Suspension Parts

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 vehicle inspection or starts eating tyres.

This range covers the car suspension parts that fix it, along with the ones that leave the vehicle 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 a 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 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 vehicle 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

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 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 pick-up 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 You Need

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 a 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 the vehicle, 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

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.

Find Suspension Parts for Your Vehicle

Shop the range by part, from suspension arms and suspension springs to alignment parts, sway bars, sway bar links and bump stops.

Select your vehicle 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.