been harbouring this idea for a while, personally i don't like the way the omega bushes allow so much movement in the steering wheel,ie pulling/twisting the wheel in your hands, even with new heavy duty bushes pressed in to wishbones by Marks dtm fitted and torqued correctly, there is an improvement, but it still bothers me as its still there. So....

Fitted these to a Volvo C70 t5 turbo yesterday, seems a far better way of going about it, not to mention easier to fit, jack up to jack down 55 mins. looking at it and driving the car tells me there is far less movement in the bushes.

But the whole thing is a completely different design, obviously. So will either need a complete re work of the sub frame by removing the brackets and drilling through to weld in a spacer to take the 65nm torque, angle tighten 120 degrees and the forces from the wheel,
not the best. Or far better, fitting of another sub frame that fits with this design of wish bone bracket already incorporated. Does such a thing exist in the GM range? maybe new shape vectra or signum, monaro/vxr maybe?

pics below....

the old C70 wb, note square blocks to bolt through and smaller bushes


new one fitted, not so clear a pic.


a closer look at the bracket to sub frame, the studs showing through the square blocks are the ends of the bolts which bolt through from the engine side, this involved jacking the engine to give clearance but was easy as there's enough movement in the engine mounts when bolted up.


what do you think???  

I changed mine last year and kept the old w/bones with the intention of getting poly bushes made up and fitted in readiness for the next change. Now I can't find the old w/bones !!

Can,t recall but are these the ones from BMW that will fit ours

http://www.priracing.com/product.php/1341/1/bmw-e36---front---control-arm-lower-...

polly bushes, as i understand them, are the opposite end of the bush spectrum to omega bushes. On the omega you have almost zero feed back from the road due to the very soft nature of the standard bushes which can only degrade with age, but forget the deterioration for a minute.

Assume we have a brand new mig all tip top and working. In my experience i dont think it will  possibly  eradicate all pulling on the wheel due to the comfort level designed in. By that i mean complete isolation from the road surface, no road noise, minimal shock transmitted to the car by bumps and road imperfections. Fine for comfort of passengers but, it seems, a bit of mare for the driver, namely me. Because the bushes are so soft they deflect easily, tram lines in lane 1 of most motorways caused by lorrys being an obvious example. Im fairly sure youll never get rid of any reaction to this sort of imperfection in the road, and nor would you want to . But for me the omega is too readilly pulled about, requiring constant correction.
Then, on the other end of the dial we have poly bushes. At the Wheels in motion knowledge day a gent attending, who's name escaped me, had had some made. And reported zero pulling, but when asked"are they harsh?" he replied yes, very, iirc.

....to me, neither are totally acceptable. A compromise no matter how you look at it. You can have one or the other to varying degrees. But never have total accuracy without a harsh feel.

So what to do?

I have spoken to an omega owner who traded for the new shape vectra when it came out, he reported zero pulling and a comfortable yet accurate ride. From what i can tell by searching google images of vectra/signum/vxr wishbones, they are a similar design to the omega, but with considerably smaller bushes.

The C70 seems similarly accurate to the vectra, with no real harshnes. This design,as pictured, seems desirable but not necessary if the vectra/omega owner is to be beleived.

I dont suppose for one minute another vx wishbone with smaller bushes would fit, vecta maybe?

razzo wrote on 18. Jan 2009 at 11:32:


I follow this thread with much interest, as my car suffers from the same symptoms as Mr chrisgixer has been talking about. Your pictures shows the horizontal bush changed to a poly bush, but what did you do with the vertical bush at the other end of the arm?

thanks for the pics Razzo, interesting.
Couple of questions.

Is the side harsh, ie vibey, rumbley, road noise?  

How do they cope with the rotation of the arm as the suspension moves? There seems to be no "twist" in the material.
If they rotate in the wishbone i wonder if this would wear the bush? Could a bearing be inserted?

And of course, how much?

Cheers.

I fitted poly bushes to a friends Vectra GSI, the ride is no more harsh or noisey but the steering is sharper/move responsive.
You can get different poly hardness too just to confuse things a little more.

shameless bump knowing Marks DTM is on line.

Marks DTM Calib wrote on 19. Jan 2009 at 09:26:

Any suggestions for a supplier for m5 bushes? Presumeably not a beamer stealer due to price?

Marks DTM Calib wrote on 19. Jan 2009 at 12:48:

Wow that easy, ok ill bung an old wishbone in the boot and offer up the m 5 jobs in the shop to double check.
Er... Dont suppose the magic press is ready yet? 
Ok, pushing my luck now....   

Marks DTM Calib wrote on 19. Jan 2009 at 12:48:


Had a check 21.95 + vat from them Not Bad but just the cost of getting them fitted to a set of wishbones.

SP_3.2 wrote on 19. Jan 2009 at 15:48:


Any i.d. with those Steve? And is that for a set for the car or each bush?
Had a chat with a guy at Euro car parts and he needs a bit more info. Found these numbers. On another forum.

1993 Bmw 535i m5 (e34)
Bmw part no.31122226528
Lemforder part no. 13281

But not sure if that number is a box set of bushes for a "side" on the car or an individual bush(large horizontal?) bearing in mind the bm has control arms not wishbones.
Can anyone varify?

chrisgixer wrote on 19. Jan 2009 at 18:29:


From my chat with the Leicester one told him that it was an E36 he had a look and as you say there are 2 control are think the ones he looked at where for the back one which is the one with the bend.

Think that is the price for 2 but will call back and check and update.

Thats the one by the sound of it .Will check to see if price is for two.

This BMW M5 E34 bush fits:

http://webcat.zf-trading.com/index.asp?LKZ=D&PKW=1&SPR=4&EINSPNR=32,14,1632,1614

Inner Diameter [mm]: 14
Outer Diameter [mm]: 58

Lemforder part number: 13281 01


looks like this:

It fits, I have fitted these in the past.

Solid rubber....3 large ribs

It is indeed about 2mm or so off centre....not convinced it will make that much difference

will the off centre hole make pressing difficult?
Just thinking of the drifts and if they fit in the hole to allow the outside edge to line up?

Just got 2 with the plastic insert from euro car parts, had them on the shelf!
Ps thanks for the lemforder link, well handy, they knew the numbers straight away.

chrisgixer wrote on 26. Jan 2009 at 18:18:



As already said, we know that as I have fitted some in the past 

Lol, we spent a few weeks trawling through the formal drawings to check all the dimensions!

Standard....you want some flex somewhere to absorb bump steer!