Car suspension wears out on every vehicle, because rubber perishes, joints develop play, and the geometry that was set when the vehicle was new slowly stops holding. Most of the time it happens gradually enough that nobody notices until the car fails a roadworthy or starts eating tyres.
This range covers the car suspension parts that fix it, alo... Read more
Car suspension wears out on every vehicle, because rubber perishes, joints develop play, and the geometry that was set when the vehicle was new slowly stops holding. Most of the time it happens gradually enough that nobody notices until the car fails a roadworthy or starts eating tyres.
This range covers the car suspension parts that fix it, along with the ones that leave your HOLDEN TRAILBLAZER better than it was before the repair. Whether you are working on a passenger car, a 4WD or something older, the approach is the same.
What Actually Wears Out on Your HOLDEN TRAILBLAZER Suspension
Car suspension parts fail in a predictable order, and knowing that order saves money.
Rubber bushings go first on almost every vehicle. They are chosen at the factory for quietness rather than control, so they deflect under load even when new, then harden, crack and separate from their sleeves with age, heat cycling and oil exposure. Once that happens the arm they locate can move at its mounts, and your alignment starts changing every time you brake or corner.
Ball joints and pivot points are usually next, because once the boot splits, water and grit get into the socket, the grease washes out, and play develops in a joint that was sealed and doing fine a year earlier.
Dampers fade slowly rather than failing outright, so most people adapt to a car that takes longer to settle without registering that anything changed.
The arms, bars and springs themselves usually outlast everything holding them, which is why a suspension repair is more often about replacing the wear items than replacing the major components.
The HOLDEN TRAILBLAZER Suspension Symptoms That Bring People Here
Clunking, knocking or squeaking from the suspension over bumps and driveways
Steering that feels vague or wanders, needing constant correction
More vehicle sway through corners, with the body taking longer to settle
Uneven tyre wear, usually concentrated on one edge
An alignment that will not hold specification between services
The vehicle pulling to one side under braking
Everything feeling worse under load, while towing, or on rough roads
Visible cracking, splitting or missing bushing material at a mounting point
A failed roadworthy or inspection report listing suspension play
Most of those trace back to bushings rather than to anything expensive. That is the useful part, because bushings are among the cheapest components on the vehicle and replacing them restores most of what has been lost.
Repair, or Repair and Improve Your HOLDEN TRAILBLAZER
Every worn bushing puts a decision in front of you, because you can put the vehicle back to standard, or you can put it back with something that lasts longer and holds the geometry better.
Factory rubber is a known quantity, since it is quiet, it is what the vehicle was designed around, and it will wear out again on roughly the same timeline it did the first time.
Polyurethane holds its shape under load where rubber gives way, so the alignment stays where the workshop set it rather than drifting while you drive. It resists the oil, grease and weathering that finish rubber off, which matters on a vehicle that works or sits outside. And because it deflects less, the vehicle holds its line under braking and cornering with more traction from the same tyres.
Neither choice is wrong, and the point is simply that when the arm is already off the vehicle and the labour has already been paid for, the difference between the two options is the price of the parts and nothing else. That is what turns a straight repair into a suspension upgrade without adding a second job to the bill.
What the HOLDEN TRAILBLAZER Range Covers
Polyurethane suspension bushes across every position on the vehicle, including control arm, sway bar, leaf spring, trailing arm, radius arm and panhard rod positions, available as single kits, grouped front and rear kits and complete vehicle kits.
Front suspension parts and rear positions alike, including control arms, camber and toe arms, radius arms and trailing arms, in standard replacement and adjustable forms for vehicles whose ride height has changed.
Sway bars, along with the links, brackets, mounts and service kits that let them work properly.
Springs and leaf spring components including bushes, greasable shackles, pins and U-bolts, which cover most of the 4WD suspension parts a leaf sprung ute or light commercial needs.
Alignment correction hardware for vehicles that have run out of factory adjustment, whether through age, a lift or a lowering kit. On a 4x4 suspension parts list this is often the piece people forget until the alignment will not come back.
Shock absorbers and the mounting hardware that goes with them.
Working Out What Your HOLDEN TRAILBLAZER Needs
The cheapest approach is to diagnose before ordering rather than replacing parts until the noise stops.
