Wishbone bushes

[tony_ack 0]

The Corrado failed her MOT last week on both rear wishbone bushes. The garage gave me a quote of £280 to replace them, but they wanted to fit new wishbones and ball joints at the same time.

 

I don't have that sort of money at the moment after already throwing ££££ at the car to get the brakes to a fit state for the MOT, replacing the downpipe and inner cv joint. Famous last words but... I think I can do it myself for cheaper.

 

The wishbones are crusty in appearance but rock solid.

The ball joints have been replaced about 2-3 years ago with genuine parts, and are still stiff to move (i.e. no free play)

 

So I reckon just change the bushes.

 

I've been looking for a guide, but haven't found anything, just a few bits of advice in various threads. What I've found is...

1. Plenty of penetrating oil on the bolts beforehand (I've just jacked it up and there's a gap to spray between the arms and the subframe where the bolt goes through, so I soaked it)

2. Bolts are prone to breaking... I've got an impact gun - is it worth trying to whip the bolts out with that to lower the stress on the bolts? They'll be less likely to shear won't they?

3. Jack up the engine to get the r/hand arm out (and to get the gun on the bolt on that side)

4. Bushes choice - a lot recommend R32 bushes. GSF sell TRW ones for a tenner each, these are OE equivalent, aren't they? Or Lemforder? How much are VW ones?

5. How have people managed to get the bushes out/pressed in at home? Is a vice sufficient, with a socket? What size socket roughly?

6. What options are there for clenaing up the wishbones? How much would I be looking at to get them powder coated? Would just cleaning up the rust and hammerite work?

7. Anything else that can go wrong?

 

Cheers

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

number 2 is your biggest potential problem but if they do shear off you can drill it and tapp a new thread, absolute pita but quicker and easier then fitting another subframe, i purchased none genuine wishbones with r32 bushs already pressed in off ebay all new and there still good, i forget who the seller is but ebay search it if your interested.

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-GOLF-MK3-VR6-CORRADO-VR6-FRONT-WISHBONE-R32-UPGRADE-C217-/191067021733?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&fits=Car+Make%3AVW%7CModel%3ACorrado&hash=item2c7c7b61a5

[davidwort 0]

pressing in the bushes isn't a problem, a vice will be fine but for the money those ebay ones look good, saves a lot of faffing about wire brushing, hammerite painting etc

If I was to get bushes for a VR I would definitely get lemforder parts or the solid r32 ones, I doubt the cheapo ones would last long

[TanVr6 0]

SNAP!

Just what I need aswell! New wishbones and better bushes, phoned dealers and they said genuine are no longer available! :(

I enquires about these on eBay, and seller said they are a oem part Topran (made in Germany) but Google has mixed feelings.

Some users on other forums saying cheap rubbish?

 

Many people used these yet? And got any feedback?

[davidwort 0]

topran parts are not OEM in my experience, genuine wishbones do look better made and patterns will start rusting as soon as you put them on the car (much the same as any Ford, Renault etc though :lol: )

if you want genuine quality wishbones then Lemforder seem to be the ones, but they are pricey in comparison, I've seen them for about 80 quid each from Euro Car Parts before

Given the time I would personally clean and paint the old genuine VW ones and press in new OEM quality bushes (or R32 ones) it all depends if you want a quick, cheap and relatively easy swap, garages rarely mess about pressing in new bushes as it's labour and costs more than just fitting a whole new wishbone incl. bushes

[Jim Bowen 1]

They used to be a place that sold the wishbones already fitted with the better bushes etc, can't remember the name though, veedubmachine or something similar.

[Jim Bowen 1]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-GOLF-MK3-VR6-CORRADO-VR6-FRONT-WISHBONE-R32-UPGRADE-C217-/191067021733?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2c7c7b61a5

 

Not sure what brand the wishbones and bushes are though

[tony_ack 0]

Thanks for the advice, I get the feeling that unless I want to spend good money on replacement wishbones (and then extra on R32 bushes, which I'd still need to press in anyway), then I'm effectively replacing the quality wishbones on the car with ones that may not be as good.

 

I've bought a few Torpran plastic parts in the past and they have been somewhat variable quality.

 

So I think I'm going to go down the route of using the originals - I'm not exactly flush with a lot of spare time, but as with most jobs on the Corrado, if you expect to be able to just do a quick job on it, you'll always be disappointed. GSF do Lemforder R32 bushes, so they seem like a good bet.

 

Still worried about getting the bolts out in one piece - any thoughts on whether it's more likely to shear them by using the impact gun or 3ft breaker bar?

[davidwort 0]

give the bolts the best chance they can have, I'd try a few cycles of heat and cooling, do you have a plumbing gas torch?

I'd probably go with a breaker bar, slowly, and any sign of trouble, stop and try more WD40 and heat.

[sankysvr6 0]

Might also be a good idea to try the back and forth technique and spraying with some penetrating fluid in between.

 

I plan to do my wishbone arms at some point, but I'm planning on dropping the whole subframe out.

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

i dont see none genuine wishbones as a quality issue in regards to safety otherwise they wouldnt be able to sell them, sure the paint/coating might not be as good as genuine but straight out the box there clean and need very little prep to be painted over with something to make them last for years which would make them better then genuine in that respect as they still rust, idd be more concerned with the quality of rubber and plastic with none genuine parts.

 

I dont think it matters what you use to undo the bolts tbh, i used a breaker bar and it just sheared with no warning , i think its just one of them things where its either going to break or not regardless of what you use, i recon you can gauge how bad there going to be by how much rust is on the wishbones and sub frame as mine were pretty rusty but more time spent on trying to free it off before hand will be where its at, tapping the bolt head with a hammer to shock it will also help,

[gNo 10]

I replaced front and back wishbone bushes, track rod ends and ball joints a few months ago. Bought them all from here http://www.vwspares.co.uk/ they were Lemforder or Febi. Had a nightmare getting one of the front bolts out as it was stuck solid in the metal sleeve. Had to eventually cut it out with a air hacksaw.

[tony_ack 0]

The good news is all 4 bolts came out okay. Was a bit worried about the driver side front as it started to round but in the end I just went for it and it cracked free. Cracked all the bolts with the big breaker, then pulled them out with the impact gun to lower the stress of them. It looks like all the bolts had been reused - at least they'd been coated with copper grease before they were reused.

 

I only had a couple of hours on it today but got stuck on the driver side ball joint - I undid both ball joints at the three camber bolts and left them in the hubs. The passenger wishbone had enough clearance after a bit of a wiggle and came out. But I can't get the driver one out, I'm about 1/2 cm short of room. I tried removing the ball joint top nut but no use without the special tool, and I don't fancy trying to separate the Cv joint from the hub. Any ideas for how to get the extra clearance I need?

[Jim Bowen 1]

Could try turning the steering. Can somethings help.