When to replace bushes?

miniyazz

miniyazz

miniyazz

Soldato
Joined
25 Dec 2008
Posts
5,976
Location
Sheffield/Norwich
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?
 
If you're not too bothered about keeping it feeling 'tight' then leave it until they fail an MOT.
If you want to keep the car feeling nice and fresh, do them when they're worn (now). :)
 
4.2L jag and won't spend a bit of cash to keep such a car driving properly.

I'd do them now if you like your car driving as it should do.
 
It'd be well worth it. I've never had a car like a Jag before but every car I've had where I've changed the bushes, it's made such a brilliant improvement, makes you love the car more :) Apart from Polybushes on bad roads!
 
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.
 
Agree with the above, just replace them! :p

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

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.
Click to expand...

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.
Click to expand...

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 said:
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!
Click to expand...

It's worth having a look on eBay, gumtree etc for a complete arm - they come up fairly often for around the £200 mark, although I was lucky enough to pay £100 for mine. Obviously if they give you a quote for the bushes they'll have to stick to it, but if they haven't done one before I reckon they might be surprised with how long it takes them.
 
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 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom