Car wishbone bushes rear and front

How to detect the arm bushes failure

In order to perform the diagnosis, you need to lift the car with a jack, disconnect the ball joints and visually assess the state of the independent suspension arm bushes. The surface of the rubber part should be smooth, it must not be peeling or deformed. The part freeplay also indicates a breakdown. Inspect the arm itself. If, when swayed vertically, it does not return to its initial position, this may also be a symptom of the bushes fault.

You can identify that the arm bushes need a diagnosis by the following symptoms:

• the vehicle steerability is deteriorated, the car pulls to one side;
• tires wear out unevenly;
• when driving, knocking in the suspension is heard.

Causes of the arm bushes failure

Most frequently, parts need replacement because of natural wear and tear. 100,000 km is the limit of these parts useful life. If a lot of oil gets into the bush in the process of the car use, it corrodes the bush and shortens the component’s life.

Extreme load on the vehicle, in particular, frequent driving at high speeds on poor-quality surfaced roads also accelerates the wear of the bushes. Besides, if you leave your vehicle for a long time with the steering wheel turned to the side, the parts will quickly fail.

Repair and replacement of the arm bushes

Repair of the arm bushes is inexpedient. When there is a fault, a replacement is required. You can perform it at any service station or by yourself. To replace the front arm bushes, you, as a rule, have to:

1. Lift the vehicle with a jack and remove the wheel.
2. Unscrew the fastening bolt of the front bush and the nut of the rear bush.
3. Pull out the link with the arm towards yourself, and unscrew the bolts securing the arm to the ball joint, then remove the arm.
4. Now you have to press out the front and rear bushes.
5. After the parts have been removed, the installation seats must be thoroughly cleaned from dirt and greased. Do not use oil based lubricants for this purpose, as they destroy the rubber part structure.
6. Reassemble in reverse order. The front bush should only be tightened when the car is off the jack.
7. Restore the wheel alignment. This is necessary to be done after any work on the vehicle suspension.

For replacing the rear suspension arm bushes, the sequence of operations will be different. Besides, the procedure for replacing bushes of both front and rear arms is dependent on the vehicle model. Therefore, before starting work, be sure to study your vehicle technical documents. In many cases, it is better to entrust the replacing procedure to the service station mechanics.