When to replace bushes?

miniyazz · 23 Jul 2014 at 11:08

So a couple of the bushes on the Jag are a bit worn with a reasonable amount of play in them. Right side rear and front shock bushings and left rear lower bushing.

At what point should I bother to replace these?

miniyazz · 23 Jul 2014 at 12:09

Stormster said:
4.2L jag and won't spend a bit of cash to keep such a car driving properly.

Not entirely what I said

Fair enough, will get them sorted

miniyazz · 23 Jul 2014 at 21:58

Glad to hear it.

The current tyres are wearing evenly, is there likely to be any merit in getting a full alignment done at the same time? The mechanic advises that changing the bushes shouldn't put the alignment out so he wouldn't routinely realign.

miniyazz · 25 Jul 2014 at 00:29

Acme said:
Agree with the above, just replace them!

Did the bushes on my car just after I got it. They would have passed an MOT, but they were so bad that you could jiggle the wheel. The parts were cheap, and the job was quick, though a bit of a pain.

The bushes are around £20 each for two and £45 for the other one so not the cheapest but hardly bank-breaking. The main expense here is the labour.

geekman said:
The rear shock bushings are quite a simple job on these - never done the fronts though. If by "left rear lower bushing" you mean the left hand side lower rear wishbone bushes these are considerably less simple: you're not actually meant to replace the bushes at all, you're meant to buy a whole new arm. You can buy the bushes individually on ebay, and a few garages will do it, but an awful lot won't.

I bought a new arm for one side as I got it cheap on gumtree, and bought the bushes for the other side. My mechanic friend sorted it for me and said that replacing the arm was dead easy, but the bushes took him several hours to do, and that's in a big workshop with presses, heat guns etc.

Yeah the rear shock bushing they reckon is about an hour's labour and the front more complex and more like an hour and a half. Yes the left rear lower wishbone bushing is the other one and they said will take a bit longer. I suggested replacing the arm but they reckoned that would be more expensive overall.. of course if I found one cheap on Gumtree that would help!

miniyazz · 25 Jul 2014 at 09:08

Aren't they meant to make the ride much firmer?

miniyazz · 26 Jul 2014 at 00:30

To be honest at £200 an arm, it's really not going to be much price difference. Each bush that needs replacing is on a different arm and there's no knowing what the condition of the bushes on a used arm would be like. It's a Jaguar/Land Rover specialist and they've known their stuff so far so I'm fairly confident they know what they're doing with it

Cheers though.

miniyazz · 26 Jul 2014 at 13:53

geekman said:
Ah, didn't realise they were a JLR specialist - you'll be fine then as they'll have done plenty. Just to clarify though, £200 each was what I would expect to pay for a new arm on eBay - as you say it's pointless buying a used one.

Oh fair enough. Hmm that would be working out just a bit more expensive than changing one bush on each arm so yeah would probably have been worth it for long term peace of mind but never mind.

I'll probably skip the 4 wheel alignment since it doesn't seem to be out at the moment.