Wishbone bush housing

Anyone know where to get the alloy housing for the front wishbone-rear bush (both sides) for an 03 Td4 chassis 1A000001 onwards.
Famous Four list them for earlier chassis numbers, but not the later ones (bush only listed), not interested in main dealers prices & definitely won't touch Britpart.
I've got a knocking from the front drivers side over the bumps & did the usual drop links (cured the slight chattering that was also there) & fitted a new ball joint, complete pain to drill out the old rivets.
As the noise was still there, I decided to go for new wishbones (front bushes already pressed in) & bought the rear bushes minus the housings as I had read that it was a fairly simple job to change them, but have since been advised by one of the guys here that it was a bastard of a job to remove the old ones from the housings.
Could always get them pressed out by my local garage but it's not the best idea & would prefer to get the two housings, fit the bushes & have everything ready to fit.
Thanks guys.

car dump?

The Mad Hat Man said:

car dump?

Click to expand...

Yeah, thought about that but nothing local & if I go mail order I reckon I'll end up with some numpty sending on earlier ones. The only used ones on fleabay that are the right year, the guys selling with the wishbones & wants £100 with postage, exactly what I paid for my new wishbones.
Will still keep my eye open for yards near me in case one turns up.

dump and landyzone courier service

I'm putting off doing my passenger side wishbone until i can find the housing with the bush already in, but having trouble finding it.

If i can't find it by the end of feb i'm just going to remove the wishbone and take both old and new to a local garage to give them the hassle of the bushes.

Freebiker and chromium uk

Famous four have em for both early and late ones with bushes already in (or at least can get em !)

I wanted some for my 1998 and although they werent listed on their site, I called em and the said they could get em.

the early ones were about 44 quid each

Did my really noisy one last weekend - got new wishbone with ball joint and front bush already installed put it all together and what a difference !!! like a new car !!!

strange how i still keep expecting the big clunk !!!

did the job without removing hub etc as per haynes etc - was a bit of a pig splitting ball joint but got there in the end with the help of a big hammer !!!

Chris

Cheers for the info Chris, will give them a ring. It'll make the job so much easier not having to **** around with the old bush housing.

When i did my drivers side i also did it without removing the hub but i had to get a small angle grinder on the bolt where the top part of the ball joint joins, was totally corroded but all other bolts were fine.

Thanks Chris, fired off an email to them, we'll see. Also did a few online breaker searches but nothing come back 1 day later, so I suspect they'll only sell a complete wishbone with bush still bolted on.
Not sure if a used earlier bush would bolt in & let me move the car while I work on or have the original units rebushed as I can't leave my car jacked up immobile on the narrow road too long at my place.
I'm sure the wishbones themselves are the same but not sure if the mounting points on the chassis were changed in any way or if the mounts were left the same & just the bush & housing shape changed. Might be worth checking further, I'm not in a hurry.

Not sure where you are - but if around my neck of the woods you could borrow my old ones (old type) if they would get you off the jack

Might be worth trying main dealers .. I often phone a price request through before looking for parts elsewhere and it's surprising how relatively cost-effective they can be .. especially for stuff that is not regularly needed.

c13tay said:

Not sure where you are - but if around my neck of the woods you could borrow my old ones (old type) if they would get you off the jack

Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer, but I'm in Scotland & I've just today managed to source a couple off an R-reg so we'll see how it goes. Haven't done a direct comparison as I was manky & soaked after getting them off but the actual bushes look exactly the same as the new replacements, so I'm not sure what the differences are but I think they'll give me the breathing space I'll need.

Read the manual as to how to reassemble the wishbone. If its not done properly the suspension will squeak. Took our local dealer three visits to fix it, even though there is a very clear service iinsrstruction notice about it. I found it in Rave and printed it to show them what the problem was which didn't go down too well! Bloody annoying when they have the gen.

Ok, today I fitted the one I got at the scrappy. I compared it to my own unit & it's exactly the same apart from the earlier one having a locating dowel protruding out about 5mm on the face of the housing where it bolts to the chassis. Luckily I easily drifted it with a punch from the other side, but a couple of seconds with the grinder would've sorted it if it was seized. It bolted on no problem but the knocking was still there - didn't expect any different as I was expecting to have to do the complete wishbone but there was always hope.

Next job was to try & change the bush in my original housing & was expecting the old one to be a real pain to remove but it came out with three or four hits with the hammer. Fitting the new bush though is not remotely easy. I used my vice to try to squeeze it in but the design doesn't allow you to keep the pressure central once it's got so far on due to the centre tube where the wishbone fits being longer than the outer piece. End result is that I was there for over an hour trying to ease it in a bit at a time & when it was nearly home the bush outer which is plastic has started to split.