Get the vehicle safely supported and work through the joints with a pry bar, looking for movement at the bushing or joint rather than flex in the component itself. Visible cracking, material squeezed out past a housing, or a component sitting off centre in its mount all tell you the same thing.
Check the mounting eyes while you are there. A bore that has worn oval will not hold a new bushing properly, and that component needs replacing rather than rebushing. Finding that out before you press a bushing in saves doing the job twice.
If the vehicle has hit something hard and the alignment has never been right since, measure the arms against each other before spending anything on wear parts. A bent arm cannot be corrected with new bushings, and a few millimetres of deflection is invisible while completely changing where the wheel sits.
What Your HOLDEN TRAILBLAZER Repair Costs and Where the Money Goes
Suspension replacement cost is dominated by labour rather than parts, and understanding that changes how you approach the job.
Almost every bushing position requires the arm or component off the vehicle and the old bushing pressed out, and that work takes the same time whether you replace one bushing or every bushing on that corner. Pay for the teardown, the press work and a wheel alignment today for a single position, then pay for all three again next year for the one beside it, and the labour has cost far more than the parts ever did.
Doing a whole corner, or a whole end of your HOLDEN TRAILBLAZER, in one visit is where the saving comes from. It is also why fitting bushings during any other suspension work costs very little extra, since the teardown is already paid for.
When comparing quotes, the numbers that move the total are how many positions are being done, whether components have to come off the vehicle, and whether the alignment is included.
Fitting, Torque at Ride Height and the Alignment on Your HOLDEN TRAILBLAZER
A few things apply to almost everything in this range.
Most bushing positions need a press, and a correct diameter press tool is what keeps the mounting eye intact. Improvising with sockets or old bearing shells is how components get ruined, and they cost considerably more than the tool would have.
Fit the crush tubes and sleeves supplied, because the tube carries clamping load from the bolt and a bushing fitted without one gets crushed the moment the fastener is torqued.
Grease polyurethane on assembly with a lubricant made for the material. Silicone and PTFE based greases are correct, while ordinary lithium and petroleum based greases can degrade it over time.
Torque with the vehicle on its wheels at ride height rather than hanging on a hoist. Whatever position a bushing is clamped in becomes its neutral position, so one tightened at full droop spends its life twisted and binds from the first kilometre. More new parts are ruined by this than by anything else.
Do both sides of the vehicle, because a fresh component working against a worn one on the other side leaves the vehicle behaving differently left to right, which is worse than having both of them tired.
Get a wheel alignment after anything that changes ride height, removes play from an arm, or alters a mounting point, which covers most of what is on this page.
Select your HOLDEN TRAILBLAZER to see the suspension components available for it, whether you are repairing worn parts on a passenger car, sorting out a 4WD that works for a living, or rebuilding something older. Every Nolathane component is backed by our warranty, a fitment guarantee and 60 day returns.
SKU: 45813Benefit Note: Worn front control arm bushings have a huge influence on vehicle stability, steering precision and braking efficiency. Replace worn bushings to 'as new' condition utilising Nolathane's superior formulation bushings with core characteristics ensuring superior elasticity, memory and outright durability resulting in positive steering precision and feedback.
SKU: 44298Benefit Note: Suffering uneven tyre wear? Sounds like poor alignment. Nolathane OEM replacement camber bolts are designed to replace the old worn/rusted factory lower inner control arm camber bolts, perfect for wheel alignment correction and enhancing camber for road applications.
SKU: 459182Benefit Note: A short fall of the modern day IFS 4wd is the adjustment range provided for successful wheel alignments, this becomes even more of an issue when the vehicle is lifted by more than 1 inch. Not only does the vehicle run into camber and caster issues, but ball joint articulation and clearance issues to the coil over strut at ride and droop height. The new Nolathane offset UCA (Upper Control Arm) is an all-in-one solution for any vehicle that has been lifted between 30mm and 70mm. Providing an increase between +2.5 and +3.5 degrees of caster and up to 1.5 degrees of negative camber increase (figures quoted are based off an approximate 50mm/ 2 inch) along with greater clearance to the coil over strut and more articulation of the arm by virtue of new maintenance free GIIRO bushing technology.
