Replacing bushes....

[20valver 0]

I'm concidering replacing all my bushes.

 

How much is it for a set of original bushes?

I think set of powerflex is £160

 

How long will it take?

 

and how hard is it?

 

Whats the general opion of peple that have renewed their bushes, with either original or polyurthene ones...

[Joe M 0]

I got my rear axle bushes done a while ago, cost £180 fitted I think. Definately worth it, back of the car feels much tighter and more controllable, dont really notice any extra vibrations or anything except on the worst stretches of road.

My cars going in to get the front wishbone bushes done on thursday. :D

[Joe M 0]

That was the powerflex ones, I also have koni top adjustables and eibach springs, standard wheels.

[skid 1]

i am away to do my front wishbone bushes and after advice from Jim Curly at Star performance, he says you are better just fitting origials at the front and just buy the complete arms as they come with the bushes and only cost about an extra £5 each compared to the bushes themselves.

You then dont have the hassle of changing out the old bushes and have nice new arms as well. :D

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I'm getting Standard front wishbones and Vibra technics rear wishbone bushes fitted on Friday. I did try Powerflex ones once and they weren't to my satisfaction, so replaced them with VW ones and never looked back.

 

The main issue with wishbone and rear axle bushes is the rubber getting soft with age. They do on rare occasions split completely. If you feel how stiff a new bush is compared to an old one, you'll see what I mean.

 

The rear axle job can be expensive as the rear brake biasing valve on corrados are prone to conversion, so you need to budget an extra £100 for one of those, just in case. Changing the bushes themselves is fairly straight forward on a ramp and well worth it.

 

Kev

[chuck 0]

BTW, the front wishbones with bushes already in them, like the ones from ECP/GSF may cause problems. I've heard the bushes mightn't be up to the high VW standard, but a problem I've experienced is that the are a slightly different shape. Shouldn't be a problem with standard suspension, but I have Eibach anti roll bars, and these actually knock the new wishbones. :shock:

[Pau1 0]

Edit = Deleted your double post Chuck

[.A.N.T. 0]

BTW, the front wishbones with bushes already in them, like the ones from ECP/GSF may cause problems. I've heard the bushes mightn't be up to the high VW standard

 

Thats true in my experience. The front nearside bush lasted a grand total of 3 months before showing noticable play...

 

Now got powerflex front wishbone front bushes in, but not the rear saucer shaped ones as I cannot for the life of me get the little buggers in.

I've got some spare wishbones and try as I might I cannot get them pressed in. Need to get a garage of somewhere with a huge industrial press to push them in.....

[woody 0]

A mechanic mentioned to me that to get the bushes out of the front wishbones he would have to heat the bush to make the rubber flexible.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The front wishbone bushes rarely need replacing, unless utterly knackered. Have yet to see some, even on 100K plus cars. The rear ones are the biggest weakness. My 80K old ones were split. I had Stealth press in some vibratechnics ones (metal/rubber) and they are superb. MUCH tougher than VW with no harshness. Steering response is also much improved too.

 

Kev

[dr_mat 0]

Bringing this thread back from the dead..

Question - I have been driving my C around for some time now noticing a shift in the way the car handles after periods of hard acceleration compared to "normal" and also after periods of hard braking compared to "normal". After hard acceleration the steering seems to feel lighter, more wayward, but after hard braking the steering appears to feel heavier, more centre-weighted.

I'm guessing this suggests the wishbone bushes are squishing about a bit, but I've had the car into two separate garages who've both told me that there's nothing loose and no obvious signs of degradation of the bushes or the ball joints, so I'm wondering what the hell I have to do to check these things? (Short of forking out for replacements and finding no change..)

There's nothing wrong with my wishbones themselves either, no visible rust, no delamination, nothing. Very frustrating.

[brian g60 corrado 0]

hi just to let you know. i have fitted only the rearfront wishbone bushes to my raddo g60,from powerflex,only £33+vat .what an improvement,much better than standed,as mine were knackered.bit of a bugger to fit but well worth it .

would strongly suggest just changing the rears only.but if getting for a g60 make sure you get part no 204s.as was first sold 203s and would not fit needed deeper bush.but like i say now there in there superb.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Don't forget the longer and harder you drive the car, the hotter and thinner the damper oil becomes. Also, bushes soften as the friction from their movement heats them up. So it's not unusual for the car to feel hard in the morning and slightly softer after a long run....oo er missus!

 

K

[dr_mat 0]

I only do 7 miles to/from work, mostly on the motorway, so I hardly think I'm significantly altering the heat of the bushes in that time...

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Sorry Matt, didn't realise your journeys were so short..... I have noticed a similar thing in mine but have found a long journey seems to 'smooth' things out a bit.

 

K

[dr_mat 0]

No worries, Kev. It's another of those things where I think they're probably all a bit like that, but a) I'm hyper sensitive and b) mine is worse than some due to sheer mileage and c) it's nowhere near "bad"...

