Dog bone / pendulum mount

[STP]

Morning all, I think I'm in the market for a dog bone replacement and wondered if anyone can advise. There seems to be two kinds, the one in two pieces where the big end slides into the subframe and the bolt goes through the end, and the 4 piece one where two bushes are pressed into the subframe, and the narrow alloy end slides in between them then bolts up.

Anyone know which one for the 2015 MK3 with a 1.6 CR engine in it?

Cheers

[Bahnstormer]

Are you talking about the polyurethane type?

If so, my advice is: Don't.

I had one in mine for a short while, it was bloody awful. After a 20 minute drive, I felt like I'd been operating a jackhammer all day.

[Handyandy]

It Is the latter of the 2 for the 1.6tdi caye engine I replaced mine and it is a bugger of a job to do even with subframe removed as new bushes seems wider than the hole I'd go for the rubber replacement ones rather than polyurethane ones to allow for movement as previous post said it stiffens up the engine to much and all vibration will travel to the cab I'd also stay away from the plastic insert that are available as an aftermarket mod as that too will stiffen the bush to much

[STP]

Thanks guys, yeah I think mine is worn as there's a bit of backlash when taking up the drive, especially in second when pootling at 15 around my street and going off and then on the throttle again I get a clack, once moving it's a bit less noisy, but noticeable. Feels like a heavy weight moving so I guess it's not the wishbone or something like that, though it does seem to come more from the left side...jury still out till it gets a bit lighter at nights so I can check after work.

I was going for the standard bush and not the poly thing, comfort is first in my book. I hate vibration, drives me nuts. I couldn't stand it if the poly is bad for that.

It's a rotten design though unlike the golf 5 where it just slides in.

Might just throw this job at my local garage if it turns out to be the dog bone bushes. I did read someone on here cut the poly insert in half and pushed it in at the rear of the big bush (fnar fnar) and it cut the slop out without making much difference to the vibration so that could be an option to get me by until the weather improves.

[Handyandy]

I have seen on YouTube where they've cut a couple of mm out of the plastic surround to make the bush easier to fit but personally I didn't like that idea

[STP]

No I'd not want to cut a new bush either, this was someone on here who bought the red or yellow poly insert (the one which pushes into the OEM bush while in place - looks a bit like a wee table with legs and fills the bush voids) and it was still too stiff so they cut that in half and only inserted half into the rear most half of the original bushing. That took out the slack without being too hard.

Alternative idea, mix up some shore A60 hardness rubber compound (2 pack chemical rubber) and pour it into the old bush from above the subframe, having taped the bottom side up, and let it fill the voids and stiffen up the old bush by bonding to the cracked OEM rubber, then when set (under an hour) take the tape off and it could be like new for quite a while until a proper repair could be done. Just a possibility. This stuff is casting rubber compound and is on eBay for under £15 and is the same hardness as the original bushing rubbers.

I'd rather do a proper replacement but on the driveway it looks pretty difficult to do with the 4 piece dog bone so it's either a garage or another method to take the slack out for now.

Probably end up at the garage.

The other method I saw was to cut out the old rear bush, then clean the hole up and push both bushes up from below using the weight of the van to resist a screw jack and timber, putting both in at the same time. Maybe a big G clamp could be used with two pieces of square timber to push them into place from below.

One above and one under both bushes.

[Be4ny13]

Jumping in to add my two cents on the matter of replacing the dog bone bush / subframe bush having just fitted one to an aluminium subframe that I'll be fitting to my caddy soon. Don't bother trying to find a cheat or work around without the proper tool. I used a few methods to try and fit the bush but as previously mentioned it is bigger than the hole in the subframe and I ended up breaking both halves of the bush. Bought the cheapest tool on ebay (around £80) and had a new bush fitted in 20 minutes. I've seen a few tools, all upwards of £300, that fit the bush without removing the subframe but at that point it's cheaper to get the bush fitted by a garage who already has the tool.
Here's a link to the tool I used but it will require you to remove the subframe to fit

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256683770066

[STP]

Nice one, thanks for that.

[Handyandy]

I could have done with that tool I did it the hard way trying to make a press with threaded bar and metal plate it still took a while to get it in and did break a bush too