Good morning everyone ,

I have done the usual and searched through the existing posts, but have not found anything which I can honestly say relates directly to my car.

As noted in the title, I have the 2012, face lifted, model. I also have the dreaded 'knock' when going over bumps. I appreciate the noise could be bushes and/ or the lower & upper wishbones, but I thought at £12 and what I read to be about an hour and a half, I thought I would give I would have a go at swapping out the bushes.

Well, after three hours of being on my back under the car, several coffees and an unimaginable amount of swearing , I gave up . My car has three bolts holding the clamping bracket in place (I've trawled YouTube and never found a video showing a car with three bolts) and on the left hand side, there is a drive shaft in the way!

My question to you all is - Has anyone managed to change the bushes themselves and how did you get the left hand side clamp off? Does the drive shaft need to come out or is there a work around? I tried every spanner I own and sockets, but couldn't get anything to fit. I did consider grinding down a socket but wasn't convinced I could get a ratchet/ bar on the socket!

You need a pair of these to make life easier. It's cars with Dynamic Response which have the three bolt brackets.



Could have a look at this, might help.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CzOJTVoPU...sp=sharing

Cheers
Col

Cymru001 wrote:

My question to you all is - Has anyone managed to change the bushes themselves and how did you get the left hand side clamp off? Does the drive shaft need to come out or is there a work around? I tried every spanner I own and sockets, but couldn't get anything to fit. I did consider grinding down a socket but wasn't convinced I could get a ratchet/ bar on the socket!

Col wrote:

You need a pair of these to make life easier. It's cars with Dynamic Response which have the three bolt brackets.



Could have a look at this, might help.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CzOJTVoPU...sp=sharing

Cheers
Col

Seatown wrote:

Cymru001 wrote:

My question to you all is - Has anyone managed to change the bushes themselves and how did you get the left hand side clamp off? Does the drive shaft need to come out or is there a work around? I tried every spanner I own and sockets, but couldn't get anything to fit. I did consider grinding down a socket but wasn't convinced I could get a ratchet/ bar on the socket!

I did mine last year and I ended up undoing the front of the front prop shaft (drive shaft you mentioned) and tied it up out of the way. To be honest if I did it again I'd undo the rear as well and remove the front prop completely as it gives better access but you probably have to remove the cross member to get it out fully.

If I recall correctly I used a flexi ring socket and ratchet ring spanners to gain access to the bolts. I actually found the right hand (drivers) side to be more of a pain access wise to finally get the clamp out due to the ARB pipework and various heatshields in the way.

The LR special tool would no doubt make things even easier but IIRC they're not cheap.

One option would be to buy the tools, do the job then sell the tools on, that was my intension, I bought the bushes and tools but never did either and it's all collecting dust in the garage now as new front lower arms cured my problem.

Cheers
Col

It's a pity you are in NZ or I may be interested in buying them from you. I'm hoping the noise is the bushes and not the lower arms

Cymru001 wrote:

Do you know if these can be hired anywhere? A lot of money for not a lot of use.

Cymru001 wrote:

Hi Seatown,

I saw this after replying to Colin's message. If I am reading your response correctly, you didn't bother with the two special tools? Did you buy new bolts for the bush caps? Also, other than the removal of the prop, did you unbolt anything else?