My brother has recently had his clio MOT done and it failed on the rear suspension bushes being worn out. It is a 1994 model and has covered 75k miles. Is this a common millage / age for such failure?? He has been quoted £350 for replacement in order to pass. Is this reasonable or a rip off.
I was unaware that such a thing would come up in an MOT and there had been no previous service done at the same garage.
Regards
Matt
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I have been stuck for suspension bushes on a 306 at a much lower mileage than 75K. The Peugeot dealer showed me the arms (yes, the bushes are built into the arms) which needed replacing. Personally I suspect that this job may be a nice little earner. Most people won't have checked the bushes before putting their car in for MoT.
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Some components die of old age as well a mileage use, and rubber bushes are a typical example. My 306 had the rear sub frame bushes changed at 6 years/84K. I don't see that as a problem.
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Matt,
Rather than a dealer rip-off I think this is a design issue. There are many cars that go to the scrapyard at the end of their life with the same bushes as fitted in production. Others may be on their second set, and the cost of replacement can be high.
In many cases this is because they are a pig to change. Often the suspension design is complicated to make it compact/lightweight on a small/medium hatchback, this in itself can bring problems.
The rear arm bearings on Citroen BXs are a case in point. The suspension is a brilliant design with no intrusion into the load space but the bearings will often fail every 75,000 miles or so. At a dealer the pair can cost £350+ to replace. This alone is enough to scrap many older BXs at MOT time. Exchange arms are £120+vat a side at Andyspares so still an expensive DIY job. It is possible to change bearings in the arms if caught in time but many think this a fiddly job, the bearings alone are only £30 a side.
David
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I had real problems with this on my 405s. Think it was worst on the first one which was a 1.7TD on a K also happened to a lesser extent on the next 1.9TD on an N.
The bushes were changed at about 24k and then after that on every major service, the dealer said we have changed the bushes but not charged as the others were still under warranty from the previous time. Now the cars were on lease so it did not bother me too much but it struck me that whoever bought these cars second hand was probably going to get some pain at MOT time. I dont know why they failed so easily but I do tend to drive down unmade roads more than most I suppose.
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Replacing various suspension and steering bushes makes up a fair part of our workshop throughput. They can be a real pig to change sometimes.
I don't see yours as failing prematurely though. We see many bushes failing at the 45 -60K mile mark, notably Volkswagens, Fords and Vauxhalls.
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David Lacey wrote:
>
> We see many
> bushes failing at the 45-60K mile mark, notably **Volkswagens**
This is going to be a long, long thread...
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