Member Since: 06 May 2012
Location: Arizona
Posts: 48
White plastic on rear control arm bushes: functional or not?
I’m in the midst of a big job to replace all 8 control arms and other rubber suspension bits (arb bushes, droplinks, etc.). My question is about the hard white plastic bits on the rear, forward-most control arm bushes.
While installing the last rear control arm, I placed the new one next to old for a sanity check and noticed the plastic pieces are missing from the forward bush on my new rear upper control arm. Here's a photo of just the bush that shows the white plastic pieces in question.
A couple photos showing the old rear left upper arm with the (dirty) white plastic pieces next to the new part that is missing the white plastic pieces.
I contacted the vendor, and the response was that those white pieces are packing pieces and should be removed before installation.
Perhaps my communication to the vendor was unclear, and before proceeding, I want to check the collective wisdom of this group. I find it odd that:
* The take-offs are original from when the vehicle was built, and they have these white plastic bits on the forward bushes of both upper and lower rear control arms (i.e., 4 out of 4 bushes all have this). On the new replacement rear control arms, only 3 of 4 forward-most bushes have these bits. If the vendor is right, I should remove those pieces from the bushes in the new rear control arms.
* The white plastic bits are pretty beefy; they don’t seem like throw-away protectors.
28th Feb 2017 7:15 pm
Disco_Mikey
Member Since: 29 May 2007
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Posts: 20811
They should be present and fitted to the bush when the arms are fitted My D3 Build Thread
Member Since: 06 May 2012
Location: Arizona
Posts: 48
Thanks for the confirmation
28th Feb 2017 9:20 pm
Alphamale
Member Since: 28 May 2014
Location: Belfast
Posts: 497
Those 'white' inserts are part of the bush and not mere packing. As I understand it, and I could be incorrect, they have a function as a bump stop. If you need to, move the old one over to the new arms/bushes.
28th Feb 2017 9:33 pm
DVD
Member Since: 06 May 2012
Location: Arizona
Posts: 48
Thanks for the info, Alpha. I've read probably every post on the topic, and I recall reading something about the bump-stops on some bushes, so your thoughts are probably correct.
I hope to get the replacement parts. I'm undertaking this effort to get a "like new" feel, and while I could re-use these "bump-stops" from my take offs, they are 12 yrs old with 152,000 + miles on them. They feel softer than the peer new bump stops on the other side, not to mention specific wear spots in the old.
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