I've noticed the plastic insert on the drivers side bush has come out of the rubber mounting. A work collegue has found the same on a '02 Polo.

Looking for advice on a fix, can't help thinking that pushing it back in place will only result in it coming out again.

common problem that one! the bushes seem to either shrink or split of these for some reason??

New Anti roll bar about £60

Thanks for that, a couple of questions:

Is the plastic sleeve supposed to be fixed to the bar? I assume it is.

Is there a prefered / possible way to extract the bar from the car?

A quick look suggested that it would need to be on a lift to stand a chance and some dismantling of other parts may be necessary to gain clearance.

Put car on ramps. With jacks and blocks under sides lift weight off front wheels, remove wheels.

Remove bottom of arb links. Needs a rare 16mm spanner as socket no use and 17mm on flats of ball joint.

Remove 4 bolts holding steering rack to cast aluminium subframe

Remove 4 large and 4 small bolts holding subframe to body.

Subframe will drop about 3 inches.

Undo 4 bolts holding rubber bushes of arb

Rotate arb 180 degrees and slide it out under the rack one side. Pull this end back and slide other side out.

Reverse to install new arb. The hardest part I found was lining up the subframe to get the large bolts back in. Had to jack up the subframe till it nearly touches the body and push the whole car sideways, carefully avoiding pushing it off the jacks. But I got it out of line I think mainly because I had tried to do the job with only one side jacked up.

All takes 3 hours but maybe 1 hour if you are experienced.

If the plastic sleeve you a refering to is black then it is not a sleeve it is the powder coating skin of the anti roll bar which has come away,very common problem on Fabia's and Polo's and you must change the whole bar.

And after changing it a four wheel alignment check needs to be done.

Oh and a quick search on 'anti roll bar' turned up this...

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/fabia/rattle-front-my-fabia/50362/?highlight=anti+roll+bar

Thanks all for your help.

The plastic sleeve I refered to is the black one in the photo, it's function seems to be to stop lateral movement of the bar but now corrosion of the bar has split it and it is now free to move along the bar.

Since I took the photo I've removed the bracket and the rubber bush mainly to have a look at the assembly. I've tapped the plastic sleeve back in position and reassembled it but I'm sure it will come out again.

The thread Lummox refered to suggested that new design bushes can be fitted to the old ARB, is this a viable alternative to changing it?

How does the new modified bar differ?

A cheaper option mght be a couple of mikalor clamps or similar unless the the re-designed ARB doesn't suffer the same problem.

Anyone tried these on a 2001 model 17.5mm dia ARB instead of replacing the bar?

Just thought it may be easier/cheaper.

Powerflex Uprated Suspension Bushes - car polyurethane suspension bush, bump stops & exhaust mounts. Bushes: wishbone, anti-roll bar mount, track control arm, beam mount, TCA, shocks, dampers, springs

(Parts are quoted for Fabia MY 2002-2005, not sure if they will fit a 2001 model)

There isnt a 17.5mm bar, and just changing the bushes wont cure it as the bar will still be able to move laterally.

Had same problem on my 2001 fabia ,Dealer would not sell me bushes only and had to buy revised ARB -this has 4 washes welded on it to stop bushes/bar moving sideways ,cost about

On my similar car, my investigations by speaking to several Skoda garages around the country (IOW not just my local service garage) for roll bar failure revealed that the original bar tended to fail (not just the bushes) - a common fault, but those garages reckoned that the new design bar should last "forever" relatively speaking. If peeps were lucky, the original would fail during the warranty period and be replaced with the new version.

Skoda didn't want to know about mine as it was out of warranty - full stop, despite apparently known tendency to fail. I had mine replaced with the new one at my own cost.

Just my experience.

Regards

Mo

new bushes cost £4-88 from SKODA dealer. Jack up car and support safely, remove front wheels and plastic undertray. Remove two bolts from saddles each side with 13mm socket; to get to lower off side bolt compress suspension to raise drive shaft, Remove saddles and rubber bushes. If plastic bushes are still there, split them off with chisel and clean antiroll bar with emery tape.Fit new rubber bush and saddle, these are very tight fit, I used a carver cramp to press them into place, be careful of the drive shaft and steering rack boots. Fit one side first and then centralise the ARB before finally tightening every thing up; 2-3 hours will do it easily. NOZ

new bushes cost £4-88 from SKODA dealer. Jack up car and support safely, remove front wheels and plastic undertray. Remove two bolts from saddles each side with 13mm socket; to get to lower off side bolt compress suspension to raise drive shaft, Remove saddles and rubber bushes. If plastic bushes are still there, split them off with chisel and clean antiroll bar with emery tape.Fit new rubber bush and saddle, these are very tight fit, I used a carver cramp to press them into place, be careful of the drive shaft and steering rack boots. Fit one side first and then centralise the ARB before finally tightening every thing up; 2-3 hours will do it easily. NOZ

Interesting, what stops the rollbar from moving laterally in the bushes ?

I've just replaced a front roll bar because the plastic collars (which stop any lateral movement) were split with the new modified bar with a welded metal collar. It's the lateral movement of the bar as the bushes eventually wear a little that cause it to knock against the subframe.

I'm just curious. :confused:

I did this job today using the instructions I found on this forum, I found a few problems. This may be due to differences in the clearance available on different models. Mine is a 2001 1.4 MPI auto.

"Put car on ramps. With jacks and blocks under sides lift weight off front wheels, remove wheels.

I had the advantage of being able to use a garage lift, I would think the job would be much more difficult on stands.

Remove bottom of arb links. Needs a rare 16mm spanner as socket no use and 17mm on flats of ball joint.

The links did not have a 17mm flat on them but did have a star socket in the end.

Remove 4 bolts holding steering rack to cast aluminium subframe

Remove 4 large and 4 small bolts holding subframe to body.

Subframe will drop about 3 inches.

Undo 4 bolts holding rubber bushes of arb

Rotate arb 180 degrees and slide it out under the rack one side. Pull this end back and slide other side out.

This is where I had the problem, the bar is too narrow to allow 180 degree rotation, it fouled on the inner wheel arch both sides.

I found that I had to disconnect the track rods from the steering arms both sides, this allowed the ARB to be manipulated out between the steering rack and the subframe.

Reverse to install new arb. "

Hope this info may be of help to people.