SKU: 45821Benefit Note: Worn front control arm bushings have a huge influence on vehicle stability, steering precision and braking efficiency. Replace worn bushings to 'as new' condition utilising Nolathane's superior formulation bushings with core characteristics ensuring superior elasticity, memory and outright durability resulting in positive steering precision and feedback.
SKU: 49282Benefit Note: This Nolathane differential drop kit when fitted to lifted vehicles corrects CV shaft angles and eliminates the potential issue of popping or breaking a driveshaft. In turn, wear on the CV boots will be reduced and the kit provides provision for fitting of the original protection bash plates.
SKU: 43134Benefit Note: Shock absorber advances and demands for improved travel and load bearing has placed extra importance and stress on shock absorber bushings. Nolathane shock bushings enhance the performance of new and used shock absorbers.
SKU: 44044Benefit Note: Whether its to compensate loading one side of a vehicle common to 4x4 or looking to obtain that preferred ride height setting. Nolathane spacers are an economical solution.
SKU: 44029Benefit Note: Hard working or lifted commercial or 4x4 vehicles tend to suffer from premature wear of the upper strut mount/ shock absorber bushings. Designed to work with the original OEM strut top, each Nolathane kit contains both upper strut mount pads and shock absorber pin bushings to restore the strut mount to as new condition.
Enhances strut assembly stability and ride quality; ideal for reducing noise, vibration and harshness. Includes: Upper strut mount pads and shock absorber pin bushings.
SKU: 44040Benefit Note: Hard working or lifted commercial or 4x4 vehicles tend to suffer from premature wear of the upper strut mount/ shock absorber bushings. Designed to work with the original OEM strut top, each Nolathane kit contains both upper strut mount pads and shock absorber pin bushings to restore the strut mount to as new condition.
Enhances strut assembly stability and ride quality; ideal for reducing noise, vibration and harshness. Includes: Upper strut mount pads and shock absorber pin bushings.
SKU: 42790Benefit Note: Do you have every sway bar link on the shelf? Well you don't need too, Nolathane have developed a clever cut to length universal sway bar link that has a 10mm ball stud has a working range of 80-320mm c/c. 1 part number covers hundreds of applications.
SKU: 42865Benefit Note: Not many are aware that OEM and more importantly sway bar effectiveness can be hindered by worn or inadequate sway bar links. Nolathane adjustable sway bar links are engineered to be up to the task with top spec, light weight componentry combined with a window of adjustability, eliminating sway bar preload on installation but most importantly ensuring the maximum output of the sway bar improving vehicle handling.
SKU: 42891Benefit Note: Not many are aware that OEM and more importantly sway bar effectiveness can be hindered by worn or inadequate sway bar links. Nolathane adjustable sway bar links are engineered to be up to the task with top spec, light weight componentry combined with a window of adjustability, eliminating sway bar preload on installation but most importantly ensuring the maximum output of the sway bar improving vehicle handling.
SKU: 421003Benefit Note: Designed to fit a 29mm sway bar. Nolathane's sway bar mount bushings not only boasts the latest in bushing material technology but feature a knurled ID specifically designed to retain grease. Backed up by a Limited Lifetime Warranty. Nolathane bushings are made from the highest quality elastomers and designed to synchronize your suspension system for optimal safety, handling, performance, ride quality, longevity and reduced maintenance. They are the most positive link between your vehicles body, springs, struts, arms, bars and shocks.
SKU: 42678Benefit Note: Designed to fit a 28mm sway bar. Nolathane's sway bar mount bushings not only boasts the latest in bushing material technology but feature a knurled ID specifically designed to retain grease. Backed up by a Limited Lifetime Warranty. Nolathane bushings are made from the highest quality elastomers and designed to synchronize your suspension system for optimal safety, handling, performance, ride quality, longevity and reduced maintenance. They are the most positive link between your vehicles body, springs, struts, arms, bars and shocks.
SKU: 43002Benefit Note: Shock absorber advances and demands for improved travel and load bearing has placed extra importance and stress on shock absorber bushings. Nolathane shock bushings enhance the performance of new and used shock absorbers.