Either I buy another bush to try again, just use my scrappy ones which are in good nick & fit ok or keep trying to source a set for my chassis number complete with housing. The scrappy ones are looking favourite though. I'll fit the new wishbones next month when I get some time off & hopefully that'll stop the knock.

Thanks to everyone for your help & advice.

vic.middleton said:

Read the manual as to how to reassemble the wishbone. If its not done properly the suspension will squeak. Took our local dealer three visits to fix it, even though there is a very clear service iinsrstruction notice about it. I found it in Rave and printed it to show them what the problem was which didn't go down too well! Bloody annoying when they have the gen.

Click to expand...

I think this applies to all bushes, the bolts/nuts should never be fully tightened until the car is off the jack & the full weight of the car itself is allowed to position the bush.

Final update:, just finished fitting the new wishbones.
For this job you'll need various sockets/spanners, you're better to use a good 1/2" drive socket set with preferably wall drive sockets as these nuts & bolts are tight.
18mm for the front wishbone bush bolt,
21mm for the end wishbone bush securing nut,
15mm for the two end wishbone bush housing to chassis bolts,
22mm openend spanner for the balljoint,
Fork type balljoint splitter (the taper one you hit with a hammer)
(Strangely though one of the end bush nuts from the scrappy was 22mm though the other side was the correct 21mm).
The only snag is you'll have to remove that stupid undertray in order to remove the front bush bolt, though once you have you will find access excellent. I managed to loosen all my nuts & bolts with the car still on the ground before jacking it up & taking off the wheel. It then only took about half an hour to swap over at a leisurely pace, though do make sure you've got another set of end bush housings with bush ready just to bolt on. Don't forget to leave the 18mm front bush bolt & 21mm end bush nut a turn or two loose till you've got the wheel back on, off the jack & got the full weight of the car back on the suspension before nipping them up.

I also took the opportunity to fit new anti-rollbar mounting bushes for which I used Polybushes. These are awkward to access, you'll need your car up on the ramps for this & the clamps are held on with two 10mm bolts each side. The drivers side wasn't too bad as I could get a socket to it but the passenger side was difficult because the exhaust downpipe got in the way & I had to use a spanner. Fortunately I have a set of ratchet spanners which made the job easier. You don't need to take the weight off the suspension like the Haynes manual says, they are easily changed in situ.

End result for me is about a 90% cure, something still isn't quite right over very rough ground on the drivers side though it's barely noticeable. I'll live with it just now & see what the MOT turns up in a couple of months time. Thanks again to everyone who helped me on this, I would have been really stuck if I was not made aware the end bush scenario & the scrappy ones were definitely the way to go just now.

chromiumuk said:

End result for me is about a 90% cure, something still isn't quite right over very rough ground on the drivers side though it's barely noticeable. I'll live with it just now & see what the MOT turns up in a couple of months time. Thanks again to everyone who helped me on this, I would have been really stuck if I was not made aware the end bush scenario & the scrappy ones were definitely the way to go just now.

Click to expand...

When you changed your anti roll bar bushes did you make sure your anti roll bar was centered? If it's not centered it can bang on the strut on one side.

freebiker said:

When you changed your anti roll bar bushes did you make sure your anti roll bar was centered? If it's not centered it can bang on the strut on one side.

Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for the info but I did check that as I know the collar can move & mine was centred ok. Went searching online & found another Freelander owner with what sounds like a similar problem only they've also replaced the strut as well with no effect so I'll keep an eye on that story to see what turns up.

Knocking from nearside front wheel

When I've got the car on the ramps & lie underneath & push up on the subframe that the anti-rollbar & wishbones are fixed to I can feel & just about hear something on the drivers side, yet I can't see anything moving & the usual pulling about on the wheel doesn't reveal any play. I'll have another go with my dad this weekend, one can generate it & the other can look more closely at everything & see if there's any play anywhere.
Got me a bit stumped though.

Good Luck

Have to say, fitting the new wishbone, bushes and balljoint cured mine !!


Chris

I'm out of ideas of what to suggest then. Have you have a pull on the drop links?

I've got even more noises from my girl now, will need to replace the rear diff mounts this month as well as my lhs wishbone :doh:

freebiker said:

I'm out of ideas of what to suggest then. Have you have a pull on the drop links?

I've got even more noises from my girl now, will need to replace the rear diff mounts this month as well as my lhs wishbone :doh:

Click to expand...

Yep, they were the first things I replaced with good quality Delphi ones & I've tried pulling about on them to see if there was any play. I'll need to have a good look at the weekend weather permitting & see what else could be possible. Thanks for your help though it's appreciated.