OK, had the car from new in June 2016 and have just had the first part fail at 7+ years and 76K miles.

So far the car has has regular servicing, tyres ( last over 30 K miles ) and some wiper blades.

Sill on original brakes all round although I might need to change these by 100K miles.😮

 

So I noticed a knocking at lower revs when accelerating in every gear with the noise coming from in front of me.

After an investigation I noticed that the O-S-F lower front suspension arm at the rear end was lower that on the N-S-F.

Where it fits in the the subframe.

A pry bar in the right place and the arm moved up.

The knocking noise disappeared for all of a day.

A quick look and yes the arm had moved down again.

 

On my Fiat Panda I changed both arms that came complete with front and rear bushes and the outer lower ball joints at 95K miles because of wear in the same rear bushes.

But with the Fabia the fail was that the central rubber had delaminated from the outer metal ring.

Front bushes don't tend to suffer a much and with the outer lower ball joint being a separate part on the Fabia I decided to just replace both rear bushes.

 

So lift the car up and remove both front wheels/tyres and the undertray.

At the rear of the arm there is an 18 mm bolt going from under the subframe up through the bush with an 18 mm nut on top of the subframe.

At the front of the arm there is one 18 mm bolt pointing to the rear of the car.

Then undo three 13 mm nuts holding the outer lower ball joint on to the arm.

Once all of these are removed you wiggle/pull the whole arm out.

 

The bushes need removing from / refitting to the arm using a hydraulic press.

 

 

 

The O-S one is in two parts being the middle and right bits in the photo above.

There were some knocking marks on one part of the outer metal ring where it was hitting the subframe.

The part on the left is from the N-S and is also showing signs of delaminating.

Note the triangular arrows on the rubber parts need to line up with guide marks on the arm, and when fitted one points to the front bush and the other towards the back of the car.

 

Once the new bush is fitted then reassemble.

I found that you want to fit the rear bush in to the subframe first.

This was tight and by holding the arm but with the front bush closer / pointing to the front hub and with a rubber hammer it went in easier.

Then fit the rear bolt and nut in the bush but don't tighten up yet.

Twist the arm to locate the front bush and fit front bolt but also don't tighten up yet.

Then refit the three 13 mm nuts holding the outer lower ball joint on to the arm.

 

Then tighten all nuts / bolts and repeat this on the other side.

 

A short drive to let the suspension settle and an alignment adjustment later all is good.

No knocking noises since.

Everything came apart without any difficulty. 

New bushes were expensive though. 😮 Prices in £

 

 

In the grand scheme of things, not the end of the world.

Still like the car and still plan to keep it long term just like the other three cars I have.

 

 

Thanks. AG Falco

 

I bought Lemforder ones from ECP for about the same price - the Lemforder ones still have the VW Group part number on them.

 

The one that is closest to failing on my wife's 2015 VW Polo, is the OSF and it looks to be the centre metal part that is trying to escape from the mounting material.

 

Just one comment, as you have not made this clear, there are 2 voids in these mountings and they are both different sizes/shapes, so, as well as making sure that the arrow points in the right direction/ orientation, the correct shaped void needs to be on the inner side and so on the outer side. VW Group, well at least VW, describe them in maybe a strange way - ie in using the shape of the voids to differentiate between the 2!

 

Orientation of bonded bush detail.pdf

Edited 14 November, 20232 yr by rum4mo

23 hours ago, rum4mo said:

Just one comment, as you have not made this clear,

Correct, forgot to mention that bit.

 

 

Thanks. AG Falco