on Friday a local 4x4 specialist fitted new rear lower wishbones resulting in the car feeling much tighter at the rear and curing several of those funny rattly, thumpy type nosies.

it also cured a problem which I've had for years or about 15-20k miles: when the car was on over-run and then very light throttle applied (just enough to raise the rpm and take up drive train slop), there was a feeling of a large heavy pendulum type load swinging around and gradually reducing, the whole event lasting perhaps 3/4 second.

there was also a lot of drive train slop which i had though might be diff mounts or something similar. both of these problems are now cured.

when the new and old wishbones were next to each other, the old rear bushes felt ok but the forward ones were obviously soft and it was possible to twist them just with my fingers.

the cost of the new wishbones was £70 each delivered and fitting was £80 per side vat inc which i thought was pretty good.

there is still a heavy thud from rear left from potholes but both me and 4x4 guy are confident that the subframe bushes will cure that as the forward left side can be seen to be ripped when looking from underneath the car. cost of that will be £40 each to fit (£160 total) which looks good after I've read the trauma that folk on hear have sufferred doing this.

Check the 'Rose Joint' bushes in the 'hub Knuckles' they are likely to be "SHOT", (dismount the knuckle assembly and 'waggle' the bushes by hand.

My L322 is still in the air 5 weeks after we started to 'play' with the rear suspension; and the parts boxes under it are growing!

We are replacing pretty much everything both sides, inc brakes/pipes/cables etc.

Rusty Nuts = A Whole New Ball Game

Best Rich

the hub bushes (top and bottom) were replaced recently along with drop links and tie bars.

if i was overhauling another fatty I'd do everything at the same time as you seem to be doing. i.e. drop the subframe and replace every bush, gaiter, joint etc.

when you half do it like i did previously it reduces some noises and clunks but just annoys you because others are still there

The upper wishbones and EPB cables are a bit of a pig.

Clearly the designer thought that "sawing" the car in half was an acceptable service process!

are you not removing the rear subframe - i think this would make accessibility much better

That would imply that we had a plan.