Hello All - as a brand new member this is my first posting - so here goes, and, 'please be gentle!'
About three months ago I took my 2003 2.2 diesel estate down to my local main Vauxhall dealer, for them to tell me why I had the ABS warning light lit on the dash (at a cost of fifty pounds!). While it was up on their ramp they also carried out a "free, visual health check'.
Having determined for me that the light was on because the rear near side wheel sensor was duff, they also told me (amongst one or two other things) that excessive play in the steering idler arm had been found during the 'visual health check'.
Fair enough! I bought, off the web, a replacement and had it fitted by my local garage (I couldn't separate the ball joint, myself).
The old idler didn't seem to them, nor to my unofficial eye, to have much play at all, let alone 'excessive' play, but they are the main dealers so ...........
Last week I took the car down again to the main dealer, this time for its annual service and MOT. Whilst working on the car they kindly rang me to say that during the 'free, visual health check' of my vehicle, their mechanic had found "excessive play in steering idler arm", and the car was likely to fail the MOT as a result. They asked if I'd like to order one (no stock) and postpone the MOT.
"But you told me the same thing a couple months back, and the idler was replaced then!", I said, and then I cycled down there to have a look just what the mechanic was on about.
He grabbed hold of the long centre tie rod, at the ball joint junction with the idler arm and yanked it around, pointing out that, sure enough, the bush forming the pivoting end of the idler arm was moving slightly where it sits, retained by a large nut and washer, on the short locating shaft that's bolted to the bodywork.
Well, on the previous occasion I'd not replaced that shaft, only the idler arm itself, so, the mechanic suggested maybe the shaft was worn (presuming, as did I, that it acted as the pivot for the bush) - or maybe my local garage had not done properly the job of the earlier replacement of the idler. Whatever, he maintained the movement was 'excessive'.
As I said above, they are the main dealers so ...........
I bought another new idler arm just to be sure, and also, this time, a new shaft too, and fitted them myself this morning. Not too long a job actually. The ball joint came apart quite readily, thankfully!
Well, the new parts behave exactly as did the previous parts that apparently exhibited 'excessive play' !!! With the idler arm tightened onto the shaft, if I yank around on the ball joint end of the idler arm, the bush end moves around slightly on the shaft.
Now I'm in a bit of a quandry!
Have I been sold duff parts? Or, are they good parts, behaving as they're designed to behave (as I have read somewhere on this forum), and the mechanic is wrong about the play being excessive? Or, have I fitted them incorrectly.
With regard to fitting the parts - the shaft is dead straight forward - two long bolts through clearance holes in the chassis member directly into threaded holes in the cast metal - no adjustment possible - undo - swap parts - do up - finished!
The thing I not sure of is fitting the idler arm onto the shaft.
The bush, like many on cars, seems to be a normal "rubber core/metal outer casing/metal inner sleeve" combination.
Having now cut open the old one, I can tell you that the bush is constructed as follows - It's about 2” long and 1” diameter. It has approx 2mm thick inner metal sleeve (that slides onto the shaft) - a similar outer metal casing (that's pressed into the idler arm casting with a high interference fit) - a thin (2mm) rubber sheath sandwiched between them. The inner sleeve is longer than the outer casing by about 3mm. The rubber protrudes at each end 2 or 3 mm longer than the inner sleeve. The inner metal sleeve is, I have to say, a 'very loose sliding fit' over the shaft (I can't now believe that it is meant to be a bearing surface!)
Once the arm is on the shaft the threaded end of the shaft protrudes enough for the large nut and washer to retain the bush, and thus the idler arm.
When it came to fitting the arm, all appeared quite straight forward. Greased up the shaft - slid the bush onto and along the shaft until it reached the seating/locating flange - put the washer on the end - threaded on the nut - did the nut up tight - sorted!!!
BUT ..... do I fully tighten that nut on the end of the shaft?
Initially I thought so, but .... if I do tighten the nut fully, then the central metal sleeve of the bush becomes clamped tight (between that nut the flange on the shaft). So then, both that central metal sleeve and the rubber core moulded round it remain utterly stationary when the steering is turned and the idler arm rotates. Because the inner sleeve of the bush cannot rotate on its shaft, the shaft is not actually the pivot at all, but rather, simply a locating spigot for the bush (that's why the sliding fit is so loose!) - So, when the steering is turned, the inner surface of the outer bush casing slides around the rubber sheet!!
Can this be right?
The idler arm bush contains no bearing at all! There’s simply a thin rubber sheet between two metal tubes! If I tighten the retaining nut, the inner tube can’t move and all the steering rotation of the idler arm is facilitated by the rubber sheet sliding round the inside of the outer sleeve. No wonder the thing appears to move on the shaft when I (or the official mechanic) yank about on the end of it - it's made completely of rubber!!
So -
1. I've answered my own question about whether or not to fully tighten the nut on the end of the idler arm support shaft - YES!, and
2. having listened to the main dealer mechanic - I have uselessly spent over 150 pounds replacing perfectly good steering idler arms !!!
Author
Topic: 2003 2.2 steering idler (Read 2317 times)