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Rear trailing arm bushes


Rich237
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09 Focus 1.6 TDCI needs new bushes in the rear trailing arms.

One method I saw dropped the entire rear axle complete. The other took off the trailing arm.

Anyone replaced these bushes?

Do need to buy that 10 ton hydraulic press I've always wanted?

 

Cheers.

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30 minutes ago, Rich237 said:

09 Focus 1.6 TDCI needs new bushes in the rear trailing arms.

One method I saw dropped the entire rear axle complete. The other took off the trailing arm.

Anyone replaced these bushes?

Do need to buy that 10 ton hydraulic press I've always wanted?

 

Cheers.

I got the garage to do mine on @TomsFocus sound advice.  The bolts on the rear are rusty and prone to snap.  I guess it depends how keen (and competent) you are! 😄  If it goes wrong though you're rather stuck!  The garage did mention they had to use a press and I think they said they removed the trailing arm.

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1 hour ago, Rich237 said:

09 Focus 1.6 TDCI needs new bushes in the rear trailing arms.

One method I saw dropped the entire rear axle complete. The other took off the trailing arm.

Anyone replaced these bushes?

Do need to buy that 10 ton hydraulic press I've always wanted?

 

Cheers.

I replaced mine on my MK1.There are positives and negatives which ever method you decide on.I dismantled all of the rear end and took the trailing arms into an engineering workshop.New bushes were pressed in and then i put everything back together👍

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After more googling, I see there is a puller kit, for £80. Or I can get a 12 ton press for the same money.

Will see what the local garage will want to do it. I don't have a problem doing it myself unless its a total PITA and I risk bending the trailing arms!

I know the front whishbone bushes are almost impossible to replace, but you can just buy a whole new wishbone for £75 or whatever. Been there, done that on the last MOT.

 

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10 hours ago, Rich237 said:

After more googling, I see there is a puller kit, for £80. Or I can get a 12 ton press for the same money.

Will see what the local garage will want to do it. I don't have a problem doing it myself unless its a total PITA and I risk bending the trailing arms!

I know the front whishbone bushes are almost impossible to replace, but you can just buy a whole new wishbone for £75 or whatever. Been there, done that on the last MOT.

 

I think i paid around £20 for the new bushes to be pressed in.Unless you intend using specialist equipment fairly regularly i wouldn't bother👍

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15 minutes ago, williamweb said:

I think i paid around £20 for the new bushes to be pressed in.Unless you intend using specialist equipment fairly regularly i wouldn't bother👍

Well I bought the press anyway, I've been meaning to get one for ages and usually have to improvise to get bearings in/out etc.

If I get the dedicated puller I can always sell it on to some other poor unfortunate who has this job to do!

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9 hours ago, Rich237 said:

Well I bought the press anyway, I've been meaning to get one for ages and usually have to improvise to get bearings in/out etc.

If I get the dedicated puller I can always sell it on to some other poor unfortunate who has this job to do!

Let us know how you get on; hopefully not by posting a new thread entitled "Help, my car's stuck on the drive" 😄 Good luck!

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Well here is a quick update.

Opted to try taking trailing arm off of the hub assembly. So 4x 15mm bolts and the two holding the main bush in place.

As expected the lowest bolt, that takes the most road spray and dirt is very solid. As it's a 15mm (not 17mm, not 14mm) I did not have many socket options to try on it. I notice that there are also some 18mm nuts on the focus - another wierd size.

I tried a 15mm 6 point socket - 3/8" drive and fitted a 1/2 to 3/8 adaptor to the breaker bar. It snapped the adaptor. I then snapped a second adaptor. WTF are these things made of???

Tired the other side with a 12 point socket 1/2 drive and it rounded off the bolt head.

So I decided to take out the other bolts, which all came out fine (TIP: Just loosen all the bolts first, don't take any out. This will keep the arm from flexing about all over the place when you are putting a load on it)

So I can't remove the trailing arm yet, but I can pull the end with the bushes in down far enough to get at them.

