Rear Suspension Bushes

At the MOT there had been an advisory on the nearside bottom suspension bush.  Following my mechanic's advice that changing the rear suspension bushes was very straightforward I decided to give it a try.

Obviously had no idea what the bushes were from (a search for Sierra rear suspension bushes produced nothing) but at first glance a set of Land Rover suspension bushes looked like they might be OK.  

So £2.99 (free postage, next day delivery) later I got these.

So jacked up the car with wheels off and with the bottom bolt of the shock absorber removed, and as predicted the shocks came clear and I got access to the whole bottom end.





The first surprise was the nearside, which had been the MOT advisory.  The bottom bush was a bit ropey, as expected, but the top bush (the one you can't see until the suspension is dropped) was completely missing.    Either it had disintegrated over time or maybe it was never fitted ? 

  Anyway, the nice surprise was that the Land Rover bush was almost right.   This is what the proper one looks like:

So although not an exact match it was certainly miles better than the one that was in.   So I rebuilt it using the new ones.   And while I was on a roll I decided to check the offside as well.  Good thing I did as although the bottom bush was OK (the one in the picture), the top one was present but badly split.   So I decided I might as well go the whole hog and replace both of those.   I can now keep the good one as a template when I go to the next car show, to buy a proper set, although I am actually quite confident the Land Rover ones will be fine.

Good job done