Labour To Replace Rear Knuckle Bushes

[boo5td6]

Thinking of buying some SPL solids for the rear knuckle. Wondering what sort of labour costs/time I could expect for this? Trying to work out if its worth it..

[Duncan]

I honestly don't know what an SPL solid is so I'll guess its a type of bush, and I assume rear knuckle is the rear hub/upright assembly.

There are a billion bushes at either end of the control arms, and yes if they've never been changed they are likely to be rooted. 6 per side + possibly 2 more depending on your hicas/nocas setup.

The best bet for a road car is generally an adjustable poly bush like whiteline or superpro because they are quieter, last much longer but also allow some extra adjustment for alignment particularly useful if you have lowered the car. Rose joints / rod ends / spherical bearings /whatever you want to call them are generally a bad choice for a road car because they wear quickly and make nasty knocking noises, think under 20,000klm.

And finally, it is a prick of a job to get all the bushes out and in, get a workshop to do it unless you have a big press and fittings, or unless you really enjoy frustrating and hard car jobs.

[hardsteppa]

+1. if I was doing it again I would just pull off rear knuckle and press them out. And poly for road car IMO.

[zoomzoom]

Pressing bushes out of large cast pieces can be hit and miss. Sometimes the shell just wont let go, and youll just end up bending things if you go stick it on a 20 ton press.

The easiest way to remove the rear ones is to heat the inner tube to separate it from the rubber, pull it out using a bearing puller (or even some threaded rod and creative use of spare metal tubes and sockets), then use a reciprocating saw to SLOWLY cut through the inner shell until youre able to knock it out with a hammer and punch.

You'll need a lot of patience, but if you use the right tools, it makes the job far more pleasant.

Then just stick aftermarket arms on there, because no one wants to do twice the amount of bushes.

[hardsteppa]

well....if you get the right support on the arm and it starts to press out easily, it's MUCH quicker than doing the 3-stage cutting method, but sometimes that way is needed, certainly was in my case, but I did it with the knuckle on the car, and it was a PITA. PUll it off, give it a complete overhaul in one step.

[V28VX37]

+100 for everything above, steel sleeved OEM bushes are a massive pain. I've done the rear camber and traction arm bushes (off the car without a press), the HICAS ones and the diff bushes (on the car yay) and they all take ages and are extremely tedious.

I reckon you'll end up paying 2-4 times the cost of the bushes in labour. And it's still so worth it.

[zoomzoom]

I reckon you'll end up paying 2-4 times the cost of the bushes in labour. And it's still so worth it.

If you're like me and you are OCD about knowing what it done to the car, it can be worth doing yourself. For example I remember that I needed to modify the 4 bushes (8 split bushes) that go in the A-arm at the rear with the ball joint. They were superpro ones, and the 2 halves were a little long, so they poked out of the A-arm shell too much, and were extremely tight in the subframe. Not only would I expect the bushings to eat themselves, they'd probably squeak like crazy after a while. If there's a mechanic you can trust to spend that much attention to detail, then it may be worth the labour.