Changing front Wishbones on 2005 micra 1.2 s

[danj]

Hello All,

First day on the forum.

Ive been wanting to join for a little while now but never got around to it. im now in need of help and I will be getting a sport soon enough so I thought now is a great time to joinJ

Ok my wife has a 2005 k12 1.2 micra s – I hated this car the first day she got it(surprise from her dad so I had no input) but god was I shocked. What a fantastic car. My wifes 6ft 1 and this is the perfect car. Very tall and tons of room so it was great. It’s so fast as well. That 1.2 surprises so many cars its un real. Cheap to run and insure and apart from tyres and brakes we haven’t replaced anything else on it YET!

Any way the car is going to make way for a sport as its about time the wife is treated to aircon and some nicer seats, alloys and quicker engine. So before selling the car has been for its mot and failed on the front wishbone rear bush on the passenger side but the drivers is on its way.

After having a look it seems fairly simple and I was going to replace just the bush. After a little think ive decided that new wishbones with the bushes and ball joint already attached is a much easier way forward.

I just wanted to know if it really is just a bolt off and on job.

I take it the ball joint wont just come off and I don’t have a ball joint splitter so I was going to go for undoing the bolt and then giving it a whack.

So undo 3 bolts. Take it off and new wishbone on. get tracking done and then pass mot.

I just wanted to check that this was easy and if anyone has any tips or a quick guide.

Hope you can help

Regards

dan

 

[Jen319]

Hello Dan

I've recently changed my off side front wishbone arm, and last year my nearside one ^_^
(the bushes had advisory's on my MOT last year)

It's...straight forward...however... it is quite a struggle to get them on and off, physically i mean...I would never be able to do it by myself (poor upper body strenth LOL) and i even had to give my dad a hand with a mallet to thwack it in place a bit...the new one, we replaced the whole arm both times...

we were gonna just change the bushes, but the fact is you have to take the whole arm off anyway...seemed a bit pointless...especially as my dad had "misplaced" his balljoint splitter *facepalm*

If i remember correctly a couple of the bolts are a little awkward to undo...especially if they havn't been off before/in a long while like any bolt.
taking out... get the front and rear bush out of their slots first then the middle one...
putting in/fitting... put the new one in in reverse Ie middle bush in place first then the other 2

my dad thought it would be quicker to put the front and back bushes in position first and then get the middle in, however this meant it got stuck as there was no room to get the middle one back in and it took almost 3 hours to whack it in with a mallet...second time around, doin it as the haynes manual suggests, took about 1.5 hours...that does include a couple of tea breaks and my dad faffing around LOL

if it's your first time though...it may take a good 2-3 hours...like i said it's straight forward but challenging

Me and My mum both have K12's (mine's a dci Sport+ hers is an SVE 1.4) so when we took off my wishbone arms...we kept the old arms and replaced the bushes on them...so when/if my mum's need changing we won't have to buy another whole arm because we have spares...might be worth keeping the arms you remove to be cleaned up and change the individual bushes for use later if you plan on getting another K12 micra in the future

( i love the sport model and mine's a diesel (82) so my tax is just £30 a year!...although if you want a really lush interior? get the Active luxury! )

I'm pretty sure my dad made a quick sketch for reference...i'll try and find it and take a phot to upload...might help you further ...

 

[danj]

hey thanks for the tips and advice.

i briefly looked at it and it seemed easy enough but as all things it was worth checking. i need to get myself a decent mallet i think as ive only got a normal hammer. i hope the bolts are ok as im 6ft 19 stone beast so if i cant get it off im screwed lol.

i know the wife wants the sport but what we might which i was looking into was replacing the seats for rather nice leather luxury items or posh recaros as i like to call them. like the ones you get out of clio 192s etc. they look hardcore but are lovely and comfy. im so glad my wife is quite into her cars as she would love to have it lowered as well. keep the standard wheels and just do some very sleek and chilled out mods. then she suggested the eye lashes so i had to beat her lol. i think she was joking though.

thanks again for the help. will have the parts in 2 days so lets see what happens.

 

[Jen319]

I truly hope she's joking about the lashes...anyone that loves cars would never shame and torture their car with the embarassment of having lashes on it! LOL

here's my dad's quick sketch...not sure if it will help...I couldn't get a clearer shot

 

[jacob_ts]

to replace the bushes on there own you need a press, and you still need to take arms off. undo the pinch bolt, use lots of penetrating spray, hit a chisel in the slot at rear of hub, and hammer the arm down. this is the easiest way to remove. and you'll find it easier to fit rear bush in first then front then the ball joint! ive done a few working in nissan dealership lol. lastly the o/s is the right hand side, the one OFF from the curb, the n/s is nearest to the curb therefor the left