Wishbone bushes NCT fail

JimPa

Hi folks,

Mk2 Focus. Wishbone rear bush worn on both sides. NCT fail. Have heard it's a common enough fault on this Focus.

It's an older car but I do plan on keeping it for a decent few years yet and do generally buy original parts when it's sensible to do so. I would have done droplinks, bearings (hubs) and things myself in the last few years with original parts, mostly thanks to the German car parts crowds and their cheap prices.

Anyway, what do I do here?


Option 1
Get the original Ford bushes (€50ish for the pair) and get a good mechanic to fit them. Fitting costs?

Option 2
Fit the full wishbones myself. Original Ford too expensive. Could get TRW or Lemforder for about €140 (for the pair). Cheaper (Dephi) for €100ish but not sure I'd like to go too cheap on the parts.


Would need to be tracked too.


Any advice from the pros or from anyone who has been in the situation would be greatly appreciated.
I do enjoy a bit of DIY. Wouldn't manage to fit the bushes myself but could do the wishbones. Not sure if it would be the most enjoyable of jobs for jack stands and basic tools?

George Dalton

Buy genuine Volvo S40 wishbones. Much cheaper than Ford and exactly the same part.

Bushes alone too difficult to fit and absolutely not worth the effort compared to the price of a full wishbone from Volvo.

Delphi etc absolute waste of time to fit. Don’t even think about it.

JimPa

Thanks George, I'll investigate the Volvo wishbones.

_Brian

There’s no sense bringing and older car to a main dealer for this sort of mundane work.
A good competent mechanic will do this work perfectly well and much cheaper.

H3llR4iser

TRW is often an OEM manufacturer for various brands - worth checking if it's in Ford's list; That'd mean the TRW part would be the exact same as the original. Same with my Alfa 159 - front upper wishbone, 250+ Euro for the original part, a TRW wrapped in an FCA package, 120 Euro for the TRW one...

Wouldn't go with the cheaper third parties when it comes to suspensions 'though, heard plenty of cases where they lasted less than half what they're supposed to.

JimPa

_Brian wrote: »

There’s no sense bringing and older car to a main dealer for this sort of mundane work.
A good competent mechanic will do this work perfectly well and much cheaper.

There was literally zero mention in this thread of bringing it to a main dealer.

JimPa

But out of interest I just rang them.

€290 to replace both bushes and track the car.
€200 each for genuine wishbones (parts only).



I think the Lemforder wishbones at €75 each are looking like the best option. Will still have to get it tracked later at maybe €40 or €50? No cheap way outta this one.