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Is it such a big deal. I need to replace mine and its prety shot.

I know you've got to lower the subframe to get it out, but is there anything that would cause a problem if I just follow the haynes and take my time.

cheers

No, as long as you understand that there is nothing to allow you to accurately fit the crossmember back in the same position. So your camber + side to side camber variation and the car's action line wrt the rear wheels and the front wheels will be "out"! Getting this sorted out will only be about £50 less if you change the ARB than if the garage change it - and have you checked that you have bought the correct bushes and pipe clamps if they need to be chnaged due to the later variant of ARB being fitted. I bought all the bits, raised the car then thought WTF - phone the dealer and got them to fit my parts that I had bought from their parts department. This is an unnecessarily nasty job due to the fact that it was a Skoda design and needs dealer type indexing dowells and even after that a four wheel realignment.

I see from your posting on another thread that you plan to change the TCA rear bushes - if you take off the consoles you end up compounding the alignment errors all of these jobs need to be done at the same time so that only one realignmnet is required., Take extreme care when handling these aluminium consoles as they are too easy to crack!

Need a new arb so no probs in getting the right bits. I've undone it all and am now just weighing whether to get a fabia vrs 21mm arb instead before I drop the frame. I've marked everything so it can be fitted back in exactly the same place.

I'm not going to do the consoles just yet. Too be honest the bushes in those don't look to bad so will leave that job for a while.

Oh theres a really good garage by us that does 4 wheel laser tracking for £20.

Is it worth fitting powerflex arb bushes.

smithysmoo wrote:Is it worth fitting powerflex arb bushes.

I don't know - but if you did it would be a "fit and forget job" I suppose - ie no more thinking about needing to change them in the future.

Well have got the new bar with the metal stops built in and have ordered up some powerflex bushes. Don't want to be doing this again.

Think I'll feel the difference as my other arb stops had dissappeared and the bar was moving freely. VW tried to sell me new clamps but can't see that the old ones won't be ok they look alright. In fairness the bushes looked alright it was the fact they weren't doing anything that was the problem as the stops had gone.

Other bushes don't look to bad, but will be on to the voided bushes and the front bush on the track control arm at some point in the future. Got to sort these problems for good an make it nice and tight.

I don't know if you are correct in not changing the clamps. When I went to chnage my ARB from the plastic end type to the metal end stop type, I oly bought the ARB and suitable bushes - the parts guy did not try to sell me the clamps. A tech on the Briskoda site reckoned from his experience that Skoda sold this lot as a "package" - ie new type ARB + bushes for same + clamps. You might be okay as common sense would lead us to think that VAG made all the ARB bushes with the same outer dimension - so the same clamps would be used across the range. Incidentaly, I believe the clamps are "handed" - bear that in mind if you have trouble refitting them. Also, in case you have trouble ordering the correct Powerflex bushes, remember that with the change from plastic to metal stops, the point in the ARB where the bush locates, is now reduced in diameter (it now fits over the metal ARB bar not over the plastic stop sleeve on top of the metal ARB bar) - so that means that Powerflex should indicate that bush kit XXX is for use with say for instance "old style ARB 18mm" or "new style ARB 20mm" (might only be 1mm difference between "new" and "old" styles). All a bit confusing really until you see the VAG parts listing! Hope I've warned/helped and not confused you! Changing the ARB size by itself might not be a good idea - have you checked what the Ibiza and Fabia forums say about this - they have covered it I think in the past so there is good advise available there.

Yep well worked out which side the clamps g back with the marks that were left so no probs there.

The arb size was 20mm. Powerflex noted three different size the biggest being 19mm I phoned them and they said this was the right one. Apparently it was a big 19mm ha ha.

Still waiting for them to arrive and then I'll check the clamps fit ok otherwise be new clamps although I cant see why they shouldnt work unless they've changed them

The clamps needing replaced "thing" could be only relating to early Fabias as a lot of bits were changed during the early prePolo/Ibiza days. If I remember correctly, the ARB sizes across the VAG small cars range are 18, 19, 21 - so I'm sorry if I mentioned "20mm" - you have probably measured your 19mm + the thickness of paint.