One bush fell out leaving the metal sleve in place. The other is in one piece so it's going to need cutting out or extracting with a puller.

I stopped for today...

I can easily hacksaw out the old sleeve and I ordered a puller/pusher tool which should arrive in 2 days with a bit of luck. I decided to get one in addition to the hydraulic press as I expected the arms to be difficult to get completely off the car and I was right...

Will probably sell the puller once I've used it.

Also ordered a complete set of impact sockets from 10mm to 20mm with NO MISSING sizes! 15,16 and 18mm bolts/nuts... Jeez.

Just need to find a new 1/2 to 3/8 thats not made of cheese... Facom sell them for £8 rated at 220nm but one reviewer managed to snap it easily!

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My mk1 estate (2003) was written off by the MOT garage for the rear bushes. It was the ones on the forward end of the arm. They told me to price the job, they would have to price for all the other bushes as they couldn't guarantee they would be able to get them off and back on. 

I bought the tool for £50 from Fleabay and did it myself. I found if you get the back end up on axle stands on the chassis and then jack the rear axle up until it's just about to lift off the axle stands, you can lever the arm down enough to get the tool in. I drilled and cut the old bushes out and then pressed the new ones in with the tool.

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All done!

Not the most pleasant of jobs. A complete PITA!  Not difficult just akward.

The puller arrived today, very chunky bit of kit. The silver cup is the extractor, the gold one presses in the new bush.

1517357175_20200207_125557(Medium).thumb.jpg.ab0eb2b6e97a296a971a6e141eaa582f.jpg

 

154832815_20200207_125614(Medium).thumb.jpg.e57cb022dd537f2c04cfcc7dc6a11646.jpg

Couldn't use the nice new press as I couldn't get the last bolt out of the trailing arm and didn't want to risk snapping the head off it! Still it will come in useful for loads of other jobs.

 

I tried the extractor first, but it just deformed the outerring of the old bush. No way it was going to just press out. So I removed the rubber part (one just fell out, the other twisted out) and cut a slot in the metal ring that was well and truly lodged in place. After a bit of hammering, I managed to get an end levered up and the prised the ring out.

 

1506212299_20200207_135221(Medium).thumb.jpg.f5a538f479bf77ea415d2d8cf0674075.jpg

 

NOTE: Mark the location of the flat on the old bush before you take it out, so you can set the new one back in, at the right angle.

 

2034269610_20200207_141014(Medium).thumb.jpg.35f14b66869bd77a8beab84969f12cf9.jpg

 

Pressing the new bush in. It doesn't look square and thats beacuse the side of the trailing arm isn't flat. There is a rib on the side that gets in the way. The bush soon centres once it gets a little way in. It was quite tough to get in as you don't have much room under the car to get a decent length socket handle on it. Also the arm tends to flex all over the place so it needs wedging with blocks of wood.

Re-assembly was a lot easier! Only tighten the bolts up when the suspension is in its normal compressed position, so jack the suspension up to take the wieght of the car.

 

MOT re-test tomorrow!

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  • 6 months later...
On 2/7/2020 at 8:15 PM, Rich237 said:

All done!

Not the most pleasant of jobs. A complete PITA!  Not difficult just akward.

The puller arrived today, very chunky bit of kit. The silver cup is the extractor, the gold one presses in the new bush.

1517357175_20200207_125557(Medium).thumb.jpg.ab0eb2b6e97a296a971a6e141eaa582f.jpg

 

154832815_20200207_125614(Medium).thumb.jpg.e57cb022dd537f2c04cfcc7dc6a11646.jpg

Couldn't use the nice new press as I couldn't get the last bolt out of the trailing arm and didn't want to risk snapping the head off it! Still it will come in useful for loads of other jobs.

