ones.

Thanks I will look into ordering some 17mm ones in the next few days.

is that ebay one for 1 side?