Hi guys,

had the car in for mot today, which it passed, but the tester has put an advisery on slight movement on n/s wishbone bush and balljoint.

Are the one's at euro car parts ok to use?, I was looking at the Lemforder ones specifically. Also, can the wishbones be changed with the crossmember in situ, or are there access issues?.

Have not had call to do work on suspension, so trying to get a handle on whether it is feasible to do at home or not.

Many thanks in advance,

Phil

It's a pretty easy job to do. Subframe doesn't need moved, I took the drives out and you have plenty of room then. I would recommend changing for polybushes to be honest. They're much easier to fit than standard too.

Hi mate

Gonna have a set of powdercoated wishbones with powerflex bushes for sale in January/February if you want them?

Done around 7-8k....£40 and there yours!

Hi mate

Gonna have a set of powdercoated wishbones with powerflex bushes for sale in January/February if you want them?

Done around 7-8k....£40 and there yours!

 

Id possibly be interested. My front bushes are goosed.

The balljoint is seperate to lower arm and can be replaced,

 

If balljoint has play get it changed asap as if it wears to much they can fall apart and you don't want that,

 

As said above polybush the lower arms, i tried the r32 solid bushs in mine to start with and after 6 months they were as mashed as the standard ones

Thanks for all the replies,

Volvomeg, I was intending to change joint and arm as a unit. Do I need to measure pivot bush centre to ball joint pin centre to keep geometry on new arm?.

I did think about polybushes, but I have a long lasting spine injury that does not take kindly to stiff rides, do they make the car ride less tolerant to bumps?.

Can you get to the ball joint nut ok with the shaft in place as have read horror stories on here of shafts seizing in the hub bearing. Do you need or can you even get a splitter tool in there or is it momentum tool no 1(hammer).

Just out of interest, is anybody else having trouble keeping paragraph spaing on here or is it an ie 11 thing

I've never changed a ball joint so carn't comment but the arm and ball joint are bolted together with 3 13mm bolts and i think 19mm but through hub

 

The driveshafts are usually fecking tight even when they have been out before and have copper grease on them, undo nut so level with end of shaft and few swift belts with hammer usually loosens them, then you can slide the shaft out the hub and use it to hold the hub out the way while you change the arm but remember to undo the ball joint nut first as far as possible then your not trying to undo it with hub wobbling about,

 

Most of the time ball joints can be loosened with a smacks with hammer to side of slot where ball joint comes through hub

The only thing that your spine is going to notice is harder suspension or lower profile tyres. A car will always feel a fraction stiffer when first fitting any bushes, but that settles down quite quickly.

It's far easier to undo the 3 nuts that attach the ballpoint to the lower arm,instead of the large single balljoint Nut. Then leave the ballpoint on the hub while you swap out the wishbones!

That is of course unless you have to remove/replace the ballpoint completely because is knackerd!

In which case soak it in WD and undo it a couple of threads and **** it with a BFH,then push it out with a balljoint tool!

No need to mess around measuring anything,just get the wheel alignment done at a decent tyre shop afterwards then ;-)

Ballpoint = balljoint!

Bloody iPhone!

Thanks all, will leave till new year then will decide on bushes or new arm then. Was going to get 4 wheel align done anyway afterwards, but was just wondering about altering the vehicle track or inducing caster into the mix without measuring, or is there not that much adjusment facilitated in the arms?.

 

Thanks to everybody who has replied, all info is gratefully received.

 

Wierd, using firefox now and both paragraphs and smileys are back but not in ie 11?.