Replacing front stabilizer bushings on Lada Vesta

Why do stabilizer bushings creak?

One of the unpleasant features of the front suspension, elements of which were borrowed from Renault, was the creaking of the anti-roll bar bushings. It occurs for several reasons:

• Poor quality material used to make parts.
• Dirt caught on rubber elements.
• Poor tightening of bushings.
• Damage to the stabilizer itself.

The result is damage to important suspension components. The Lada Vesta stabilizer bushings have to be changed.

Principle of operation

Stabilizer bushing
The operating principle of this suspension unit is quite simple.
A torsion bar is used, the middle of which is fixed to the car body, and the ends, directly or through special rods, are connected to the suspension arms. Due to its elasticity, it reduces the roll that occurs when the center of gravity of the car shifts to one side or the other. The vehicle's stability and controllability on the highway improves.

DIY replacement

Replacing the front stabilizer bushings of a Lada Vesta with your own hands is not a very difficult task. A person even without special skills can cope with it. For this he will need:

• Lift or inspection hole. You can't get by with a jack here. Unobstructed access to all parts of the structure should be ensured.
• A driver and a set of socket heads, among which there must be a 16mm head.
• Sets of open-end and spanner wrenches.
• TORX bits.
• Lubricant that does not destroy rubber and plastic.

It makes no sense to indicate the exact sizes of the keys, since the manufacturer reserves the right to make changes to the design. You'll have to find your way around. You can assess the complexity of the upcoming task by watching videos posted online.

Which stabilizer bushings are suitable?

As already noted, the original parts are not of high quality. A worthy replacement should be found for them. There are several options to solve the problem:

• Some enterprises are already producing polyurethane bushings for the Lada Vesta stabilizer. This material has better mechanical and chemical resistance than rubber.
• Install stabilizer bushings from KIA on Vesta. These parts fit true to size and are of satisfactory quality. Whether these are original Kia components or analogues does not matter.

Bushings for Kia and Lada Vesta
Both options give good results. Which one to prefer, you will have to decide for yourself. Buying the necessary components is not a problem. But it is not recommended to mount stabilizer bushings from Niva to Vesta. Like original parts, they may be of poor quality.

Important!

When purchasing parts from KIA for Vesta, you should make sure that their external and internal dimensions match! Otherwise they may not fit.

Life expectancy of bushings

The wear of bushings is not regulated by manufacturers - there are recommendations for mileage, after which it is advisable to change the bushings. But the duration of operation of these units is influenced by several factors that cannot be foreseen or calculated in advance.

Let's say there are two cars released at the same time. One of them spends 90% of the mileage on rural, dirt roads, and the second - the same mileage, but on asphalt. It is clear that the bushings of a city car will “live” longer. In addition to road conditions, the performance of rubber bands is affected by driving style and driving speed. At high speeds, there are more opportunities to “yawn” a pothole or sharply turn a corner, which will cause the stabilizer to actively work.

The average service life of bushings is 70 thousand kilometers. There were cases when the bushings “nurtured” 100 thousand, and there were cases where they did not reach 35 thousand.

Let's sort it out

Dismantling operations should be performed in the following order:

• Place the car level on the inspection hole or lift it on a lift so that both front wheels are hanging. This is necessary in order to eliminate the occurrence of stress on the torsion bar. Only after this can you proceed to the next operations.
• Remove the protective cover of the steering mechanism, having previously unscrewed the bolts securing it. After this, access to the mounting points will be greatly simplified.
• Unscrew the lower bolts securing the stabilizer struts and release the struts from their mounting points. You can find videos and instructions where it is recommended to replace old parts with new ones by making a cross-section on them. In this case, the strength of the elements will decrease and they will not be able to perform their functions as expected. In order for the front stabilizer bushings of the Lada Vesta to serve for a long time, you will have to completely disassemble the unit.
• Unscrew the bolts securing the fixing brackets.
• Remove the stabilizer.

