Changed both my rear banana arms (Rear upper radius arms) this week, the outer rose joints were totally shot (61k miles), a bit of a sod of a job to get at the inner bolts, hope I don't have to change them again too soon. Forgot to mention, Fiat conveniently put a hole in the sub frame just in the right place to drop the inner nut into, its a stab in the dark job with a magnetic pick up to get it back out, if I did this job again I would tape the hole up first.

Thanks for the "eyes up" on this.

For me the only problem will be is remebering all this great stuff we post here.

My Croma, 52K miles, is getting more 'bonky' over road imperfections. Only recently passed its annual MOT ( place I use know me well and I ask them to by hyper critical in their testing so I get early warning of stuff they would NOT normally relate back to the custmer. This dates back to my motorsport days in roadgoing cars).

I'm thinking that come the next 10K miles/coming year I'll be looking at replacing some links in the suspension. (Springs already done).

An education request: What are these knackered bits and how much were the replacements?

Also, if they're rubbery, does replacing them reduce the rear road noise. Mine seems to be getting roarier, which I'd decided was due to the tyres wearing down.

I think you will find these knackered bits (bannana arms) / others are just your usual metal (mostly cast) suspension components that link/join to earch other or the chassis via a typical rubber bush with a central metal core.

The noise / wear factors comes from either:

1) the originally soft and complient bush hardens with time. No joint movement/play that would cause an MOT fail but this once sound/bump insulating material has become a hard mechanical and noise transducing component.

2) a bush in late stages of 1 or just a failure where any rubber isolation has failed and excessive play and potential metal to metal contact has developed.

Hopefully the two points will answer you general questions.

Doofer, the parts I replaced are the upper rear suspension radius arms. The inner bushes are of the 'silentbloc' type, i.e a solid rubber bush encased in a steel sleeve with a steel spacer tube bonded into the middle, the outer bush is a self aligning rose joint, a type of ball joint, it is mechanical and is filled with grease, this is the one that wears, when worn they cause an unmistakable loud thumping noise when the rear wheels go over bumpy road surfaces. I would say mine had about 1 - 1.5mm of free play, now I have replaced them there are no more noises. I got the replacements from EBay for £30 a pair. They are not original FIAT / GM parts so only time will tell if they are any better quality than the originals which TBH are crap. I have seen some original non Fiat franchise parts for about £65 a pair on the internet. Hope this helps. I forgot to add, with the car jacked up, no wear could be felt when rocking the top of the wheel laterally, I only discovered it when I removed the top arm outer bolts to replace the rear springs of which both bottom coils had broken off, the wear in those bushes was really evident then.

bobbyblue said:

I forgot to add, with the car jacked up, no wear could be felt when rocking the top of the wheel laterally, I only discovered it when I removed the top arm outer bolts to replace the rear springs of which both bottom coils had broken off, the wear in those bushes was really evident then.

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Thanks for this information. I remember when I was replacing the rear springs that the unload suspension hanging down is under a great deal of self loading/tension.

I'm thinking that to check these bushes you need to jack the car up, remove the wheel and then lower the hub onto another jack or wooden blocks. Hopefully this will remove the tension in the links and allow one to then start testing the join.

Oh yes. Silentbloc? I handheard of this name before it is more commonly know as a Metalastic bush. Silentbloc appears to be a trade name.

s130 said:

Metalastic bush. Silentbloc appears to be a trade name.

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That's the word I was looking for....when you get to my age you have trouble remembering your own name

along with all the bad typing I seem to produce no matter hoooowwww many times I read my post before posting.

Maybe it is time to leave communication to the younger ones.

They can quiz us on our knowledge and experience and post it back for us all. I might even then be able to understand what I wrote!

The easiest way I found to test the top bushes was to jack the car up with a trolley jack under the lower arm. This puts the suspension in its normal position but takes weight off the wheel. Push & pull the top of the wheel to check for play - you'll easily be able to feel it if there's looseness.

The bonus of doing things this way is that you don't even need to remove the wheel.

DoIDon'tI said:

The bonus of doing things this way is that you don't even need to remove the wheel.

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Understand / agree but with the wheel in place you get the leverage but lose the easy and 360 degree visual insoection of the outer joint.

A flat bar bolted to two of the hub wheel mounting bolts/studs should prove ideal.

DoIDon'tI said:

The easiest way I found to test the top bushes was to jack the car up with a trolley jack under the lower arm. This puts the suspension in its normal position but takes weight off the wheel. Push & pull the top of the wheel to check for play - you'll easily be able to feel it if there's looseness.

The bonus of doing things this way is that you don't even need to remove the wheel.

Click to expand...

I used a method I stumbled across on youtube:
With the car parked up you simply put you hands across the top of the tyre, grab hold of the back of the tyre/wheel and gently rock the wheel towards you. You will feel movement (clonking) if there is any. Unfortunately both mine are gone. They have been clonking for a while now and were an advisory on the last MOT, yet when I took it into my local garage they said they were fine!!

Hi Halilson when mine is on the ground no movement or clonking is present but I did sit the wheels on some 2X1 blocks of wood as I wanted to check the clearance between the wheels and the body of the car as the cord is showing on one side and there is plenty but any way when the wheels are on the blocks of wood and you push and pull on the top you can hear a clunking noise and feel play in them on the drivers side i could feel play on the top bush is this the banana arms or radius arms?

It sounds like its the banana arms. They will need changing at some point anyway so might as well start there. A toothless 18mm spanner is a very good investment for the inner nut and don't drop it because it WILL fall into the hollow chassis and it's a bugger to get back out.

Just changed the arms this weekend for the second time in 105k Mls. On the left side the exhaust pipe is in the way but it can be moved over but on the right side the fuel filler pipe is in the way and cannot be moved. Bits of blood on fingers and hands. What fun!