Mondeo tie bar bushes

I'm sitting here having a total blond moment about mondeo suspension, so haven't got a clue about those quesions :-/

Fit genuine bushes. Aftermarket bushes, to be blunt, are pish. Only use aftermarket ones if you plan on redoing the job every year (that's if they last that long!)

What Year of Car Mk1 And Mk2 2 are not difficult, Just Sit the bush in a jug of hot water to soften it before you fit. not sure about the mk3

Buy Ford Parts and make sure you get the right bush for your car as there different mk to mk2

-- regards

Can't help you with how to do the job, I got a mate to do all the bushes on my Mondeo when I owned one a few years ago, but what you do need to do for the sake of a few extra quid is use Ford bushes rather than any aftermarket ones. Even genuine Ford ones have a limited life on the Mondeo, especially the front wishbone ones, but aftermarket ones are basically s**te and wear out several times as fast. It just isn't worth saving a tenner on parts and having to do all that labour again in another 20,000 miles.

I'd splash the extra cash on poly bushes, to be honest.

And I'd suggest you don't. The bushes on a Mondeo have to satisfy a difficult balance of conflicting requirements. Enough compliance to allow the suspension components to move relative to each other but enough stiffness to ensure taught handling. With new OE bushes these requirements are met very well and without undue NVH (noise, vibration, harshness). The Mondeo and its successor the Focus are generally ackknowledged as being among the best handling road cars you can buy. If you mess with the mix you're likely to end up with something that either doesn't handle, transmits a lot of road noise into the cabin or just wears out very fast and needs doing again very soon. Making these bushes stiffer isn't a cure all if the suspension components can no longer move sufficiently far in the planes they are required to. Where such things might have a use is on a race car where stiffer springs have limited the suspension travel so that stiffer bushes can operate better within those more limited requirements.

Usually it's the D shaped bushes for the ARB where it bolts onto the floorpan.

I reckon that with the right sized sockets, some large washers and threaded bar, you can get away with it.

You need:

A socket larger than the outside diameter of the bush. Large enough that the bush will fit loose in it and it needs to be deeper than the width of the bush. A socket sufficient diameter to push on the outer of the bush.

Put a socket on either side of the bush. Grease the outside of the smaller socket. Put the threaded bar through the middle. Put a washer and nut on each end. Wind the nut right up to the smaller socket - the one the same diameter as the bush. Put a nut on the other end with the larger socket and tighten it. As you continue to tighten it, it'll draw the bar through which in turn draws the smaller socket through and pushes out the bush.

HTH.

Thanks to everyone who answered.

OK Genuine Ford bushes it is :)

As much as I hate to admit it, I think I'm getting a bit old for rolling about on the ground under cars (I have no garage so it'd be done on the drive), so I'll get a quote from my local indie garage and if it's not much more expensive than buying the tool (over £50) I'll swallow my pride and have it done.

If it's much more I'll steal some car-time from the "project" and do it myself (Yorkshireman to the core... ;)

Cheers, Tony

I'm having to post through google-groups 'cos blueyonder's usenet retention is crap :)

Just for completeness and for future reference, I dropped my car off at my local independants this morning and got it back 3 hours later.

Genuine Ford bushes =A34.50 each Labour 1.5 hours

=A368.76 inclusive.

And not only that, I'm not picking gravel out of the back of my head :) Must use the garage more in future.

Cheers all, Tony

I'm having to post through google-groups 'cos blueyonder's usenet retention is crap :)

Just for completeness and for future reference, I dropped my car off at my local independants this morning and got it back 3 hours later.

Genuine Ford bushes £4.50 each Labour 1.5 hours

And not only that, I'm not picking gravel out of the back of my head :) Must use the garage more in future.

Cheers all, Tony

Out of interest the whole thread is still on my blueyonder, there is a trick to it though: use the news server;

text.news.blueyonder.co.uk

if you use the obvious one: news.blueyonder.co.uk the messages disappear after just a few days, the text server keeps them for at least 5 months

Mrcheerful