Now that my octy (1.9 TDi) is doing a good impression of a Spanish Galleon in a force ten gale and people with small children are running away down the street when they hear me creaking along; I have decided to do something about the front arb bushes when I get her up on the ramps to do an oil change this weekend ......

Since my local Halfrauds mis-informed me about having (or a dinnertime-wasting NOT as the case turned out to be) a Haynes manual for the Octy

Can anyone please shed some light on how to replace the arb bushes and whats involved.such as,

Does the car have to be raised off its wheels or can it be done with the car sat at 'normal ride height ' on the ramps?

Does the arb have to be removed to slide the bushes on or are they split to fit over the bar?

It's not the bushes, it will be the brittle plastic ARB sleeving that has cracked.

I spent time removing a bush last weekend only to discover it...

-Apparently it's a very common problem.

I'm considering an alternative. If I could find some Polyurethane I'd be quite happy to remove the plastic sleeving and make some bushes. The bushes are split, yes.

ps. I'm not too impressed with the ARB design...