[Closed] Just let myself in for hours of car mechanic hell

Thrutching or thrusting? 😯

I'm surprised you can buy the bushes separately. Whenever I've had to replace any it's been more straightforward to buy the complete wishbone or link with the bushes already installed.

Just take it to a garage.

My mate who's a fully grown mechanic has just replaced two worn bushes on my transit. His exact words were "you were better off bringing it here as pressing new bushes in is a bastard of a job and ford just replace the whole arm instead!"

There can't be much left of that Passat you've not replaced by now! You and my mother in law have put me off owning a VW for life!

Genuine wishbones are expensive.

Pattern wishbones are shit.

Bushes are availible for most if you look hard enough- ill run pattern bushes before i run patten wish bones again.

I do love my 20t hydralic press when doing them though,

What age Passat? I have rebushed my Mk3 Golf and Corrado, some Passats use the same or very similar rear beam and front arms. ARB bushes are fun..

As above all aftermarket arms I have seem have been pretty poor. With a clean and lick of paint I bet 20 year old VW stuff I will outlast brand new aftermarket ones.

This is my experiences of working on A2 and B4 chassis VAGs.

Removing bushes? I always have a blowtorch and hacksaw handy, if you don't need them then that's a bonus.

With some mechanical sympathy you can press the front wishbone [u]rear[/u] bushes in with a vice and suitable lumps of steel bar to space the arm off the jaws / push on the right (outer metal ring) part of the bush. As long as the bush goes in straight (it's metal to metal fitment) and the pressure's on the right bits you [i]can[/i] fit them with a heavy hammer and lumps of wood, but that's last resort country. The [u]front[/u] ones will push in with a vice/threaded bar and lots of watered down fairy liquid.

ARB bushes: I had the Corrado on stands under the sills and with a jack supporting the subframe undid the rear two bolts. This does mean the weight of the engine and box is on the jack so place stands an inch below the subframe to catch it all just in case. You only need to lower it an inch onto the stands and the bushes can be got at. Be aware that you could be stretching/squashing any number of pipes, wires etc so someone to check this as you lower the jack is handy.

Rear bushes are a threaded bar job but you should be able to do them without taking the beam out. People leave the whole weight hanging on the dampers and that's probably fine but I prefer to support the beam and at the same time stop it swinging about.

By the way if the bushes you intend to fit are FEBI I wouldn't waste your time. Lemforder are not much more and far, far better. I spit on FEBI front top mounts.

Also I fitted R32 Golf front wishbone rear bushes to my Golf and they are great. They're solid not voided and allow less wobbling, again barely anymore than the non R32 ones.

I set up my camber with a simple gauge from Trackrite, about £20. I had it checked after with a lase kit and it was spot on what I had set it according to the Trackrite. You have no option but to set the camber if the damper comes off the hub carrier but even if it doesn't not re setting the camber makes no sense.

Poddy - most of this stuff is not VW's fault. It's a ten year old car, only one bushing has deteriorated enough to get an advisory. I am changing them all because they are cheap and changing bushings on any old car improves it.

Thanks for the tips Laszlo. I bought Lemforder bushes, the rear if the front wishbones come already in the metal housing which should save time. The rear subframe should come out all in one piece, providing I can get the springs out. Some bolts have siezed which stops the alignment being done, so they will need to be cut off .