Rear suspension bushes

[The-Les]

Has anyone done the control arm and trailing arm bushes on a v/s40? I've done the fronts and the bottom ball joint. just wandering how hard it is in relation to the front.

[lozccw]

Funny you mention this, my new ones have arrived this morning!!
I'll be swapping them next friday, I'll let you know how I get on!

[The-Les]

lol are you just inadvertently copying everything I do?

[lozccw]

lol, it would appear that way!
Just out of curiosity are you replacing them just as a matter of course, or to cure a rather annoying rattling sound??

I have a really annoying rattling.
I've replaced the arb links, and all of my strut and top mount are new due to recent coilovers.
so I'm now going to try replacing the trailing arm/control arm/anti roll bar bushes.
If this doesn't fix it I guess I'll have to replace the link arms (there are 4 back there and they cost £43 each!!!! ouch!!)

P.S. Ive been searching around and apparently all of the bushes are not too bad to replace except for the large trailing arm ones (the ph1's are ok to replace because the bush is in a metal 'shell', but the ph2's are a pain because they are not 'shelled' and the rubber needs compressing to get it to fit inside the arm- so I guess it depends what year your car is!)

Oh, almost forgot - If you buy the trailing arm bushes from volvo they ONLY sell the ph2 (76mm unshelled) bushes which will not fit ph1 cars, if you have a ph1 car your only options are either to buy the ph1 (70mm shelled) bushes from partsforvolvos, or swap the whole trailing arm to ph2

hope this helps!

[The-Les]

Thanks mines a P1 so already ordered the bushes.

[lozccw]

Have you done the bushes yet?

I did mine at the weekend, What a pain in the ar$e!!

I started them at about 10am on Saturday, didn't stop until 6pm.
Then started again at 10am Sunday, and eventually finished the lot at about 9pm!!! (I must admit, some of the time was spent trying to figure out how and manufacturing tools to actually get the bushes in and out!)

(They take a hell of a lot of force to get them in and out - I used a big heavy duty vice, with a 4ft length of box section over the vice bar to gain the extra leverage required to move them and managed to bend the vice bar numerous times!)

I'm glad I replaced them tho as my trailing arm bushes were in 2 (yes 2!!) pieces, the inner and outer parts of the bush had become completely separated!!

Unfortunately the knocking noise that I was trying to cure didn't go away! (so now need to fit new link arms too!)

[The-Les]

Not got the bushes yet it appears that you might have got the last ones, so I'm still waiting. I guess if they need that much force doing them under the car it out of the question. I'm only replaing them as a matter of course.
I had an annoying rattle before but it was the rear seatbelt buckles rubbing together. You sure it's not the exhaust rattling?

[lozccw]

Changed the link arms today, and the rattling has gone!
Had to have the geometry re-set, as I lost my camber and toe angles when I took the arms off to do the bushes.

Unfortunately based on my experiences with the bushes I feel pretty confident in saying that there is NO way of replacing them without removing the arms completely from the car (which will also require having toe and camber re-set too!)
I would also say be careful when inserting the large trailing arm bushes, they need to be fitted in the correct orientation. I knew about this, but still managed to forget when the time came - inserted it 8mm and spent the next hour trying to get it back out to re-insert it correctly (VERY annoying!!)

On a plus note, I also decided to fit front and rear strut braces, and I can definitively confirm that the mitsubishi evo 4/5/6 brace fits the front with NO mods (apart from lowering the fuse box-which has to be done even to fit the genuine volvo brace, and removing the engine cover-but I have the big "whole engine" cover), and the mitsubishi evo 1/2/3 rear brace fits also with NO mods! got the pair on ebay (£44+p&p for front, and £23+p&p for rear!!)

I'll post some pics tomorrow!!

[CONDYBOY]

I'm certain I read on another forum that some mitsi' bushes fit and you can get these in polybush too. cost about the same I'll see if i can find it again and post a link.

[lozccw]

I think this is the thread your thinking of:

http://s40concepts.net/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=15907&start=0&

I considered using these on mine, but found they were quite expensive.

(If I could afford them I definitely would tho!)

[CONDYBOY]

this is the link I was thinking about, http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=62439&highlight=poly&page=2
whoo toook some finding then I see that someone has put up the same info oh well....

[The-Les]

Finally got round to doing the bushes. 12 hours!! feels so much better now though.