I noticed some play in my right control arm. It appeared that the metal sleeve of the rear bushing was cracked. I found a supplier for VW Motorsport bushings (harder rubber but same VW part number) If I did this all again, I would have just bought new control arms which come with the bushings already installed. Or replaced with polyeurethane front bushings, and polyeurethane inserts for the air gaps in the rear bushings.
BTW, this would be a good time to also replace ball joints and tie rods if they have excessive play or even a lot of miles on them.
Tools needed:
Tools that may help:
It really helps to remove the wheels.
I started by removing the left control arm. It's attached to the
subframe via two bolts. One through each bushing. Undo the front bolt
first. After the bolt is unthreaded it may be difficult to pull the
bolt all the way out. I tapped/ pryed it out with a big screwdriver and
hammer. Next either undo the three bolts at the ball joint, or unbolt
and press out the ball joint. The latter will probably require a
scissor type ball joint tool. A normal tie rod puller won't work as
there isn't enough clearance beneath the CV joint. I just unbolted the
ball joint from the control arm. Later if you don't get this back
exactly as before, your alignment will be off. The sway bar will have to
be unbolted as well. After the bolt is loose apply pressure to the bar
as you back the screw out. Otherwise as you pull the control arm screw
out, the arm will snap up into the CV joint boot. Don't want to tear
that! Next undo the bolt for the rear bushing. You should be able to
pull and/or tap the control arm out now.
I have heard that this won't be so easy if you have an auto trans. The case is in the way. Good luck with that!
Removal of the right control arm, requires removal of the oil pan. Drain the oil. Let it sit a while so's you have minimal oil left in the pan. Remove the two bolts that hold the lower cover on the bottom of the bell housing. This is just a dust shield. It exposes a few move oil pan bolts. There around 20 10mm bolts. My only 10mm socket was a little to thick to fit inbetween the oil pan and it's outer lip. i had to grind down the socket on one side to get it to fit. You may or may not have this problem with your tools. Removing the control arm itself is just the same as for the left one.
I was able to use a vice to push out the front bushing. I used a 30 or 32mm socket which ended up just the right diameter to butt up against the control arm but was larger than the bushing. I placed a short bolt with some larger washers into the bushing for the vice to press against once the bushing was partially pushed out. For the final inch or so, I wacked the bushing back and fourth till it came out.
The rear bushing came out with repeated tapping with a hammer. I use the same large socket to distribute the force.
After 97,000 miles of hard driving bolt rear bushings had tears in them. The right rear bushing sleeve wasn't cracked. Some metal had just chipped off the edge of it. The real problem turned out to be that the bolt was just loose!
Using the vice again I was only able to push the front bushing in 3/4 of the way. I just couldn't put anymore torque on the vice. With a cheater bar on the vice arm I put enough force to start bending the vice arm. I called it quits at that point.
Brought the control arms to a local machine shop. They were able to do the rears just fine. Make sure they're oriented correctly. Arrow pointed toward dimple. Correct gap toward the car. (this is in the Bently) The control arm wouldn't fit on their hydraulic press correctly for the front bushing. By using a large steel plate and a bolt they were able to the front bushing. I could have done this myself but they already had the control arms. However, because he used a steel plate, he could only push up to the face of the control arm. So the outer lip of the bushing wouldn't come out of the control arm. If he could have pushed more maybe it would have. I wasn't worried about it. The bushing is in there solidly and it certainly isn't coming out. Perhaps you'll have an easier time with Poly Eurethane or Delrin.
And the age old, everything goes back together in reverse order. He he! Here's where the rubber mallet came in rear handy to whack the control arm into the rear mounting point. If you undid the three ball joint bolts don't bolt up the front bushing yet. You'll need the extra play to manuver the flange of the ball joint into the control arm. I was able to swing the hub slightly out and lift the control arm up a bit. They were then able to mate up somewhat easily.
More tips:
The new oil pan gasket I puchased was a normal fiberous one. The one in
the car was rubber with copper inserts at each bolt. Since the oil pan
gasket was only a year old, I reused it while also smearing on a small
amount of RTV sealant. No leaks yet.
Don't bolt up the sway bar until the car is back on the ground. Or at least you could lower the car on each side the approximate height if the wheels were on. Otherwise you're tightening the sway bar with it all torqued up. It was hard as hell to reach around each wheel and bolt the sway bar back up, especially at midnight! I used red and blue loctite on every bolt. Remember I had one loose control arm bolt!
The next day I brought the car in for a bad wheel bearing and they did an alignment. Boy does the car feel great. I can't really tell how much the new bushings do since my alignement was out of wack before anyway. But turn in and steering response are great. I don't notice any extra vibrations either.
Feel free to ask me any questions,
-John Erhardt
92 Corrado VR6
90 Jetta GLI
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