Thread: What happened to your D3/D4 today?

Originally Posted by John_D[emoji640

;[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji6]]What’s the eBay press kit that you’re referring to?

Search - 28 pcs Bush Removal Kit Bush Bearing Seals Press Pull Sleeve Tool Kit Set

Under 100 dollars. Up there as one of the great tool purchases along with the extension gadget that removes hose clamps.

I do the arms on a 30 tonne hydraulic press but all those different diameters are a godsend when you are pressing in bushes as every one is different. Sometimes you see up to 4 tonnes needed to press in the big ones even with a smear of grease so I’m not sure you’d get the screw in these kits to do those. They handle other bearings and rose joints with ease.

For lovers of Disco Trivia here’s something interesting.

In replacing the rear control arms the uppers I removed from the car have a different large bush.

I’ve owned the car since 2010 and these are untouched by me.

The bush at the rear of the picture is the current spec part number with the additional bump stop pieces.

The bush at front of photo is a branded LR bush with a part number RGX500201 which checks out as correct. I can only assume in Sep 07 when it was built this part was changing and it got one of each.

The dilemma for me is that I used the alignment arrow marks to push in the new bush but because I used the current spec Lemforder bush the alignment is 90 degrees different to these marks which I only realised when I did the RH arm some days later.

Things that make you go hmmmmm.

PS - the last item replaced being the lower steering uni joint took all of 30 minutes and has restored an incredible new car feeling to the car and eliminated any feeling of slop or knocks on the steering.

New bush is the RRS style. Much stronger and a little firmer.

Originally Posted by Tombie

New bush is the RRS style. Much stronger and a little firmer.

There is even a HD Meyle option different to these but I stayed with the stock Lemforder D3/D4 option per the parts drawing.

The ‘old one’ to my eye looks more solid as the rubber stoppers are part of the bush rather than those plastic arms which are fitted. Obviously changed for a reason and they must of run out of RH old style first from the parts bin when assembling. Maybe they did take one from RRS bin.

More interesting is the arrows on the bushes are not standard nor do the arms have an index or reference mark. You need to know the calibration before pressing the new ones in which I did by copying and marking the new ones with a marker pen.

I keep getting told my rears arms are in perfect condition and tight as a drum - at ~280k km, including offroad towing. I think you might have slightly more km under the belt, but still, how do the old ones look? Or, if you have the new ones installed, have you noticed much/any difference?

Originally Posted by veebs

I keep getting told my rears arms are in perfect condition and tight as a drum - at ~280k km, including offroad towing. I think you might have slightly more km under the belt, but still, how do the old ones look? Or, if you have the new ones installed, have you noticed much/any difference?

So I was keeping an eye on them and using a pry bar to jiggle them. Car had no noticeable issues or bad behaviour on original struts and arms and 312 km and I’ve never towed anything and car has no accessories so it’s light compared to most. Definitely no noises or clunks from the rear.

On removal only one of the upper arm bushes was destroyed (see in picture) which I could not detect previously but the other ones were quite distorted even if the rubber was intact.

To say the car feels absolutely incredible now with all new everything is an understatement and I think the steering uni has made a huge part of it. Previously when going over a speed hump at 90 degrees there’d be like a chatter but now nothing and I’d done the front a few months ago and the steering uni only this week. The old uni did not feel shockingly worn out either. You’d have to expect at 200 to 300 thousand kms the uni is ready for a change. Only buy genuine though but 30 mins to swap I was surprised as was dreading it.

Having just had an alignment it was shockingly out at the rear with the camber put back exactly as it was given you are having alignments on worn out bushes.

This bush has steel cones fused in the rubber both of which were loose and fell out which means the arm has lost the ride height setting as this is just rotating but surprisingly the other side was ok.

Treated it to a new dashcam. The old KPT850 had developed a fault where oversaturated parts of the picture (like day time sky or headlights) were bright pink. Still usable for evidence but annoying. Replaced it with a Viofo WM1. Had to knock up a new cable as the old one was micro-usb with a GPS dongle in-line and the new one is just a USB-C connector. Powered by the little 5v DC-DC above the cabin light, so a relatively quick switch out.

This recent video is a really good air suspension diagnosis explainer. Great system drawings

https://youtu.be/4cObPBU7jzk'si=nG11OBZDk20XWJ7o