[s-cars] Rear susp bushings....to replace or not to?

[Rich Assarabowski]

Aaron:

I had replaced all of the rear bushings in my S4, it was done by the
mechanic who was installing my H&R/Bilsteins on my S4.  One of the rear
lower arm bushings tends to be the one the wears the most, I think it's the
front one, someone else may wish to comment, so if you're going to do any of
them, now's the time.  You'll be doing a wheel alignment anyway, so why do
it twice?  Wheel bearings are definitely worth replacing if you're going to
have everything apart anyway.   You'll need some serious presses for all
this stuff, my mechanic struggled a lot even with all the right equipment,
it's hard to fixture these in the presses without having them slip.

You'll be good for another 140K when you do all this, unless you sell the
car after 40K miles like I did and someone else gets to enjoy an all-new
suspension :)  

Don't forget to check the upper control links, they frequently go bad,
they're easy to replace at any time. The aftermarket upper control arms did
wear out on mine after 40K, I'd buy the Febi over the Meyle (which are
cheaper).  

-- Rich A.
   ex-'93 S4
   Now '08 Mazdaspeed 3