[chuckie]

Just joined, but have been referring to your wonderful forum for sometime after purchasing my 2001 VW Beetle TDI with 117,000 miles on it now. I just love it and have been working on its problems a little at a time.
My current project will be replacing the front suspension lower arm bushings, since after investigating a clunking noise in the right front on some pot holes, etc., I can see where the rear bushing on r/side is in bad shape. I am planning on doing both sides front(using audi tt) and rear bushings (use stock?) and bolts, and also sway bar bushings. Not sure about the ball joints-since they don't seem to have much play-but I will check them further. I don't know how many miles you can expect out of the ball joints? But it does make sense to replace while I am in there anyway, except they sound like they can be hard to replace-any thoughts? I am also a bit concerned about the rear bushing weld nut breaking loose, but hope that since this car has never seen road salt that it may come apart easier.
Well, nice meeting all of you.
Chuck

 

[chittychittybangbang]

If you do plan to do it obviously it'll be easier to do it now since the arms are coming out. If they are tight then they're OK. No specific mileage. There are 3 bolts holding them to the arm, bingo bango. You can use the pickle fork tool from autozone's free rental to pop it from the spindle. The clunking is probably the sway bars (just a guess).

Yes, that rear bushing weld nut could break but it can be fixed! (just a pain).

welcometomyturbodies

 

[chuckie]

Front suspension noise

Thanks for your reply and suggestions/advice. I can always use help from a knowledgeable source.
I have no experience until now with VW's or diesels, but have resonable experience working on years of Ford products and MGB's.
With the r/frt suspension hanging in the rebound position the rear bushing was considerably out of position and I could move the arm around the bushing by light prying with a screw driver. This could be somewhat because it is a voided bushing. There were also some signs of where the arm had been contacting the subframe. Visually the sway bar bushings didn't look bad but it was hard to tell for certain. I will order all the parts prior to r & r.
Thanks, Chuck

 

[Seatman]

I know I have a different car but I live in Scotland Uk and we get loads of salt and rain, mud etc and my bolts just come out without any bother on the wishbones, the one thing I would advise is to loosen the driveshaft hub nut to allow the hub to be pulled away from the car so you can get the wishbone level for fitting, this is probably in the faq but I haven't looked yet so thought I'd mention it just in case. Both my droplinks snapped though whlie doing the wishbone bushes.
welcometomyturbodies