Differential Bushing replacement

[Roscoe458]

Got a 2002 3.0 Z3, when I bought the car at 112k miles the rear shocks were done, and one the the sub-frame bushings were torn(subframe had a lot go play between shifts. I replaced the shocks and bushings. The car is 18 years old and it's the original Differential Bushing as far as I can tell. I've tried to inspect it as best I can, but without dropping the diff from the mount it hard tell the condition, it looks fine. The car sometimes clunks from 1st to 2nd which I have read a lot of Z's do. My question is how long do these Differential Bushings last? the car has 116k now and is 18 years old. unfortunately the 3.0 Differential Bushing is the same as the M which is gonna be $200 to replace. I don't mind that but how would you know to replace it, anything to look for? My car drives great!

Also if there are any alternatives to the rubber Differential Bushing, or if you know of a deal on a bushing, let me know. But I don't wanna tear the diff mount with something to aggressive though. THANKS

[myredzed]

After 20 years the rubber itself looked fine on mine however it had delaminated so I replaced it. That said, I'm UK based and we typically have a much wetter environment that our US based friends so yours may be ok! Mine looked like this:

[scenturion]

Mine was very very compressed with a lot of shallow surface cracks. Replacing it didn't fix any of the clunks in the driveline, though

[magnetchief]

I swapped mine out for a polyurethane bushing a couple of months back.
Had to drop the differential when reinforcing the subframe.

The original looked ok, but once inspected it was cracked and in bad condition.

A bitch to remove without a press.

I used a sawzall and a metal cutting blade to carefully cut a couple of sections out. Then knocked
the remaining section out.


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[Vintage42]

I swapped mine out for a polyurethane bushing ...

You replaced the old rubber differential mount bushing with polyurethane? Would you do it again?
The hard bushing is said to increase stress transmitted to the differential mount on the trunk subframe, and increase differential noise.

[magnetchief]

I replaced the Trailing arm bushings, subframe bushing and the diff bushing.
Car seems more grounded in the rear end.
Not noticed any extra noise.
I had reinforced the rear end with Randy Forbes kit and doubled up the diff mount. so the extra stress is not a concern. Yes I would do it again.

This was on a 98 M with 90,000 miles.


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