Ford Mondeo - rear trailing arms

hoppyda

My 2013 Mondeo diesel has just past its latest MOT Test. One advisory is giving me cause for concern. It reads 'Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement both rear trailing arms (5.3.4 (a) (i))'.
This was repaired under warranty at the car's first MOT in 2016 when it had covered less than 35,000 miles. It has now covered just over 49,000 miles and in my view the suspension bushes should not wear out in such a short space of time or in less than 15,000 miles.
My local Ford Dealer has said it is a 'wear and tear' item and should expect to replace it. I accept that suspension bushes are such items, but if they wear out so quickly, I would expect replacement to be a service item.
Has anyone else experienced such rapid wear of these suspension bushes? I've owned many cars over the years (many Fords) and have never had to replace suspension bushes. Is this a known issue or have I just been unlucky?

facade

It is such a common wear item that the tool to replace them in situ is only £100, due to the volume sold. Replacement bushes are around £25 each, if you are handy with the spanners you can buy the tool and a few pairs of bushes to keep it going for a few years for less than having them done once at a garage.


The bushes rust and the rubber de-laminates if they get wet, probably you drove it last Winter in the snow and salt?

AdrianC

The arm was replaced by a Ford dealer last time?

I'd not be at all surprised that a cheap off-brand pattern arm wore the bushes quickly, or if the fixings were torqued without weight on the wheels (so the bush is under stress all the time), but a dealer should be using OEM parts and doing the job properly.


The first arm failing within 35k, though, suggests there may be other contributory factors. Is the car often used heavily loaded, or on unusually poor roads?

hoppyda

It's usually just myself and one or two passengers. Rarely more than that. The roads here are reasonably OK and I don't venture 'off-road', that's why I'm so surprised at how quickly the bushes have worn.
The repair was carried out by my local Ford Dealer under warranty, so I would have expected genuine parts to be used. Suggests to me that the parts were substandard or not fitted properly.

hoppyda

Plenty of snow and ice here last winter, but I'd still expect the bushes to last a bit longer. Haven't had the spanners out for a while, but might dust them down if I get no joy from Ford.

facade

The usual lifespan according to the interweb is anything from 30,000 miles up, and yours haven't gone yet at 15,000, there might be another year left in them.

Joe_Horner

Bear in mind that an advisory for bushes is very subjective because they're designed to have some "give" and you can only ever see a small part of the very outer layer of the rubber, which will often show early cracking as it's exposed to all sorts of rubber-unfriendly stuff.

I've had bushes advised for 3 or 4 years in the past with no further deterioration.

hoppyda

facade wrote: »

The usual lifespan according to the interweb is anything from 30,000 miles up, and yours haven't gone yet at 15,000, there might be another year left in them.

I was advised that they will need done for the next MOT Test which will mean they will have lasted around 23,000 miles - still not very good.

owen_money

Buy [STRIKE]Ford[/STRIKE] cheap, buy twice

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

facade

hoppyda wrote: »

I was advised that they will need done for the next MOT Test which will mean they will have lasted around 23,000 miles - still not very good.

You could of course do 60,000 before the next MOT, then they will have "lasted" 75,000 miles.


You might find you get another advisory next year, and the year after as Joe suggests anyway.



The design is poor, the materials used are poor, they just don't last.


In The Olden Days those joints would have been made to bolt on & off, and be made using proper carcinogenic environmental disaster causing materials that actually lasted a few years.


Now they are made of cheap rubbish, and really designed to change the whole arm (it took a few years before the bushes were available on their own, and that was because the East European manufacturers started making them so Ford had to release them).


I suppose it doesn't help that the roads are far more potholed and speed bumpy than in The Olden Days too.

prowla

I've now got an image in my mind of a Mondeo dragging its arms along the floor like an orangutan.