Dave Bull Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 (edited) Ever since I bought the car back in December 2013, and with only 18'000 miles on the clock, I was always wary of the bushes on the compression arms (or banana bar as they are commonly referred to). Well after reading several stories of the stock units collapsing and killing balljoints and other components, I decided to remove the weak link and renew the bushes with a set of SPL Pro Spherical bushes. Well, tonight was the night. I put the car up on the ramp, removed the front subframe and what I found shocked me! What I found was that the bush had completely collapsed and had actually started to wear into the metal frame. I removed the arm in order to press out the bush and the actual failure was even more obvious. So out with the old and in the with the new spherical bushing. Nothing but the best... And now that it's fitted, it's all the more solid and most importantly, no knocking noise. Edited June 3, 2014 by Dave Bull 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jp606 Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 What was the knocking noise like? I thought one of my bushes has failed so I was going to swap them with SuperPros, but I was told today that it's the ball joint making the noise (this was said after they drove my car). It's like a knocking which we think is coming from the left hand side and a slight wheel wobble. Obviously if it's the ball joint then I will require an entire arm at a much greater cost, but I thought most of the time it was failed bushes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jez @ H-Dev Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Knocking is usually the ball joint - the bushes don't often get as bad as the pics above, so no knocking until the arm comes away from the bush and start hitting the chassis etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bull Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 The arm was actually resting on the subframe and had started to wear into the metal! Basically, the bush wasn't doing s**t! Can't believe they were this bad after only 18'000 miles on the clock! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jp606 Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 (edited) Knocking is usually the ball joint - the bushes don't often get as bad as the pics above, so no knocking until the arm comes away from the bush and start hitting the chassis etc. Ah ok, that makes sense as the last time I checked my bushes (few months ago) they looked intact. Need to try and confirm which side it is, I've heard it's extremely difficult/impossible to find play in the ball joint, if I take the arm aofr nd look at the ball joint/move it will that confirm it? Thanks Jez Edited June 4, 2014 by Jp606 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiGFoetus Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Mine went through its MOT ok today. Got them to check these bushes as I'm (sometimes) getting a clonk from the front nearside. Got an advisory on both of these bushes, but no significant play. I'll get them replaced in the next few weeks, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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