 

So. It'll come down to whether I feel like paying for it to be done or not.. :-\

 

I hate that. If one had genuinely bust, I'd feel no compunction about replacing them both and at the same time benefitting from improved handling, but since theoretically there's nothing wrong with them, they're just a bit "soft"... I've got to decide. Now, how much is an OE set then?!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Are there no signs of cracking etc in your bushes then?

 

When I had my Golf 16v T, for some reason I just 'felt' the rear axle bushes were not doing their job properly. Vince said they were OK as there was no visible cracking but my instincts and knowledge of the car told me otherwise. When we pulled the old bushes out and compared them to new VAG ones, there was a massive difference in rubber compliance. The old ones could be squished out of shape by hand easily, but the OE new ones were solid and changing them out DID manifest the improvements I'd hoped for on the road. That's not to say doing the same on yours will achieve the same but rubber does age, even though they *appear* to be OK.

 

As for cost, I think OE rear WB bushes are around the £15 mark each. No need to do the fronts as they never fail.

 

I had some Vibratechnics rear bushes put in my wishbones. They're a completely different design to the OE ones and they bring about some very noticable changes, namely improved braking strength, reduced tramlining over uneven surfaces during braking and much better steering feel. They cost £40 each tho....

 

K

[dr_mat 0]

Are there no signs of cracking etc in your bushes then?

 

I had some Vibratechnics rear bushes put in my wishbones. They're a completely different design to the OE ones and they bring about some very noticable changes, namely improved braking strength, reduced tramlining over uneven surfaces during braking and much better steering feel. They cost £40 each tho....

 

See my trouble is, I like the *sound* of that... :) :)

 

No, no cracking apparently, I've not had chance to have a good look myself. Might get them replaced anyway... (After all I've not spent anything on the beast for almost a whole month now!!)

 

How come the front bush never goes then?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Are there no signs of cracking etc in your bushes then?

 

I had some Vibratechnics rear bushes put in my wishbones. They're a completely different design to the OE ones and they bring about some very noticable changes, namely improved braking strength, reduced tramlining over uneven surfaces during braking and much better steering feel. They cost £40 each tho....

 

See my trouble is, I like the *sound* of that... :) :)

 

No, no cracking apparently, I've not had chance to have a good look myself. Might get them replaced anyway... (After all I've not spent anything on the beast for almost a whole month now!!)

 

How come the front bush never goes then?

 

More info on the VT bushes here:- http://www.vibratechnics.freeserve.co.uk/810.html

 

Why don't the fronts fail? Because they just hold the front portion of the wishbone in place and only rotate a limited amount, whereas the rears have to cope with lateral and vertical load as you accelerate/deaccelerate, brake and steer. When you brake really hard, the road wheel visibly moves backwards into the arch. VT have solved that by redesigning the bush to reduce wheel movement, whilst retaining OE ride comfort and stability. They also last a lot longer.

 

K

[dr_mat 0]

Ah, all sounds good so far...

It really does sound like mine are squishy and basically aren't reliably returning to shape after deformation. Could well be that long runs would help with that (they probably never get properly warmed through on my commute) but I'm pretty sure they're prob quite worn by now (8yrs, 116k miles..).

I'd guess they're pretty easy to fit too - so not too much labour involved.

It's all sounding better by the minute!! :)

The only thing I don't wanna do is wind up with more road noise or more harsh handling, but I wouldn't have thought this bush would make that much difference to those things - as it's not really supporting any of the car's weight.

 

(The mind boggles as to how good the steering could be when "significantly improved" over the stock Corrado feel!!!)

 

Any ideas on the best (read cheapest!) places to get VT bushes? :)

[belfastfumanchu 0]

How long does it take to replace wishbone bushes ?

Anyone whos had this done, how much did it cost for labour ?

[Joe M 0]

I think I was charged 2 1/2 hours. It may be less on the 16v though as on the vr the engine mounts need loosened and the engine jacked a bit to gain access to one of the bolts. (Driver side IIRC)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah driver's side, the sump gets in the way of the front axle bush bolt.

 

Rear of the engine has to jacked up.

 

K

[dinkus 10]

After my C gets back from the bodyshop, I'm planning on taking it up to Stealth to do the rear axle bushes. Now I also have a box full of rear suspension and brake parts, so is it worth getting them to do all that while they're in there anyway?

 

So far I have.... disks & pads, wheel bearings, ABS cages, shocks, springs, top spring plates and axle bushes. Is it worth getting some new rear wishbone bushes to put in as well? I'm damn tempted by the VT ones, I must say....

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah get Stealth to do all the bushes. They've got it down to a fine art, especially the rear axle ones!

 

Rear wishbone ones....I liked the VT ones I had in mine but they split on me :( I put some standard ones in but Vince reckoned the VT ones were OK..... not to my standards they weren't! Stick with standard mate.

 

K