Petrol is nearly $9/gallon here, it makes fuel consumption quite important to most people ! You need to really love your car to put up with something that does <20mpg.

And it's a Passat, i.e. a good sensible German car. Peugeot ? <spit> ;)

:doh: Sorry; gotta work on my reading comprehension. :doh:

Yeah, we like to complain when our fuel gets close to $4 a gallon (like now) but I remember what it cost to fill tanks when my wife & I visited the mainland last year. Ouch. It could be a lot worse here (and will be if some politicians are given too much rein. :p: )

Figured I'd toss this in here for anyone that's looking. Thanks to some of our hand dandy sources I can now bring them in. HERE is a link to the Lemforder Rear Lower Control Arm Bushing.

Sweet! :thumbup: :yourock:

Great stuff James thanks for sourcing those! Much better alternative to buying $300 apiece swing arms!

It took me 2 years to get to this project.It's quite a pain I should say.
One of the bolts had to be cut otherwise the arm was stuck with the bolt spinning inside and not willing to get out.If it was fused to the aluminum core of the bushing.
Now,I am wondering if somebody else has completed the same process recently.
Did anybody run into an eccentric blot side stoppers missing and making an alignment nearly impossible to perform?

Completed bushing replacement.
Pictures are coming a bit later tonight.

I had both swing arms removed and brought to the garage,so they removed the old bushings.I had to be pushy because guy was skeptical about me being able to press the new ones in.He didn't even want to do it,so I had no choice.
I cleaned the surface of all the corroded aluminum and dirt,polished with some sand paper,it didn't need to be a fine one,just a 100 grid,I think.

After I started compressing the first bushing.You notice that it has that cut off portion.
I had some left over hose clamps(jubilee clamps) but they were too short,so I looped 2 into one and started compressing.I had a couple of clamps fail,because they weren't made of stainless steel,too soft,so the holder near the bolt broke.
I needed 3 clamps: one 1 1/2" away from the edge which gets pressed into the swing arm.The second one right in the middle bolt facing opposite direction from the first one. The third one close,for the rear bushing is a touch sticking out of the edge of the bushing,that makes a good anti-slip support for a socket,and for the rear bushing right at the edge,because a huge Home Depot washer goes on top of it and then the socket,otherwise it slips like hell.
Tips. I found out that using two smaller/shorter clamps looped works the best.It compresses that gap like crazy,while if the single clamp is used,there's way more resistance.Before you start placing the bushing into the swing arm hole,notch it with a metal file,that makes a huge difference.Home Depot washer 32xx(I am gonna check the item number in the morning) fits just perfectly for the front bushing and a 36mm socket has the perfect diameter for both rear and front.That washer isn't needed for the rear one at all.See the pictures.I used a gray anti–seize and hammered each bushing in let's say in 2 or 3 minutes excluding the time for undoing the clamps one by one as I was progressing.

Never mind the mess on my bench.
Also the last picture shows an anti–seize dripping from the bottom and not the chipped rim of the swing arm hole.

Just curious, if you have coil springs, what was the procedure to remove the springs?

Thanks!

Joaquin.

You would definitely need to compress you coil springs,otherwise it's nearly impossible to remove the bolts,getting them back into holes would be even worse.