Hi all, just had our 1.4 Classic serviced at the local Skoda dealer, with the added expectation of having either the ARB or Console bushes rectified. However the news came back that the front ARB locating brackets had broken (indicated as being part of the roll bar), thus requiring new roll bar & replacement of split Console bushes. Indicative charge around £250.

I'd be really grateful to get members advice on this before going any further at this stage. Perhaps some of you guys have had direct experience of this (eg. Avalon etc) & equally the most cost effective fix.

Many thanks,

Rob

Bump

How handy are you with tools and do you have somewhere that's dry to work? If so how much would you feel comfortable paying someone else to do it? The reason I ask is sometimes it's better to pay an independent garage a low labour rate to get work done rather than spending hours on your back in the cold/wet.

Console bushes (imho) are best replaced with Powerflex versions, some diesel owners have commented on the extra vibrations but petrol engines are generally fine, they're more expensive but have a lifetime warranty at £47 ish vs about £17? For the new X versions Skoda supply. Most importantly you'll be able to fit them without a press or special tool and this saves you a lot of time/agro. Budget 1-1.5hrs if you've never done them before and are working on stands rather than ramps. I know it's obvious but never work off a jack.

The ARB can be a pita. From the description/age of the car you probably have an origional ARB, it has a design fault which was fixed in later cars. The origional has a plastic cover that's bonded to the ARB, the bush then grips to that, with age/water/rust/use the cover becomes loose allowing the ARB to move. To replace it you need a new 19mm ARB, new bushes and new bolts for the subframe and rack. If your drop links haven't been done recently it's not uncommon to find excessive play in those when you check them (another Fabia quirk). Expect to pay £50 for the ARB and another £10 for the bushes, I can't remember the bolts price but they're inexpensive. The only thing that stops the job being easy is the sub frame has to be dropped to fit the new bar, tracking could be needed afterwards. Have a look in the technical guides section for a detailed breakdown of what's involved in both jobs, neither is massively technical but get a quote from an independent and see if it's worth the saving of doing it yourself. Whatever way you go you have roughly £85-95 for parts assuming you use genuine stuff then a few hours labour. Most back street garages should be able to do the job easily enough and save you a few quid in the process but a dealer is bound to fixed price work so if they have a 'mare with bolts or something takes longer etc. they still charge you book.

Either way once they're done the new bar and new bushes don't have the same issues as the old ones so you should be sorted for a while

Many thanks Avalon, as usual a really helpful & informative response. I'm going to check with a guy in Ashford who does odd bits/bobs on my Felly, as he's VW/Audi & normally that bit cheaper labour wise. Otherwise it may well be a DIY approach.

Cheers

Aak has a good idea using a pair of double split shaft collars to replace the broken plastic ones on the original bar http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/264474-anti-roll-bar-problems/

The OEM ARB has plastic collars to stop it sliding glued to the bar.............the collars/sleeve separate (as Avalon was saying)....

You can just fit new bushes to your current bar and just clean off the plastic collars/sleeves...............I have doen this to a mates Fabia and the bar has not "slid"................even Skoda dealers are doing this as a "cheap fix"

What you can do is do the above and get a set of Whiteline ARB collars (lateral locks) which retro fit and wil allow the car to pass the MOT!.........

^ Really grateful guys, valuable advice & good leads to follow up

If you go ahead with replacing the ARB, then this is the correct time to replace the console bushes as it will save a lot of repeat labour costs. I was unlucky, and as I live well up North, had ARB failure at just over 4 years (I think) due to more salt on roads etc, followed by broken front spring a week later followed by console bushes 6 months later followed by flexi section of exhaust breaking two months later. Still I've now got over that and had the next 5.5 years of mainly no big money problems (famous last words!). The running gear of these Fabia, Polo, Ibiza up to 2004 or so was absolute crap, thanks Skoda!

Have been having "regular" bush replacements on my own ARB (doing 40k a year!). My local mechanic (ex-skoda) goes down the route of using the smallest inner diameter bushes that Skoda make to cure the ARB slip, seems to work! Haven't had a problem since.

Have been having "regular" bush replacements on my own ARB (doing 40k a year!). My local mechanic (ex-skoda) goes down the route of using the smallest inner diameter bushes that Skoda make to cure the ARB slip, seems to work! Haven't had a problem since.

Yes, remember that originally a 19mm ARB (with plastic end stops) used something like 22mm or 23mm bushes, so using the "newer/later" bushes for that car will grip the ARB a bit, but nothing like the proper end stops, or any other retro fitted stops. Essentially all bushes, when the revised ARB was fitted moved down a size, the top size disappeared for factory use and a new smaller sized was introduced. I just like a problem to get sorted and while fitting smaller bushes will grip the ARB a bit, but that was not the route VAG took for good reasons.

Edited 22 February, 201313 yr by rum4mo

Whoops I don't know what happened there when I went into edit mode to correct spelling!

Edited 22 February, 201313 yr by rum4mo