Front Suspension Top Mount Bush Replacement

[areed]

Today, with the excellent guidance of Ricardo, I replaced the rubber bushes found at the top mount of the front suspension struts.  This fixed a problem I had with play in the top suspension mounts.  Here are the pictures I took of the process, along with my thoughts.  Hopefully they will be useful to someone in future.

 

Step 1: Open the bonnet (start this process without the car on jacks/stands)

 

 

Step 2: If your car has a strut brace fitted, remove it:

 

 

If not, remove the two self-locking nuts and washers either side of each strut anyway.

 

Step 3: Pull off the plastic cap at the top of the strut

 

 

Step 4:  Holding the shock absorber piston still, undo the large self-locking nut at the top of the strut

 

 

 

Step 5: Remove the large dished washer, and refit the nut:

 

 

Step 6: Jack up the car on the side you are working on.  The strut will move down away from the mounting point sufficiently for you to remove the upper plate (with rubber bushing inside it)

 

 

I found getting the first plate out quite tricky, but it will come with some fiddling.  

 

Step 7: Push out the old rubber bush.  The old ones on my car were sufficiently misshapen that I wasn't sure the new ones were correct!

 

 

 

Step 8: Fit the mounting plate and new rubber bush back onto the suspension strut.  I found that putting the new bush into the plate before fitting it made the assembly too thick to manoeuvre over the top of the strut.  Instead, I got them into position separately, then fitted the rubber bush into the plate once both were over the strut.  Make sure that the bush is correctly seated in the plate! It was quite tricky to push it all the way in, when on top of the strut.

 

Step 9: Locate the studs on the upper mounting plate in the holes in the frame.  I did this to make sure that when I lowered the car, the studs would not be in the wrong place and damage the car body.

 

Step 10:  Carefully lower the car on the jack, keeping an eye on the position of the centre of the strut to make sure it lines up with the bush/mounting plate.

 

Step 11: Undo the central nut (again, holding the piston still), refit the large dished washer and tighten the nut.  Torque this to 50Nm.

 

Step 12:  Refit the plastic caps

 

Step 13:  Tighten the mounting plate nuts to 20Nm.  Don't forget to replace the strut brace,if you have one!

 

Step 14: Repeat for the other side.

 

 

[RicardoM]

Step 7: Push out the old rubber bush.  The old ones on my car were sufficiently misshapen that I wasn't sure the new ones were correct!

You can say that again! Previous owner or rogue mechanics use to tighten the hell out of central nut instead of replacing the rubber bushing.

 

 

[felicia16v]

Thats is a strange comment ricardo..Tightening the centre nut won't compress the rubber any more as once it is torqued up it is against the shoulder on the damper rod anyway. No blame on anybody for the worn rubber except maybe skoda for using poor quality rubber in the first place. That piece of rubber takes all the suspension forces so will deform in time.