 

I tried the extractor first, but it just deformed the outerring of the old bush. No way it was going to just press out. So I removed the rubber part (one just fell out, the other twisted out) and cut a slot in the metal ring that was well and truly lodged in place. After a bit of hammering, I managed to get an end levered up and the prised the ring out.

 

1506212299_20200207_135221(Medium).thumb.jpg.f5a538f479bf77ea415d2d8cf0674075.jpg

 

NOTE: Mark the location of the flat on the old bush before you take it out, so you can set the new one back in, at the right angle.

 

2034269610_20200207_141014(Medium).thumb.jpg.35f14b66869bd77a8beab84969f12cf9.jpg

 

Pressing the new bush in. It doesn't look square and thats beacuse the side of the trailing arm isn't flat. There is a rib on the side that gets in the way. The bush soon centres once it gets a little way in. It was quite tough to get in as you don't have much room under the car to get a decent length socket handle on it. Also the arm tends to flex all over the place so it needs wedging with blocks of wood.

Re-assembly was a lot easier! Only tighten the bolts up when the suspension is in its normal compressed position, so jack the suspension up to take the wieght of the car.

 

MOT re-test tomorrow!

Rich

When you say mark the flat of the old bush do you mean the two flat sections on the edge of the old sleeve or the flat bar that the bolts go through?

 

The flat bar and the rubber have both come away from mine leaving just the sleeve intact so I'm finding it hard to see how to align up to he new bushes. Wanted to double check before I remove the old sleeves out.

 

Cheers

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 years later...
On 2/5/2020 at 5:41 PM, Botus said:

Amazing detail there! 

Tried to find the equivalent page for own vehicle [Focus Mk3.0 (2011) - ZETEC 125 Estate] as it has had MOT advisories two years running for both n/s & o/s rear trailing arm bushes.

Hit a 7zap road block at point of VIN search.

Happily pay a fee to your good self for running my vehicle's VIN through 7zap 

WF0LXXGCBLBS53609

[ EDIT: Just noticed 7zap have a pay-per-month subscription option - affordable - cheers nevertheless for your 'signposting response' to the OP, it highlights how useful 7zap is! ] 

What a nightmare job this appears to be looking like.... only bought the car 2 months ago.

Cheers - appreciate any response(s).

 

 

Edited by keepingitontheroad
discovered affordable subscription offering to 7zap - results in my request for help becoming void/cancelled
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1 hour ago, keepingitontheroad said:

Amazing detail there! 

Tried to find the equivalent page for own vehicle [Focus Mk3.0 (2011) - ZETEC 125 Estate] as it has had MOT advisories two years running for both n/s & o/s rear trailing arm bushes.

Hit a 7zap road block at point of VIN search.

Happily pay a fee to your good self for running my vehicle's VIN through 7zap 

WF0LXXGCBLBS53609

[ EDIT: Just noticed 7zap have a pay-per-month subscription option - affordable - cheers nevertheless for your 'signposting response' to the OP, it highlights how useful 7zap is! ] 

What a nightmare job this appears to be looking like.... only bought the car 2 months ago.

Cheers - appreciate any response(s).

 

 

SSG Asia is a good site:

https://catalogs.ssg.asia/ford/?lang=en#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7zap are taking the mick now by charging for outdated catalogues that they stole anyway... :rolleyes: 

catcar is still free for very similar information.

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It seems sometimes you can get info from 7zap and other times not. I'm not sure what the game is but repeated tries often eventually works.

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7 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

7zap are taking the mick now by charging for outdated catalogues that they stole anyway

If true that would presumably be classed as fraud and they should be prosecuted.

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On 2/5/2020 at 6:26 PM, Rich237 said:

Well here is a quick update.

Opted to try taking trailing arm off of the hub assembly. So 4x 15mm bolts and the two holding the main bush in place.

As expected the lowest bolt, that takes the most road spray and dirt is very solid. As it's a 15mm (not 17mm, not 14mm) I did not have many socket options to try on it. I notice that there are also some 18mm nuts on the focus - another wierd size.

