Suspension bushes

[amatuerbx]

Just fetched the bx dtr 1.7 from the garage. Steering pipe has been replaced. Along with new water pump, cam belt, fuel pump but now He noticed the suspension bushes were deformed and worn away. Says the cost in labour and parts would be more then the cars worth. Also the engine mount is worn away and needs sorting.

The garage is euro cars in Loughborough. Nice blokes.

My question is can I do this myself? A friend says the bushes are cheap and can do it myself. What's yr opinion on that? Have you replaced any?

Chris.

[MULLEY]

Unless you have the tools in order to remove the bushes from the arm your'e stuffed. If you can find a garage that will remove the old bushes & fit the new bushes for you, you could then save the labour cost by re-fitting the arms to the car yourself? Or if you look on e-bay, i think there are some new arms for around £50odd quid each instead. Is you'rs a MK1 or Mk2?

[amatuerbx]

Its an '88 so mark 2...

[MULLEY]

Thats fine, just wanted to make sure you didn't have an early MK1 which has a totally different arm system to the later MK1's & all MK2's.

[amatuerbx]

Well im a proper proper novice. I really ought to learn about the car....give me a knife instead of a spanner.....

[MULLEY]

If you use the search function on this site, pretty much every question has been asked by someone more than once, its a v-useful resource & if you get stuck, then pop up a question & i'm sure someone on here can find an answer or guidance on how to do something

[amatuerbx]

Could you point me in the direction of the arms.you say can be found on ebay? Cheers

[mat_fenwick]

Available from Euro Car Parts for around £35 each arm delivered complete with bushes...

You can fit new bushes to the arms at home (easiest to burn the old ones out) but at that price it probably doesn't make that much sense!

[rutter123]

same for the bottom engine mount bush, that will need pressing in/out, also available quite widely and common to many cit/pug, ypu will need to remove the o/s driveshaft and intermediate bearing bolts and remove the whole mount, as mat says ECP can supply complete bottom arm for 35 a side i have used these on my tzd and they do the job.

[Dollywobbler]

Be warned that some have found that the bushes don't last long on those cheapy arms. I've not had a problem myself. Just no point faffing with bushes when the arm is that cheap.

[amatuerbx]

Thabks for yr input guys. Much appreciated. I want to keep her on the road so I will get the bushes sorted however diffifult it may be for a novice...Cheers

[Tim Leech]

I had them done on the TZD for the MOT, the bushes were cheap (I have one spare you can have FOC) and got the pushed in at work for nothing as we have a press.

If you can get the arms (not the car) to me I will get them fitted.

Is the car currently MOT'ed?

[citsncycles]

With arms as cheap as they are, I'd replace the whole arm, then get the old ones rebuilt ready for the future

[mat_fenwick]

I've got a spare set of arms I really must get round to rebuilding, but not done it yet. The ones on Timex were from Euro Car Parts; I think it was November 2011 when I changed them for Ian. How many miles has it done now?

[citsncycles]

timex has past the 238k mark now - that's 6k in my hands plus whatever Ian did on it after you changed them. The bushes seem fine and the paint finish is still pretty good on them.