Rear subframe bushing removal 101.

[coupeowner]

Hey Cone, I bought the tool and swapped my a few months ago. With the tool it is really a breeze. The guys over at Autohaus Bayern (Beaverton) have my tool right now, Brandon is borrowing it for his car. No other shop or dealer in Portland has the tool. You are welcome to call them, tell them that David sent you. If you want to do it yourself, I would be happy to rent the thing for $20 to you for a weekend (like to recover a little bit of my investment).

[Cone]

How easy does it make it when you have the tool? I've never done it before.

[coupeowner]

If your car is pretty clean underneath, I would rate it 3 out of 10 wrenches. If you have a rustbucket, then 5 out of 10. If you are putting poly bushings back in, add one or two wrenches. With the tool, all you do is remove the subframe bolt (helps to have an air hammer), let the subframe drop a bit, then put the tool together and start turning the bolt to draw the bushing out. Installation is reverse, unless you are putting poly bushings in. The poly bushings are two-piece and you can't use the tool to insert these bushings. I used the weight of the car to pinch the top half of the bushing in, and I think I used a hand mallet to put the lower half of the bushing in. Really helps to have access to a lift.

[cthulu703]

With a little Si grease I was able to put the bushings in by hand. I did have to seat them against the frame with a bottle jack and a bearing cup however since the force required to get the steel insert seated into the frame of the car is more than it takes to push the bushings out a little.

[Cone]

Thanks guys, but I just took it to a shop. I don't have air tools, and knowing me, it'd probably take about a week. And I'd lose a finger.

[coupeowner]

Who did you find to do it? How much did it run?

[Cone]

I'm having a shop called motorsport international work on it. It's still there, so I'm not sure how much it's going to cost. The main shop guy estimated that it'd take about 3.5 4 hours to take off and put back on the subframe. So less than $500 for sure, hopefully around $400 or so.

[cthulu703]

I'm having a shop called motorsport international work on it. It's still there, so I'm not sure how much it's going to cost. The main shop guy estimated that it'd take about 3.5 4 hours to take off and put back on the subframe. So less than $500 for sure, hopefully around $400 or so.

If I remember correctly, subframe bushings were 7 billable hours.

[Digitalwave]

Thanks guys, but I just took it to a shop. I don't have air tools, and knowing me, it'd probably take about a week. And I'd lose a finger.

That sucks, only took me about 4 hours and I didn't need air tools or anything, just some sockets and a cheater bar.

[Jordan]

Rear sumbframe bushings book time is 4.7hrs.

[george graves]

Torching the bushings is the quickest way to get them out ... and it's much more fun!

[KenC]

I just use this:


cost: $1 for the nut and bolt and some free scrap metal. ;)

You think you'd wanna loan that out? ;)

[nando]

sure, you pay shipping though. it's heavy, but it makes easy work of bushing removal. a couple minutes once you get the subframe off the car, just attatch it to the subframe and turn the nut.

[Stu]

Crafty tool, Nando.

[Bryson]

With a little Si grease I was able to put the bushings in by hand. I did have to seat them against the frame with a bottle jack and a bearing cup however since the force required to get the steel insert seated into the frame of the car is more than it takes to push the bushings out a little.

it should not have taken any pressure to get them to seat, there is about 1/16" gap between the top of the bushing and the part of the fram it fits into. You likely just didn't clean out all the corrosion from two dissimilar metals bonding, it's very dense.

some subframe bushings won't detach from the body (ie: mine) and it's necessary to break the inner metal rod in half, dropping the subframe with the bushing in it and a small part still in the frame. If this happens to you, good fucking luck :D