Would anyone know if the bushing can be replaced separately, or is it only as the assembly? I suppose the same goes for the front.

Much appreciated.

 

I believe you can buy the bushes separately, but you have to be mega-careful pressing in and out, because the rear lower arms are aluminium castings, and you could crack the housing. If you're going to DIY it, make sure you pour a couple of kettles of boiling water onto the assembly before pressing to expand the aluminium. The price of these arms came down in price very substantially over the life of the X350s, thus making it more or less as cheap to swap arms than replace the bushes if getting a shop to do the job. A shop I knew started swapping bushes but gave up when one cracked. As a business, they just couldn't take the risk of customer litigation.

On the other hand, the two lower arms that make up the front lower wishbone are aluminium forgings and replacement of the large trunnion bushes is a fairly routine operation. The ones that tend to fail are those on the "banana" (or front) arm. The lower air spring bush is also easily replaceable, although it can be troublesome getting the shock bolt loosened off and removed.

 

Thank you Fraser for the detailed and very useful information. I promise not to litigate if I break anything!

Peter

 

+1 on what Fraser Mitchell suggests and also put bushings in freezer for a while before fitting.

 

Would anyone know if all three bushings are the same for the lower control arm? Peter

 

No, the rear lower have two different types of bushes, one is an all rubber type, this one generally dosen’t need replacing. The other two can be pressed out and new ones pressed in. I just did mine.

The front lowers are all different sizes.