Removing the bushing Removing the bushing

Removing the bushing

Removing the bushing

Lada Vesta suspension

Products from the Dustershop77 range on the topic of the article:

We collect

After lubricating the surface of the stabilizer with soap or lubricant, the bushings are installed. They should fit tightly, without play. After making sure that everything is in order, we assemble the unit in the reverse order:

• We install the stabilizer in place.
• We install the brackets securing the bushings. We tighten the bolts securing them.
• We fix the ends of the struts to the stabilizer. We tighten them.
• Only after this do we tighten the bracket bolts with a force of 1.8–2.4 kgf. m. Do not overdo it, otherwise you will break the threads in the mounting holes!
• We install the protective cover of the steering mechanism.

Replacing the Lada Vesta stabilizer bushings is a simple job. If it is done correctly, the service life of the stabilizer bushings will increase several times. You can extend the life of important parts by carefully monitoring their cleanliness and promptly removing contamination. Both rubber and polyurethane elements are especially sensitive to the ingress of engine or transmission oil. This is another reason to immediately eliminate the leak that has arisen. Well, decide for yourself which is better – rubber or polyurethane, and don’t forget to leave your feedback on whether the recommendations helped you!

Installation

In general, the algorithm for replacing standard stabilizer bushings with an analogue one is simple and, by and large, the same for components from the Chevrolet Niva and for parts from KIA. The only difference is that, in the case of parts from KIA, you will have to install the purchased bracket.

As for the Chevy Niva, the bushings from it will need to be modified - it is necessary to make a slot on the side, and then grind the sides down to the same size as on Vesta.

The replacement process itself begins with installing the Lada Vesta on the overpass, after which you need to thoroughly clean the bolts that secure the stabilizer bar from dirt. Next, you need to arm yourself with a wrench and a Torx T40 bit, with which one bolt from the bracket is completely unscrewed (located further from the steering rack). The second bolt is also unscrewed, but not completely, but enough so that the mounting bracket can be moved to the side.

When the bolts are unscrewed, all that remains is to move the bracket and remove the bushing itself. A pre-prepared bushing is placed in its place, and the bolts are tightened. The second element changes similarly.

This method works provided that components from ChevyNiva are used. If you decide to install bushings from KIA, you will have to completely remove the brackets. In this case, simply unscrewing the bolts will not work, since the screw, which is located closer to the steering rack, rests on the clamp that secures the rack boot.

It can be seen that it will not be possible to unscrew both bolts

In this situation there are 4 options:

1. Turn the clamp itself;
2. Rotate the boot (together with the clamp, of course);
3. Remove the rack protection, then loosen its fastening bolts and slightly lift the rack up;
4. Remove the rail completely.

This will allow you to replace the bracket along with the bushing.

And also the bracket from it

As you can see, there are several options for getting rid of creaking Lada Vesta bushings, which differ strikingly in both the effort involved and the financial and time costs.

This form provides general recommendations for eliminating squeaks.

There is a problem on the Lada Vesta car: the stabilizer bushings (struts) make a squeaking noise. Needless to say, on modern cars, besides the Lada Vesta, even on expensive ones, the problem of rubber bands is noticeable. The Lada Vesta stabilizer bushings begin to creak well and the struts quickly make themselves known. Creaking, knocking, non-functioning stabilizer bars appear so often on the Lada Vesta car - that AvtoVAZ even answered the question: why Vesta creaks so early. The price for such stabilizer struts and bushings is not high, but the sensations are not pleasant. By the way, the dealer changes the bushings under warranty. What to replace with: as an analogue, stabilizer bars from Kia Rio and Avensis are suitable for Lada Vesta - but this is after warranty. Polyurethane stabilizer bushings have proven themselves better - you can install them. Replacing components with your own hands takes 14 steps, more on them later in the article. The maximum weight of the Lada Vesta is 1670 kg. The Vesta is equipped with MacPherson strut suspension, a suspension that has been tested over years of operation on different types of vehicles. There is an opinion that the car is simply too heavy; for such stabilizers, they should be more powerful. On the Lada Vesta suspension, the stabilizer bushings are simply not slightly modified to accommodate the weight of the car. To understand the problem, let’s understand the principle of operation of the stabilization system of modern cars. There is nothing complicated about this. Everything works on the principle of a lever, which was invented by Archimedes at the beginning of the last millennium, read the article and find out about it