Suspension bushes advice

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demetrios

Active Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2014
Messages
186
Location
stafford
Car
R129 500SL
I can't see any evidence that the bushes on my 1992 500sl have ever been replaced. I think it's about time I treated it.
Question I have is ,
how many bushes do I need for the car?
Should I change anything else while I'm getting it done?
What are the part numbers I need?

Any recommendations? Material/brand etc?
Regards
Demetrios
 
On the front I put Lemforder LCAs on, includes ball joints so not really worth the faff of doing individual bushes. Shocks, shock mounts, steering damper and ARB bushes will complete the front end.

The rear you can buy a kit to include all the arms, you also have 4 x subframe bushes and some for the diff.
 
Front and rear Anti Roll bar bushes.

Front and rear subframe bushes.
Front and rear upper and lower control arm bushes.
Do droplinks and tie rods / track rods at the same time (they are all effectively bushed).

I would use MB ones if reasonable, otherwise Meyle, Lemforder or similar.

Try the SL shop - they are generally reasonable and very helpful. The link is to their suspension section for your car, so you can see what you need.

MB are most likely to be oddly a mix of reasonable and very expensive!
 
I'd turn the question round and ask why you want to change them. If you think they're worn, get some confirmation of that before starting to do any work. If the ride or bump absorption has deteriorated you need to assess why

Most of the cost is going to be labour so it's important to do jobs in logical combinations to avoid work being duplicated later. By the same token, if you're replacing front wishbones (LCAs) then the additional labour to replace the springs is zero and you don't want to pay book time for both jobs

The rear suspension has five arms, each of which as a bush at each end. The bushes are AFAIK non-replaceable so you need new arms. Logically you'd replace the rear subframe bushes, ARB droplinks and ARB bushes at the same time. If the diff bushes are worn do them too, ditto rear shocks

At the front you have a lower wishbones (LCA) which have huge bushes to attach them to the chassis. These bushes lead a hard life and the bigger-engined cars kill them relatively quickly. If you replace the wishbones & bushes I'd replace the springs and ARB bushes at the same time as the springs have to be removed anyway. You might end up replacing the shocks & top mounts as well

Nick Froome
 
I'd turn the question round and ask why you want to change them. If you think they're worn, get some confirmation of that before starting to do any work. If the ride or bump absorption has deteriorated you need to assess why

Most of the cost is going to be labour so it's important to do jobs in logical combinations to avoid work being duplicated later. By the same token, if you're replacing front wishbones (LCAs) then the additional labour to replace the springs is zero and you don't want to pay book time for both jobs

The rear suspension has five arms, each of which as a bush at each end. The bushes are AFAIK non-replaceable so you need new arms. Logically you'd replace the rear subframe bushes, ARB droplinks and ARB bushes at the same time. If the diff bushes are worn do them too, ditto rear shocks

At the front you have a lower wishbones (LCA) which have huge bushes to attach them to the chassis. These bushes lead a hard life and the bigger-engined cars kill them relatively quickly. If you replace the wishbones & bushes I'd replace the springs and ARB bushes at the same time as the springs have to be removed anyway. You might end up replacing the shocks & top mounts as well

Nick Froome



I can see this is going to be costly. Mot next week with distributor caps to be fitted and leads checked. May get them to check front wishbones etc and do it in stages

Thanks all
 

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