I have just bought a cheap and cheerful Astra F which drives superbly apart from clocks from the o/s front end. I have jacked up the car and nothing is loose and I suspect the fault is with the suspension bushes. Are these similar to the escort orion lower suspension arm where you just replace the whole item and are these known to be troublesome on the cars?
Thanks and Merry Christmas!!
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Yep, same rubbishy design as Fiestas, Escorts etc. Pretty simple- just replace arm and away you go. Part should cost between £25 and £30 so pay no more.
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Top suspension bearing wears and knocks too. replace top mounting.
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Brilliant! Thanks a lot chaps, I have spotted the lower wishbones for a tenner a side on ebay - the age and value of the car doesnt warrant genuine gm parts and the car is only a stop-gap so they should be fine.
Merry Christmas!
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Whatever you do make sure the 2nd hand wishbones aren't damaged. There is very little strength in these and they are easily damaged by someone incorrectly placing a jack and using them to lift the car up. Even the slightest buckle in the metal could render them dangerous. What may seem like a bargain *could* well be a potential accident waiting to happen.
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As DD says your life is worth more than £10 and genuine GM parts are not a great deal more. As a halfway house try Autovaux for cheaper yet quality parts www.autovaux.co.uk/. Plenty of poor copies have collapsed and caused serious accidents.
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2nd hand, I wonder why they too them off. DOOOOH.
These are the arms that is jacked up by them they fracture a month later and dump you in the ditch. Go buy some new ones. Regards Peter
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He didn't say they were second hand,pattern ones would only be about £20-25 from a factors so £10 from ebay is about right.
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Well spotted for Boxing day, your right I read DD response and picked up on secong hand. Mind you at £10 plus £9.99 postage I would stick with a local parts factors, these are not expensive. Regards Peter
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I read DD response and picked up on second hand.
Sorry if I've mislead anyone. It was the price that made me assume they would be 2nd hand. However a quick wire brush and spray paint can hide a multitude of sins.
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As a DIY task, when you aren't paying labour costs, it's not too difficult to press in a new rear bush.
If you cut out the inner with a strong knife, or just pull it our if it has already seperated, and then carefully hacksaw down the inner side of the metal cage, taking care to keep the blade straight and avoid cutting into the arm itself, after a while the cage weakens, and grabs the hacksaw blade. At this point, the cage can be tapped out of the arm with little effort.
Using the old cage as a drift, making sure to line the cut-out on the bush with the pip on the lower arm the new bush can be easily pulled in using a vice.
Of course, if there's anything else wrong on the lower arm, say the front bush, or the ball joint, then, it's better just to fit an arm as described above. I would spend the extra to get a good quality arm from a reputable source.
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