Trailing Arm Bush, Mot Fail

[steve-61]

Hi

my 2001 D4D avensis has failed its MOT due to the rear axel front trailing arm bushes having play in them, the garage cant replace them as according to Toyota the parts are no longer available!!! This is an 11 year old car in good condition, i dont want to have to scrap it over a couple of bushes, does anyone have any ideas where i can get replacements, they are also not available as pattern parts. Will bushes from a different car fit?

Best regards, Steve

[lasthope]

i found some here by sticking my car reg in

http://www.mister-auto.co.uk/en/control-arm-trailing-arm-bush/toyota-avensis-liftback-t22-1-8-vvt-i-129ch_v15517_g251.html

[steve-61]

Thanks for that mate i have already tried there with no luck! Does anyone know the size of these bushes? Maybe i could get some intended to fit a different car if i knew the size

[lasthope]

nout on eBay like,,

[Mistermena]

eBay is what I would have said or a breakers yard... Maybe Kingo on here could find you some?

[Druid Boy]

I cant remember the name (which isnt all that helpful) but there are 'partfinder' sites that will advertise your needs to a bunch of breakers who then email you with offers. Um, come to think of it I think one is called Partfinder....

Give it a whirl.

[lasthope]

try here this is all toyota spares good place

http://www.japparts.com/

[timson]

http://www.mister-auto.co.uk/en/control-arm-trailing-arm-bush/toyota-avensis-liftback-t22-1-8-vvt-i-129ch_v15517_g251.html

[steve-61]

Thanks for the advice, i have already tried Mister auto, they have front axle bushes but no rear, i have emailed Japparts & am awaiting a reply, Mr T can get me two new trailing arms but at £107+vat each its a bit ott when i only need two new bushes & the car is not worth that much now, do i really want to spend upwards of £300 just to get it through its MOT? I have already thought of trying breakers yards but the bushes from a breakers could be just as worn as the ones that i am replacing, I am thinking of removing the old bushes & trying to measure them so that i can maybe match them up with bushes from a different make of car, what a pain in the ***** this is turning into! i am tempted to scrap the car & buy something that you can get parts for, grr

[Parts-King]

You cannot and never have been able to buy trailing arm bushes for most Toyota cars, it has always been the case you have to buy new arms, sorry

What about any of the companies that make bushes, such as polybush? They might be able to fit some into your arms???

Kingo

[steve-61]

Thanks Kingo, thats just what i wanted to hear lol, i have tried Polybush but no reply yet, someone somewhere must of had this problem before, there must be a way around it without spending £100s. I have even tried some of the custom bush manufactures for classic cars but without the size etc no joy, my garage have asked the nice chap at our local mr T's about bush size but he has no info on them, which is not surprising if they are not available, the only thing i have seen on the net is a post from someone saying that Renault Cleo bushes will fit, but i dont know how right this is or which Cleo bushes they are on about as it was an old post & never followed up but it is the only bit of info i have seen, if i do manage to sort this i will post it on here so that anyone else with the same problem will have an answer

[steve-61]

Just a quick update as promised. nothing much to report I ended up getting two 2nd hand trailing arms wth good bushes from the breakers yard, car has passed its MOT now but the tester says that if i keep it it will need some welding next year, it has done 180k so i might get rid, the only problem is it still runs like new & i really like the car, why do i get so attached? lol

[Alan Morgan]

Tester can't say that!!!!! Unless he has a crystal ball he won't know what it will need next year. I hate garages that start worrying car owners and panicing them into spending ££££'s or scrapping their cars needlessly! A friend of mine was told that she needed brake pads all round within the month at her last M.O.T. I checked them last week, almost a year later, and they were still good about 5mm of pad left on them!!!!!!! Garages are getting greedy and looking to hard for profit in my opinion!!!!!!!

Until I retired a few years ago I was an M.O.T. tester and I spend a lot of free time helping VERY upset friends that have been ripped off by garages scaring people into spending money they don't need to by "scaring" them telling them they have "urgent" or "dangerous" faults on their cars. My advice is if a car has passed it's test then it's passed it's test! If you are concerned over ANY advisory items get them checked out by a trusted independant proffessional! ;)

[Druid Boy]

Keep the car!! Keep the car!! Keep the car!! Welding isn't so difficult to do and there are any number of people who can do it for you, just ask around. The pub is a good place to start.

[Alan Morgan]

If you can travel to Durham I'll weld it up for you!