Postby Hasbeen » 21 Jul 2011 01:04
Russ, the subframe mountings are the most important ones to replace with polly, & it's dead easy, unlike the front sway bar bushes, which are the second most important. Both these locate your front wheels, & control your steering geometry, & have a very large effect on turn in & front grip.
I have polly everywhere in the 8. It's great.
On the 7 I have new rubber in the front control arm, & in the front of the rear radius rods & control arms, everything else is polly. It is even greater.
Yes the 8 has a higher cornering power, & speed on a billiard table, & on better roads but in the real world, the 7 is a nicer & easier car to drive. This is particularly so on less the than perfect bitumen out where I live.
With the subframe, check the bolts. Often some of them are bent from hitting speed bumps & such, & may need replacing.
To do the job you want the car on it's wheels, but elevated on ramps or some such. If you loosen all 4 nuts to the bottom of their thread, the car will rise up off the subframe, lifted by the springs.
With it in this position it is easy to withdraw the bolts one at a time to remove, & replace the various bushes.
If the car does not rise it is probable the steel spacers inside the bushes have rusted onto the bolts. In this case lots of penetrating oil over some time, [days at least] is called for. I was lucky. The one of mine that had this problem was so worn, it allowed me to get a hack saw in between the chassis & the subframe, to cut the bolt.
Check that your bush kit includes the steel spacers. One kit does not, & these spacers are likely to need replacing, due to corrosion.
Have fun.
Hasbeen
