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[Doctor Gollum]

Yeah absolutely mate. Plus of course driving hard is also going to make them work harder irrespective of quality.

What have you found that’s wrong with the ATP bones? When mine go I feel a little wandering at the front. And how long did it take for them to get shagged?

Depends entirely on driving style and vehicle use/storage. in 180k I changed mine four times... 1x Delphi shit that lasted a week, 1x Firstline that replaced them, and the rest with ATP supplied parts. The ATP sets were polybushed and I don't count swapping out a set for experimental reasons. The one I snapped was a Firstline one and it failed after 8k miles of experimentation.

The original suspension will need replacing somewhere between 80 and 120k... this is pretty universal across all cars and stems from building cars to meet fleet manager requirements/sell more new cars.

A little wandering at the front is probably worn bushes... you could simply change these, but then you'll be doing the ball joints and then the shocks...

[Nick W]

Confused bear... where r we getting £100 in parts annually from?

Mine were on there for ages before I changed them.

From people who can break rocks. Although the Omega suspension would have been much less susceptible to poor alignment if the struts were rigidly aligned to the hub carriers.

[TheBoy]

Yeah absolutely mate. Plus of course driving hard is also going to make them work harder irrespective of quality.

What have you found that’s wrong with the ATP bones? When mine go I feel a little wandering at the front. And how long did it take for them to get shagged?

I'm assuming you cut the front bush out an poly it before fitting, so its the rear bush that goes. That gives a sensation of the wheel feeling like its going to fall in under itself when getting fairly shagged. I try to change mine at the first sign that its lost its planted feeling.

Agreed, diving it harder is likely to put additional strains on the bushes.

But my main complaint of the ATP wishbones, just by looking at them, they are absolute piss poor quality, both in the metal construction and welding (and lack of), and in the quality of the bushings.  No wonder DG has had some shear.

[TheBoy]

you could simply change these, but then you'll be doing the ball joints and then the shocks...

Again, I disagree about the balljoints.  I reckon I've had 20yrs worth of Omegas - not had them for 20years, but had significant periods where I've had 2, or even 3) - and only ever had to change 1 balljoint (well, 2, because I always do stuff in pairs, obviously) on my "long term" cars, because they always had GM wishbones.  That's why I refurb them, because it makes complete financial sense, as well as reduces the amount of time my decrepit old bones have to lay on cold driveways underneath cars.

In fact the only reason the old Silver Bullet and TBE weren't/aren't on their original wishbones is for 2 reasons....

1) in the early days of my Omega ownership, GM wishbones were stupidly, dirty cheap on TC, so I replaced the ones on the Bullet when the bushes first failed at about 5yrs old.

2) chrisgixer and I tend to pre-refurb the spares we have, so just end up popping on a refurbed set, and then refurb the ones that come off at a later date.  I think TBE is currently running on the wishbones that once lived on the Silver Bullet, and bought on TC in 2003.  A bit Triggers Broom, as been poly bushed front (and rear for a while before deciding that was a bad idea), have had a single set of rear bushes replaced, and these are the ones I think that have had new balljoints.

[Doctor Gollum]

No wonder DG has had some shear.

The ONE that failed was a Firstline one and had previously been rebushed... Poly rear experiments killed it. Doubt very much that a genuine one would have faired much different in that test...

[TheBoy]

No wonder DG has had some shear.

The ONE that failed was a Firstline one and had previously been rebushed... Poly rear experiments killed it. Doubt very much that a genuine one would have faired much different in that test...

Ah, OK.

Remember my genuine ones had rear polys in for a while (few months), and that the genuine ones are better quality, both in the metal and the welding.

That said, rear poly doesn't give the right required movement, as we've both found out, and I was worried about the stresses, which is why I went back to GM bushes.


So while a Gm wishbone might have lasted longer than the Firstline, it probably would have still failed at some point...   ...although in my particular case, the poly started to fail (tear/split) before the wishbone failed...  ...which led to really weird handling

[Doctor Gollum]

It does that A couple of attempts did not make it to the end of Chrisgixers cul de sac

[TheBoy]

It does that A couple of attempts did not make it to the end of Chrisgixers cul de sac

Yeah, I remember.  My attempt was bloody fantastic for about 2 weeks, everything ultra precise with the car, so I wanted to persevere. But ultimately, it was doomed

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Webby. Buy some polybushes and GM rear bushes, fit them to your current wishbones (hopefully original GM ?) and you will be a happy bear.
I did it, plus Monaro top mounts and mine drives great. 

[Nick W]

Webby. Buy some polybushes and GM rear bushes, fit them to your current wishbones (hopefully original GM ?) and you will be a happy bear.

I did something similar, but I don't like pissing about. So I bought a pair of new ATP wishbones(with a load of other stuff), fitted the poly bushes to them, and did the whole front end as a get it done in one go and do something worthwhile job. I've done that on other Omegas too, You can replace the entire front suspension in about an hour per side with a small amount of preparation on the bench. With a beer


None of the ATP bones I've fitted have been noticeably poorer quality fabrications than the 15 year old GM ones on the cars. Which go straight in the bin as I don't have time or space for scrap hanging about for years.

[TheBoy]

And then repeat next year, if you like a car that handles properly

[Sir Tigger KC]

I fitted a set of ATP wishbones to my Omega.

The front bushes didn't last very long so I polybushed them.    Not long after the handling started to feel strange again, so I removed the wishbones to fit GM rear bushes, but found a crack in the weld around the rear bush carrier. 

You pays your money.... 

[Webby the Bear]

That’s really bad re the crack in the weld.

However were you tightening front bush with car on the stands? If so you will compromise those front bushes

[Sir Tigger KC]

That’s really bad re the crack in the weld.

However were you tightening front bush with car on the stands? If so you will compromise those front bushes

Nope on the ground. 

It was a tiny crack, but wasn't going to heal up!  It obviously didn't like the extra stress that the polybush put there. 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

That’s really bad re the crack in the weld.

However were you tightening front bush with car on the stands? If so you will compromise those front bushes

This doesn't apply when polybushes are fitted.