Upper front control arm bushes

[kenl]

Are any special tools required to replace the bushes on the upper control arms?

I'm thinking of doing mine shortly and want avoid the expense of shipping complete control arms if I can, not to mention the price difference in parts.

Cheers

Ken

[Tombie]

You'll need a bloody good press and make up some dies to suit.

They rarely fail. Are you being preventative or do you have a problem?

[justinc]

Ive replaced quite a few upper rears they get a caning but not common to do upper fronts. And I've seen some crappy high mileage d3's in my time...😮

Jc

[kenl]

I was just guessing that may be the problem, I recently changed the lower arms and still get a clunk and feel a like something is going over center when going lock to lock.

I will check them before proceeding though, I have access to a Press but not sure I'm up to making the required dies, as you indicate that they are very tight. Usually when it gets like that I end up bending something I shouldn't.

[justinc]

I would take a good look at the sway bar bushes. Very very common source of clonks.

The best way to test is to see if the noise is still there when cornering at a reasonable speed. That loads up the sway bar and the noise can almost completely disappear.

Jc

[kenl]

Thanks Justin,

The sway / roll bar bushes were already on my hit list, the noise is only when in car parks. And particularly metallic when at access height?

My car is at 150k and decided to keep it for another 4-5 years but think it needs a bit of a birthday to keep it in good nick.

I'm open to suggestions, but that really is another thread I think.

[justinc]

How many km has the car done?

[kenl]

149,000 trouble free km, the first semi breakdown event was the alternator needing replacing a month or so ago.

[justinc]

Could've predicted that alternator at those ks!☺ the sway bar bushes are way overdue. Most see around 100k .

The other possible suspect is a front suspension strut / upper strut bearing.

Jc