Hello

Just paid £300 to have my front lower console bushes replaced on my 9N Polo (+a few other things to get it through MOT).

However now my steering wheel sits at about 20 degrees to the left. The garage swears they did not touch anything relating to steering/tracking to do the bushes and I am now booked in to have the tracking done with them, something I feel I should not pay for considering I had it done only a few months before.

Can anyone confirm that they do not touch anything relating to steering when changing these bushes ?

The tracking doesn't appear to be out however the wheel is annoyingly wonky !

front lower console bushes replaced

Come again?

Do you mean wishbone bushes?

front lower console bushes replaced

Come again?

Do you mean wishbone bushes?

I believe I do !

seems a strange thing to replace ....not that i am familiar with this particular model but surely you would be better getting a new wishbone ....I'm sure i will be corrected if i am wrong ..

the rear wishbone bushes on theses are pressed into the lower subframe and then the wishbone is pushed in to them. so new wishbones wouldent come with new bushes.

there a pain in the ass to do tbh and i even have the vw tool for them so can do them in situe but if they diddnt have this tool i bet they had the subframe out and pressed new bushes in then refitted.

so lots of bolts have been removed and haddent been marked up so now you car needs its tracking done. its obviously there fault if it was fine before??

arrrrr ok I'm with you.... that makes sense.... sounds like right misson... obviosly the reason for a wonky wheel to me...

go back to the and request a Technician report on what they did, Then come back too usss.

I have heard it is a pig of a job and this is the third set of bushes this car has had in total. It seems to be pretty coincidental that the steering is only out after they have done the work, but like I said the car doesn't really pull to any side just a wonky wheel...Ill give them a call again tomorrow.

What Gardy said is correct. I've done many of them and 9 times out of 10 the steering wheel ends up being out. Tracking should always be checked after because half of the subframe has to be removed.

X2 on the above, plus its recomended to fit new tyres if they are unevenly worn due to the offset camber the worn bushes cause, and no doubt that's what they had in mind when you came back for the tracking. So they ideally want another 200-300 from you, althogh personally I would have had it tracked and just added the extra cost (£20-30) to the bill, I wouldn't have had a problem if they did it this way, it doesnt seem right to me. I would make some noise and they will probably just get it done as its a bit silly for them not it have done it already.

It's just good practice to overcheck wheel alignment when any suspension/steering components have been removed unless they're located on some form of tapered ball joint.

Even measuring track rod end lengths when swapping them isn't bang on, marking frames etc gives a nice start point.

It may be that the subframe is across, shifting the camber which in turn has altered the toe.

IMO its their responsibility to put it right and they should know better

Cheers for your help guys, have postponed the tracking and when I re-book it in I will ask them again about it. I am just surprised they didn't do a quick road test afterwards to check it was all OK as then they would of noticed an obviously wonky wheel !

Also Just had 4 new tyres about 3 months ago so do want to get it sorted ASAP...

If only MOT and car insurance hadn't come at once ! :(

I was just thinking and we did have a car in the other week skoda vrs or something along those lines, it had the same suspension design and setup but the bushes were almost solid rather than the polo ones only being supported top and bottom.

cant for the life of me remember what car it was, obviosly vag based but if someone could find out what other vag cars share the same suspension setup on the front then find the sportyer ones I'm sure you will find the bush I'm on about. then you could use that bush as its almost solid and would last much much longer then the polo ones.

just a thought

LCR ones are far more solid. I have just bourght powerflex ones for mine £50 a set

£50 a set doesn't sound bad at all really, considering they should last longer. But what is the ride like?

Also, I think Vw have modified them, so if you get them from a dealer they give you the solid one, but could be wrong. There are a fee cars with the same front setup so I would imagine there are variations.

Bit off topic but how would I know if my bushes needed replacing? I get like a dull knocking/clicking sound when steering sometimes and have always wondered what it was

Could be anything, best to get it up on a ramp and have a good look.

For these bushes , if you look at the wheel from the side you can usually tell if there gone if the wheel is further back and if you put your foot on the front Side of the wheel and push it backwards you can see if there shagged by how much they move. Really if you haven't changed them in the past year or two then they probably Need doing.

Jack car up and put stand under her so shes nice and safe. Wiggle the wheel like **** and see how much play in them. Probally need doing, EVERY 9N chasis car I have had I have replaced with either powerflex or LCR ones. The ride was not noticablly any worse at all. My Bluemotion is my daily as you can imagine and its fine 100%

I was just thinking and we did have a car in the other week skoda vrs or something along those lines, it had the same suspension design and setup but the bushes were almost solid rather than the polo ones only being supported top and bottom.

cant for the life of me remember what car it was, obviosly vag based but if someone could find out what other vag cars share the same suspension setup on the front then find the sportyer ones I'm sure you will find the bush I'm on about. then you could use that bush as its almost solid and would last much much longer then the polo ones.

just a thought

I was told that Seat ibiza Cupra bushes were the same but had alloy inserts and therefore significantly longer lasting!

I brought these and gave them to the garage to fit. They tried to fit them but said they couldn't get the wishbone back together as the bushes did not have the correct recess.

So annoying had to pay extra labour for them to remove them and then buy VW ones to fit (which have been modified by the way so should last longer). Then I couldn't return the Seat bushes ! Ended up paying £50 odd more than I had to !

Bit off topic but how would I know if my bushes needed replacing? I get like a dull knocking/clicking sound when steering sometimes and have always wondered what it was

I had very loud creaking over bumps which got worse and worse over the year I put off having it done. It was even noisy when braking and pulling away etc in the end.

You have to drop the O/S of the subframe down. Sounds like they haven't marked the subframe before dropping it.

Well have paid them to do the tracking and all is sorted now, straight wheel and everything. Just hope it didn't mess up my tyres too much as it was seriously out and had 4 new tyres less than 3 months ago ! Still probably only did a couple of hundred miles with it out...

They will have marked your track rods up and put it all back together properly but when they bolted the subframe back in if it didn't go exactly where it was before it would move your 4 wheel alignment out so your front wheels would be parallel with each other just not the rear wheels....

Marking trackrods is only good as a start point.

Nipping the lock nuts alters it lol.