C5 X7 Rear Anti Roll Bar Bushings

[Steve Walsh]

I would buy the correct size bush

[Stickyfinger]

Personally I would accept a 1-2mm difference, the now removed powder coating will be about 0.5mm thick.

I would clean the surface, de-rust, paint then add a suitable grease compatible with the bush material.

There is very little rotation/flex in a NORMAL cars ARB bush unlike a HydAtv suspension car which is why powder coating roll bars is common on them (and they "getaway with it"). One of the problems C5's have is the amount of suspension travel they have destroys/overloads the coatings (is my guess) & even more so when bonded onto it

[Paul-R]

From a theoretical view the bushes should allow frictionless rotation of the A/R bar as it's designed to transfer unequal suspension movement from one side to the other. Bonding the bush to the bar turns it into an auxiliary spring to assist whichever side is moving. There will be some transfer of movement as the rubber bush gets twisted a bit but not as much as there should be. On competition and racing cars the mounts tend to be hard polyurethane or even machined bronze.

Basically, it's a terrible implementation.

[MattBLancs]

I would buy the correct size bush

Normally yes I agree, but I thought the correct bush (or at least the correct item with the correct inner bore) wasn't available, hence the Heath Robinson suggestions

There's an interesting question about how exactly the anti roll bar itself works - is it bending the two ends of the approximately " C " shaped bar, or is it more torsion of the middle section? Depends on the answer as to whether a rubber bush resisting the twist was assisting the anti roll function or not??

Also, though between high and low there's a big range of suspension movement, in normal operation the "self leveling" part of the hydropneumatic suspension would be helping (to avoid tearing the powder coat to bits!)

Wholeheartedly agree powder coating on anti roll bars isn't a good idea and seems destined to fail!