Rear Axle Beam Bushings Installation

eddie_1

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Location
Hannover, Germany formerly Toronto & NY
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 TDI tuned to 170HP, A6 Wagon 2008 TDI 2.7L tuned to 340HP
Did this job with Jack stands and floor jack holding up the beam.
On each side:
- Unhook 2 clips and 1 bracket holding the hand brake cable. Bracket needs to be pried down.
- Unhook brake sensor cable in 2 locations
- Remove 2 flat retainer clips holding brake lines at steel line to hose interfaces. Just needs to be pulled out flat (flush to surface).
Then:
- Remove the 2 bolts holding bushings and lower axle just enough to gain access to bushings. (On the passenger side I could not remove the bolt initially as the fuel tank was in the way. I needed to release 4 bolts holding the bushing bracket to the body)
- The fun part: In my case 2003 I was lucky enough to have the non-metal housing bushings. I used a couple of different chisels and punches. On the passenger side I drove the chisels pictured below on the outer edge; took maybe only 10 minutes, but on the driver side the bushing came out with just one sequence of hits with one chisel, shown to the right of the hammer in image below encircled in red.
- For installation I used the cheap press available on the internet for the mk4. The Bushing did not completely bottom out, because it was a bit assymetrical, but I left it like that for fear of breaking the plastic lip by further compression.
- Using a good amount of grease to get started helps.
- On installation used floor jack to reposition things.
- Torque specs: Bushing bracket to body 75NM. Bushing bolt 80NM (under load).

All in all not a too bad job if you have the plastic housing bushings.

















 
Last edited:

indysoto

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2004
Location
Eugene, OR
Good write up, good to know about the 2003, been a while since I did my rear axles, noticing that looks alot like the 2014(and probably other years) front control arm bottom rear.
 

eddie_1

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Location
Hannover, Germany formerly Toronto & NY
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 TDI tuned to 170HP, A6 Wagon 2008 TDI 2.7L tuned to 340HP
Thanks for the write-up. Can you post a link to the bushing removal tool you used?
This is the tool available from IDparts for US$50. It might be available cheaper too since it is a chinese job. I got it in Germany for 17€. However it is only for pushing the new bushing in.
https://www.idparts.com/rear-axle-bushing-installation-tool-a4-p-3051.html

The old one has to be knocked out else there was one tool I saw for it on German ebay but it was big bucks like 180€. Search for 'Werkzeug VW Bora Golf 4 Gummilager' if following link is broken:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Silentlager...437120&hash=item2c89ed8e50:g:2C8AAOSwPe1T818b
 

Curious Chris

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 11, 2001
Location
Pineview GA
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 RIP Rockford IL
My 2002 had the rubber with metal reinforcement and it took 2 of us about 6 hours to get it out. Going back in was easy,

Cut the bolt head and nut off with cut off tool, drilled out most of the bushing, sawzall to cut notch in metal, hammer and chisel to bend the housing. I would probably drop the axel next time.
 

eddie_1

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Location
Hannover, Germany formerly Toronto & NY
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 TDI tuned to 170HP, A6 Wagon 2008 TDI 2.7L tuned to 340HP
My 2002 had the rubber with metal reinforcement and it took 2 of us about 6 hours to get it out. Going back in was easy,

Cut the bolt head and nut off with cut off tool, drilled out most of the bushing, sawzall to cut notch in metal, hammer and chisel to bend the housing. I would probably drop the axel next time.
Yikes. I did see that in several posts/links and was so glad i didn't have the older style ones. I take it you ended up putting the new style plastic ones in after?
 

eddie_1

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Location
Hannover, Germany formerly Toronto & NY
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 TDI tuned to 170HP, A6 Wagon 2008 TDI 2.7L tuned to 340HP

Curious Chris

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 11, 2001
Location
Pineview GA
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 RIP Rockford IL

UhOh

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 24, 2014
Location
PNW
TDI
2000 & 2003 Golf GLS (2005 Mercedes E320 CDI)
Yes and you see a lot of people take the rear axle out and that is what I will do next time.
Chris, next time, with the newer style, it won't be much work to remove the bushings:D

Although it's a pain to remove the bushings I'm not all that convinced that, overall, dropping the axle makes the job any easier. If one has help muscling the axle around then perhaps dropping will turn out easier: when I did the bushings on my car I was physically impaired, so extra muscling wasn't an option. Daughter's wagon is a 2003, so plastic sleeves on the original bushings (MUCH easier)- only an issue of laying on the floor and drilling and drilling out the cores. Having the axle out would require something to hold it while you're drilling and hammering.
 

eddie_1

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Location
Hannover, Germany formerly Toronto & NY
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 TDI tuned to 170HP, A6 Wagon 2008 TDI 2.7L tuned to 340HP
What's the monkey wrench for?
Good observation. Actually, it was kind of not totally related. The bushing press tool has two nuts on it. The stop nut on the back started turning when I was compressing from the front using my larger adjustable spanner. I should have had the back nut tight before starting. In any case, I don't have all these large socket sizes so I ended up using the pipe wrench just to get it snug on the back side.
 
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