I tried a 15mm 6 point socket - 3/8" drive and fitted a 1/2 to 3/8 adaptor to the breaker bar. It snapped the adaptor. I then snapped a second adaptor. WTF are these things made of???

Tired the other side with a 12 point socket 1/2 drive and it rounded off the bolt head.

So I decided to take out the other bolts, which all came out fine (TIP: Just loosen all the bolts first, don't take any out. This will keep the arm from flexing about all over the place when you are putting a load on it)

So I can't remove the trailing arm yet, but I can pull the end with the bushes in down far enough to get at them.

One bush fell out leaving the metal sleve in place. The other is in one piece so it's going to need cutting out or extracting with a puller.

I stopped for today...

I can easily hacksaw out the old sleeve and I ordered a puller/pusher tool which should arrive in 2 days with a bit of luck. I decided to get one in addition to the hydraulic press as I expected the arms to be difficult to get completely off the car and I was right...

Will probably sell the puller once I've used it.

Also ordered a complete set of impact sockets from 10mm to 20mm with NO MISSING sizes! 15,16 and 18mm bolts/nuts... Jeez.

Just need to find a new 1/2 to 3/8 thats not made of cheese... Facom sell them for £8 rated at 220nm but one reviewer managed to snap it easily!

From carefully reading your detailed posts (including this one) wherein you document that you managed to gain sufficient access to the bushes to be able to remove them AND press in new ones, i wondered whether a similar approach to yours might work for the Mk3.0 Focus 2011- (CB8) Estate.

The Haynes manual method for Mk3.0 involves many additional steps to be taken before eventually reaching the "money shot" of bush removal and replacement.

Is it true, in your particular case, that you succeeded in replacing the bushes without removing/partially-disconnecting any or all of the following components:

(i) Hub Assembly 
(ii) Coil Spring
(iii) Upper & Lower Control Arms

Side note: Seems to me at least from research so far that the Mk3.0 Trailing Arm & the Hub Carrier are one integral part in the Mk3.0, not designed to be separated. 
(see image below from https://www.catcar.info/ford/?lang=en&l=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 )

image.thumb.png.f48d0d96b947d51ac76473a20580f7d5.png

What does the Forum think? Is it likely that the Trailing Arm bushes on the Mk3.0 could be replaced without removing all of the parts as outlined in Haynes Ford Focus 2011 to 2014 Owners Workshop Manual?

Cheers!

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2 hours ago, keepingitontheroad said:

From carefully reading your detailed posts (including this one) wherein you document that you managed to gain sufficient access to the bushes to be able to remove them AND press in new ones, i wondered whether a similar approach to yours might work for the Mk3.0 Focus 2011- (CB8) Estate.

The Haynes manual method for Mk3.0 involves many additional steps to be taken before eventually reaching the "money shot" of bush removal and replacement.

Is it true, in your particular case, that you succeeded in replacing the bushes without removing/partially-disconnecting any or all of the following components:

(i) Hub Assembly 
(ii) Coil Spring
(iii) Upper & Lower Control Arms

Side note: Seems to me at least from research so far that the Mk3.0 Trailing Arm & the Hub Carrier are one integral part in the Mk3.0, not designed to be separated. 
(see image below from https://www.catcar.info/ford/?lang=en&l=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 )

image.thumb.png.f48d0d96b947d51ac76473a20580f7d5.png

What does the Forum think? Is it likely that the Trailing Arm bushes on the Mk3.0 could be replaced without removing all of the parts as outlined in Haynes Ford Focus 2011 to 2014 Owners Workshop Manual?

Cheers!

Update: Local garage just described the process they personally tend to use - leaving coil spring in place but releasing the knuckle / general assembly down a bit - enough to allow the front end of trailing arm to be lowered sufficiently for bush removal/insertion tool to be used. NB: They do not attempt to remove the trailing arm from the 'knuckle'.

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