Rear suspesion overhaul

When I bought my GTA, two and a half years ago, there was a slight knock on the nearside rear suspension. The knock has not got any worse but the rear suspension is now creaking & squeaking. I suspect that this is because the car is garaged & has not seen a wet road since I bought it. I cant tell if its coming from the wishbone bushes, the antiroll bar bushes or the springs / spring seats.

Anyway, I have decided to sort it out over the winter, there is also an oil leak, I think from the gearbox / driveshaft seal, so that might as well be sorted at the same time.

Where to start ? Is there a complete bush kit? or do they have to be bought separately ? Certainly there's a lot of them. Can the hub assembly be removed complete with the driveshaft ?

Just some preliminary thoughts

Depends how old the bushes are as to whether they need full replacement.

Supposedly there was red grease between the two parts of the bush (top hat design)

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1696&hilit=Grease+bush

See page 2 re grease. I'm not sure how practical it is to open up and re grease them when they're worn or old.

Thanks Darren, that's really interesting. The car seems to handle ok. Its just really annoying, as there are quite a few speed bumps in our town, & its seriously uncool .. I might start with the A/R bar bushes as they seem easy to do & see what happens.

Maybe its time for a coil over kit too, that will take the shock absorber bushes out of the equation.

Trial & error

Since the day I picked mine up unless I'm driving on anything other than glass smooth roads the back of the car knocks like it's full of illegal immigrants.
No play in anything, nothing loose, have never yet managed to figure out where the hell the knock is coming from apart from a loose fitting on the outlet for the engine bay fans which helped slightly

Available on-line from many places.

Interesting reading too
http://www.redrubbergrease.com/

Bushes and coilovers in stock.local price for local people
Bushes can be regreased dependant on condition...or moreover don't have bolts rusted solid

Thanks all.

Lee ill give you a ring in the next few days

I suppose this doesnt really help but,.... I've had Spax coil overs on my GTA for a few years now and since then mine has always squeaked and creak'd. I assumed it was because everything was new and it may settle down over time.

It has since reduced but not gone entirely.

That's really interesting.
I took my car out today & as always, it creaked & squeaked to start with. However after a few miles it settled down & I didn't notice it as much. Maybe it just needs to be used more ?

Who knows

Hi....the rear suspension on my GTA Turbo has exactly the same symptoms, quiet on the open road but squelches and rattles (near side!) when going over speed humps.

I've replaced all the shocks so they are not the culprit. I tried to overhaul the rear suspension in situ....I was able to remove, clean up and regrease some bolts / bushes but some of the bushes had corroded onto the long bolts meaning a good clean up was not possible......I put it all back together with lots of lube and grease but I knew it wasn't really a proper fix and sure enough they squelch!

I think dropping the rear subframe to get clear access is the only option to do a proper refurb....and the suspension bushes are nearly £40 each and there are 12 of them....gulp.