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today i completed my front bushings at a workshop with my mate and needless to say, the fronts were quite easy.
Also, a hoist press and rattle gun made life a zillion times easier.
total time to complete the front, 2hrs including smoko =D
Tmr me and my mate will do the rears... he says they will be a biatch to do. See how things go =]
wow, i just read every post in this thread and theres quite a few adelaide ppl on here lurking....
i thought i was the only person having bushing problems....
since theres so many ppl on here... i thought id add that since my front bushings have been done, i can say that it doesnt feel that much stiffer.. but ill add more tmr night after the rears are done. so far im just happy the squeaking an creaking has gone away..
be prepared to pay big bucks on labour =]
Thanks again for the replies all.
I did the shock top-mount bushes on the weekend and they were easy. Took about an hour all up. The noise is still there.. :(
I'm going to put my old front springs & shocks back in the front only and see if the noise remains. That will only cost me a small amount of time, but no money. At least that way I can tell for sure if it's the shock. Then again, it might not make the noise as the original suspension is so much softer. It's worth a try though. If that fails, looks like i'll be buying some bushes from eBay!
prolly the control arms
Cheers Specialist. I'm thinking that as well. Was listening to the noise as I was driving home from a friend's place about half an hour ago. I reckon it's the Radius bushes. Pedders said that they were noisy. I also forgot to mention above that Pedders were right about the shock top-mount bushes. They looked OK externally, but they were quite squashed and didn't have that slight movement that rubber should have (compared to the new ones I got).
I'm going to get a set of Hardrace rubber bushes from eBay US. Just waiting on a response from seller as to how much postage will be. They include radius bushes (full separate unit so I don't even have to take the control arms out!), front control arm bushes, rear trailing arm bushes plus some others. Should be around $250 delivered, which is far better than Honda's OEM price!
For the control arms I'd just take them both out, ride my pushie to the nearest mechanic with them and get them to press out the bushes, press the new ones in and then take 'em home and install them myself. Rear trailing arms are the hardest, but you can get a tool from Matco (USA) specifically designed to do these and you don't even have to take the arms out to do them with that tool either!
I'd be interested to know how you go with your replacements too, given that we're doing the same thing.
just email Dave from http://www.energysusp.com.au/. he's prices are cheaper then ebay ;) since he is a wholesaler direct to the public.
i got everything there. except the trailing arm bushings which i bought from sprint auto.
yeah u gotta have a press to push out the control arm and trailing arms. oOoo interesting tool u speak of, let me know more when u use it.
unfortunately my mate has been a bastard and procrastinating on the rears... LOL but they'll be done soon enough. yeh, we'r doin the same thing n we even in the same city...hehe
Not surprising we're doing the same thing in the same city. I guess all Integras of ~10 years old would need this done, particularly if they have aftermarket suspension installed.
I reckon I'll go for mostly rubber bushes. Urethane doesn't have much play in it and can sometimes prematurely wear other components. With certain parts I'll use Urethane if I have to, but will try to avoid it if I can. A few of my bushes at the moment are Urethane (upper wishbone mounts in the front - due to camber kit installation - & rear swaybar; an aftermarket item).
The only downside with the Matco tool is that it costs around $300 and it's unlikely one could be sourced locally (it's been specifically created only to do that job). There's a great suspension place in Edwardstown called 'Action Suspension' - they deal with crash-damaged suspension and can do any suspension job. I've had a few things done there so far and their prices are good (as is their work). I'm going to see what they'd charge to replace the rear trailing arm bushes. If they want to charge more than the tool will cost then I'll do it myself. If they charge less, I'll get them to do it as I really CBF having to do the job and wait for the tool to arrive from OS if they can do it for less!!