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993 Front wishbone bushes - replacement

993C2Fan

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4 Sep 2011
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My 993 is in for a service with a well known Surrey based Porsche Service Centre. They tell me that my 993 which is approaching 100k miles has split front suspension arm bushes and that they are only available integral with the wishbones at circa £1200 a pair, plus geo etc. I've seen on the forum that replacement bushes are available separately ( eg Powerflex ) and have been quoted around £620 my another Surrey based independent Porsche garage to replace said bushes with Powerflex plus do front geo. My question is - does circa £600 to replace front bushes seem excessive? Are there any other ( cheaper ) options? I'm spending a considerable sum to have the car serviced and replace all the rear heatshields/rear bumper brackets/exhaust brackets etc so I unfortunately don't have limitless funds. An thoughts much appreciated, Neil
 
Hello
The answer to your question depends on some variables.
Does the £620 include the cost of the bushes and the VAT?
Replacing the bushes can be a time consuming job. If the price includes the bushes, say £150, that leaves £420 for labour. If you reckon about £75 an hour that's around 5.5 hours'ish. then there's the alignment check Depends whether you think that's a reasonable amount of time but seems fair if it's an all in price.

I did my own bushes and put in Walrods, cost me about £80, but it took me more than 5.5 hours. There again, I'm an amateur.

I didn't think complete new arms cost £1200 a pair, seems a bit dear.
Give the OPC a call and ask them the current price.
With complete wishbones it's a simple job to swap them over but they will need to be re-aligned which is an extra cost.

One tip I can offer, if you have the wishbones replaced, ask for the old ones back. Even worn out wishbone arms go for up to £150 on Ebay, at least that would help a little with the cost.
ATB
Steve.

Edit: Personally I would go with poly bushes every time. Cheaper to do and less danger of them having to be done again in a few years (or less) I'm really pleased with my Walrods, They made a big difference to the way the car drives.
Gert Carnewal will also sell you some exchange wishbones fitted with Walrod bushes for 225 euros exchange per pair. Check out his website.
http://www.carnewal.com/
 
Hartech (used to, and prob still) do refurbished lower wishbones. £135+VAT each in 2012. You trade yours in (can be done after receipt of refurbished ones)
 
The hartech option is the only option to consider unless you want to go with the hard poly bushes. What the hell is your indie doing quoting £1200. That's very bad form (unless of course your indie is an OPC which I could understand).
 
Hi

You can get replacement rubber bushes from Elephant Racing in the US. They are identical in design to the originals and come in RS or standard hardness. The cutouts are there to change geometry under braking. I very much like polybushes and have used them many times, but not on the front of my 993. I think the original design is far superior.

I pressed them in and out myself, but it was a real palava. I also did all the rear bushes at the same time as well as replacing the whole suspension, so it was part of a larger job.

Here is an ER one. They also have them for the other end of the arm. And the rears.

bush.jpg


All the best

Berni
 
Dream911 said:
The hartech option is the only option to consider unless you want to go with the hard poly bushes. What the hell is your indie doing quoting £1200. That's very bad form (unless of course your indie is an OPC which I could understand).

I have Walrod poly bushes in my car and they are not "hard" at all. They give a ride quality equal to, if not better than the original. Plus if you go to Gert you can get an exchange set of wishbones fitted with Walrods for less than £200.
Worth considering, certainly beats £1200 being quoted.
 
Complete wishbones are £291 each + vat from OPC

Walrod bushes are available in the UK, but dont come with any metal work, unlike the Powerflex ones which do.
 
I had mine done with Powerflex bushes last year as they came up on the PPI. I got them done by friends who I describe 'old fashioned craftsmen mechanics" not Porsche Indies but people I trust implicitly. I had done my research into the options & wanted to go the polybush route. When I asked if they were able to get the old bushes out & press in the new poly ones and was given a reassuring smile & told to leave it to them. Job done promptly & a lot less the OP's quote. They also did my chassis legs but that's another story.
 
Wishbones

Many thanks to all of you for your replies. In the end I decided to go for the Hartech option of refurbished wishbones with new poly bushes. The cost was reasonable ( £135 each plus vat, plus £75 each deposit for return of the original wishbones - refundable of course. Plus £35 courier ) and I decided that it was better to have shiny clean refurbished wishbones, guaranteed for two years, than to have the garage try to push new bushes into the existing wishbones, which would ultimately be more time consuming and probably expensive to do. And this is only the front end which has had all the work done! Next stop the rear end but I need to rob a bank first! :lol:
 
Just to add to this.

I bought Hartech refurbed front wishbones in the summer of 2015 when I replaced all suspension parts.

They have covered 18K mles ....... and are shot. There hasn't been any hard/trackday driving.

I'd upload the vid showing the wear but its 45MB.

Just booking it in now to have new wishbones. Stuff this refurb/insert route for me.
 
We're the Hartech bushes poly bushes?
Years ago I replaced the suspension bushes on a BMW 5 series with power flex poly bushes, the control arm powerflex bushes lasted 6 months around 10,000 miles, these were the ones which took the most cornering forces.

I presumed that the reason they were shot so quickly was because it was a heavy car. Definitely put me off poly bushes.

As someone mentioned elephant racing make copies of the original bush $318 for a full set of standard and $358 for the uprated RS equivalents, obviously plus the bend over and get shafted up the rear UK import tax and VAT.

They do get good reviews though from what I've read on Rennlist though.
 
Wozy you've already had the hard work done to your wishbones IE. Getting the old bushes out as that's the time consuming labour intensive part.

If your currant ones are poly they can be removed in minutes as they aren't press fit.
New elephant racing bushes would just press into your arms and would make them as good or better than new. Probably for a fraction of the cost of new wishbones.

You don't even need a press to fit new bushes, 3 hands and a decent Vice should work fine, should only take minutes.
 
We're the Hartech bushes poly bushes?
Years ago I replaced the suspension bushes on a BMW 5 series with power flex poly bushes, the control arm powerflex bushes lasted 6 months around 10,000 miles, these were the ones which took the most cornering forces.

I presumed that the reason they were shot so quickly was because it was a heavy car. Definitely put me off poly bushes.

As someone mentioned elephant racing make copies of the original bush $318 for a full set of standard and $358 for the uprated RS equivalents, obviously plus the bend over and get shafted up the rear UK import tax and VAT.

They do get good reviews though from what I've read on Rennlist though.
 
Seems my posts are coming up twice, I only pressed submit once.
No I'm not trying to increase my post count!
 

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