Bushes, Anyone Help !

[DAVIDP20V]

my garage have advised that i need new bushes up front, times are hard i am debating doing them myself, how many are there and are they an easy job ? i think they mean the arb bushes aswell. help anyone

or am i better getting it into the garage. ]

oh yea is it worth changing any of the bushes with powerflex type ?

any help much appreciated as always !

[S2central.net]

If you are mechanically minded (and reasonably patient) then this job can be tackled yourself. The bushes themselves are cheap - call MartynF @ VAGparts. There's four wishbones up front and two FARM bushes. You should also change the FARB link rods when you're doing this - they take a bit of a pounding.

If you want Powerflex ones, then speak to GregS first as he as had several variations of that part from Powerflex to cure squeaking noises.

First thing to check is if your car has 'pressed' or 'forged' wishbones - there is no accurate chassis number that determines what was fitted in the factory. The forged wishbones carry larger bushes than the pressed items. Both sizes are readily available.

I would recommend taking the wishbones to a local friendly garage who can change the bushes with special tools as this can be a real PITA doing it yourself.

The trickiest part of the job is torque'ing up the wishbone bolts as the full weight of the car must be on them to locate them properly. Oh and you'll need a pair of nicely swan necked 17mm spanners for this job.

Paul

[Graham]

The trickiest part of the job is torque'ing up the wishbone bolts as the full weight of the car must be on them to locate them properly. Oh and you'll need a pair of nicely swan necked 17mm spanners for this job.

This isnt an issue with powerflex bushes on the S2 as the powerflex ones have a longer centre pin than bush so the bush is free to move around the pin which is clamped, even with the nylon washers provided the pin is still .25mm longer than the complete setup.
And they're nice
Graham

[porkkis]

Paul, If fitting PU bushes there is no need to have the weight of the car on the wheels as wishbones with such bushes move very freely and threfore does not add tension to the bushes. This is why rubber ones must be tightened wheels on the ground.

Th old bushes come out pretty easily when you first twist the center part out then saw a groove to the outer edge and then just hammer them out.