[200q20v] New shocks in, now a wheel bearing is going, general suspension c omplaints

[Brett Dikeman]

At 3:13 PM -0500 12/12/01, Forhan, Thomas wrote:

>The Avant has 137000 miles. I did not want to lower or suffer to much on the
>terrible DC roads, so I just went with HDs and no spring changes. Should I
>replace the factory springs? Is there a way to test the existing springs?

Springs generally don't go bad, far as I know.  If they do, I have a
set sitting in my attic you're welcome to make me an offer on :-)
I've been trying to figure out what to do with them.

>Would I be better off going down the road of replacing all the original
>bushings?

Possibly.  If they've never been done before, they're almost
certainly toasted.  I had a suspension shop check over the bushings
shortly after I bought my car, several were replaced.  Around 55k
miles later(this summer) when I had my Bilsteins/H&Rs put in, I asked
them to check out everything.  They found a small number of bad
bushings, and cleaned/lubed the rest. Since so much else changed, its
hard to say how much things improved just from that.

>Now  the bearing started to go. Anyone got an idea what it costs to have
>this done at a shop? Should I do the other side too as preventative
>maintenance?

Nah.  There's no advantage that I can see, you won't save anything
except a second visit to the mechanic(now that I've said this, the
other bearing will fail on the way home from the mechanic :-)


>What bushing should I replace as part of this operation?

Both inner and outer bearings, I'd say.  It's a -messy- job to do,
and it doesn't take much longer at all to do the second if they've
got a puller/press, and the bearings are very cheap.  Plus, what if
both bearings are bad, and you only pull one?  Doh!

B
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