Rear trailing arm bushes

[Rsnail]

Went today to the service for a wheel alignment and they told me that the rear trailing arm front bushes are shot and in order for the wheel alignment to be done properly they need to be replaced, thing is I would do it on my own, I'm a very good DIYer and replaced suspension arms front and back plus bushes by myself. Thing is, how hard is it to remove these bushes? I also heard that it can be the case that a certain bolt (which?) can be stuck and it cannot be found to buy as new and original anymore, also, can this be done without removing the trailing arm? Just to notice, I have a car elevator and that will help a lot since no need for jack.

[clf]

Originally Posted by Rsnail

Went today to the service for a wheel alignment and they told me that the rear trailing arm front bushes are shot and in order for the wheel alignment to be done properly they need to be replaced, thing is I would do it on my own, I'm a very good DIYer and replaced suspension arms front and back plus bushes by myself. Thing is, how hard is it to remove these bushes? I also heard that it can be the case that a certain bolt (which?) can be stuck and it cannot be found to buy as new and original anymore, also, can this be done without removing the trailing arm? Just to notice, I have a car elevator and that will help a lot since no need for jack.

I always thought it was the bracket that was unavailable and restrictive in terms of doing this task PART 5. I imagine the bolts whilst not available at Rimmers, can be obtained elsewhere, such as DMGRS

EDIT: just been reading further, it seems they are 60mm M12 (?) and 1.5mm pitch thread (from this THREAD - no pun lol it had popped up recently, I knew the part number was familiar). BMW equivalent are shorter, at I believe 43mm ,part 20, but then perhaps the part 19 would do?

A further EDIT: I wonder if THESE would work with a washer (the image shows an 8.8, but the description is 10.9 tensile)

[Rsnail]

I think this would be a pig of a job... Took a peak down there, and the retaining bracked is badly rusted. Does the trailing arm have to be removed in order to do this job or is it enough to lower it enough (if possible), and with some sort of a press or bush puller to slide the bush out? Also, where does that little screw (part nr 8) screwed in? When looking underneath there I only noticed the 3 bolts holding the bracket to the body of the car.

[Andy_with_a_screwdriver]

I did this last May, started with an upper arm and progressed onto many other things

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/s...d.php?t=283734


Removal by brute force is a straight forward job of butchering it with tools of your choice but can take while.
Inserting the bush without a kit or some sort of press is probably nearly impossible
I initially tried fabricating a pulling kit out of sockets and threaded rod etc but it just didn't work.

Post #2 on this thread from Mike Noc gives an ebay link for a pulling kit. I bought this kit as well and it was excellent. It took me about 30 mins to pull/push all three bushes in on the rear trailing arm. It can be used for removing too, which would speeds thing up a bit instaed of using a hacksaw and cold chisel.


I don't really know if this bush can be done with the arm in situ as I already had it off the car.

[T16]

Gotta be honest here, I'd be tempted to just purchase two new rear arms.

Then ALL the rear bushes are already included, and since you pretty much have to remove the arm to get it on a press.. you might as well.

Has anyone done it "in situ" just by dropping it down out of the recess?

[ratchet]

It can be done with the arms in situ.

Give the bolts a damn good soaking with penetrating oil over a couple of days. Squirt the oil into the cavity at each side of the bush. Undo the bolts and drop the arms. Drill through the rubber parts of the bush, and remove the centre, then hacksaw through the outer bush sleeve. To re-insert the bush I used what I had to hand, namely threaded bar, nuts, washers and a metal collar - however, a proper puller would certainly make the job easier.

[slovcan]

Aren't these the same arms that Matt has on sale right now?

[ratchet]

Originally Posted by slovcan

Aren't these the same arms that Matt has on sale right now?

I think the arms Matt has on sale are the lower arms that run from the centre of the car - the trailing arms run from the rear hubs to their fixing point inboard of the sills.

[Rsnail]

Just received the bushes from Powerflex so the easiest part of the whole job would be installing them, they are polyurethane bushes made from 2 parts, so each part of one bush slides in from each side of the arm. I will try replacing them tomorrow, my biggest hope is that the trailing arms can be dropped just enough to have space getting the old bushes out, without having to remove the arm from the car.

[Rsnail]

Wanted to leave a quick update, done the job today, the bushes can easily be replaced with the arm just being lowered and not removed from the vehicle. First I gave the 3 plate to body retaining screws a good soak of rust remover, removed the rust from them with a wire brush, and easily unscrewed them after waiting about 2 minutes waiting for the rust cleaner to do it its job, the arm comes down up to a point where you can comfortably set up your bush removal press, I used a 40 pound rear axle bush press from ebay which is used for Ford Focus MK1 (1998-2004) which perfectly fits this job. First I had to cut away the rubber part of the bushes that were sticking outside both sides the bush's hole, tried setting up the press with the rubber not being cut but couldn't do it because I was unable to get it "stable" and alligned on the arm and also couldn't point right at the center of the bush to squeeze it out flawlessly, so I just cut the excess rubber and then everything went smooth. When the bushes were off, installing Powerflex ones was a time and stress saver of course, they just slide in from both sides, then it's just the plate back in it's place, screw the plate to the bush with the bolt through the center of it like the original ones of course, install the plate with the arm back to the body of the car and that's it, no need to use the press again for reinstalling new original or aftermarket bushes which are of lower quality anyways than the polyurethane ones that come from Powerflex. After having these installed, the car feels a lot more "safer" and sharper when steering at speed, and it feels overall more stable, hope the harsh winds on the german highways won't blow me all over my lane again like it used to before haha, still have to see that