MartinH

The least hassle, but a little more expensive, is to purchase the arm assembly c/w bushes preinstalled. It can be a pain to remove and install bushes if you don't have the necessary equipment. A press would be ideal, but a large vice may work.

dorsal900

Who sells the rear suspension arms with bushes preinstalled? I have never seen them this way, if it's reasonably priced, ....

maarp

Yup, just like that. Tried lubricating the bushings, didn't do anything.

dorsal900

Did you also get the swaybar bushings attached to the body and the swaybar links? Springs don't appear to be broken?

schnitzelboy

There's a write-up of this somewhere. Anyhow, I burned the rubber with a propane torch until the center pivot would come out. Then I used a hack saw to cut the remaining part of the bushing into three pieces and knocked it out. Cleaned up the inner surface with a brake cylinder hone, then pressed in the urethane bushings with a bench vise. They don't have any metal bonded to them so they aren't that difficult to put in place.

I thought about replacement arms, but I've heard so much bad about the quality of most of them and I didn't want to pop for the TRWs.

projectsca

most rear control arms come with bushings. just aren't happy about price.

projectsca

usually, cut it out by any means, or press it out by ball joint R/R tool.them press/hammer new one in.

I just simply rebuild it, as sometime I can't get parts cheap, in time or in good quality. Drill some holes in bushing and clean it, then fill some cheap urthane adhesive, and wait 2 days. that's it.

the regular urthane 10oz catridge, which is enough for whole rear bushings, that you can found are
1. 3M 08609, Window-Weld Super Fast Urethane or any windshield urethane adhesive. $12-18. many people use this for fill mounts.
2. PL Premium Polyurethane Adhesive $5-6
3. DAP Premium Polyurethane Roof & Flashing Sealant $5
4. Vulkem116
All have similar properties. just dry faster or slower, softer or harder.

I have these things on my audi, 1year now, so far so goo

dorsal900

Does the urethane fill require removing the arm from the car, or can it be done "in situ"? If it can be done in place, I'm in - did the same for the upper engine mount on my SAAB 9000.

schnitzelboy

Squirting in urethane adhesive--especially without disassembling the arm--sounds like a bad idea. The Powerflex bushings are a lot harder than cured urethane adhesive and they're made to exact tolerances. As long as you've got it apart (and you'd have to do so to get the old bushing out and clean up the parts) you'd be better off installing a part specifically made for this purpose.

projectsca

You have to remove them some how. depends if it's easy access or clean.

I did this because at the time, I have to wait 2months to wait the wholesale feed the bushings in, and whole arms will cost me more than 500 at wholesale price 1k at dealer, but I got my 99 a4 2.8 only $2500, just not worth. So wanna find a alternation, at least temporarily, but after every 3month check, no problem till now.

Yep these kind of urethane are not as hard as performance part. but I just don't need that hard, If so, I should have used some two parts urethane to reach such 90 hardness. For remain part's oe spec, I did not remove all rubber, just some, then refill the urethane, which looks works for me right now. But use these information at your own risk.