I've just bought some topmount bearings on ebay. Construction wise, looks abit different from that i'm used to seeing.

These are the ones i received:


Unlike the ones i'm familiar with, this one has a full plastic construction without any rubber insulator..and does not have any ball bearings. The 2 plastic halfs just slide within each other. It is manufactured by INA of Germany.

Is this a revised design? Has anybody used this type of bearing before and is there any pro and cons to this?

looks like a coupe top mount bearing to me,the rubber insulator is seperate,the ball bearings should be `inside` between the 2 halves that slide

No it looks abit different. The standard one has rubber insulator (ok maybe its not called insulator..what is it? rubber tabs?) moulded on the case itself..not separate.



This one i got definately has no ball bearings inside. I've just done a google..think its called Polymer bearings which just relies on friction between the 2 plastic parts without the need of lubrication and ballbearings. This is what wikipedia says...

are these all i need when i change my shocks as i have only seen full top mounts not just the bearings?
how much are these as full top mounts are about £45 each!

Depends on what condition your topmount plates are at the moment. If they have not been replaced before then its worth doing both, the plate and the bearing.

For the bearing alone, i paid £19.99

oh ok then i thought it would be alot cheaper than chaning the whole thing but not a massive difference. kinda expensive having to change all the top mounts!

The guy Kelv's dealing with would supply both topmount plate and bearing for £37.99 a side.
As Kelv says, provided the bearing he has is indeed one of these Polymer bearings and suitable for the application, they could be worth a look if doing the job anyway.


Not got mine yet Kelv, so watching this thread closely!!

Iain

Not fitted them yet Iain as the guy doing the alignment on my car (Progrip) will be away on holiday till the 22nd. So i'll leave the installation till closer that date so I don't mess up my current settings.

Will let you know how i get on.

Correction:

Apologies..I've just cracked these open and they do indeed have ball bearings inside...and turns out there was nothing wrong with my old ones

no probs,kinda thought they might

is there a how to guide on fitting these bearings??

Follow the guide for replacing the front springs or front suspension, they sit between the spring and top mount so either guide will help you.

These don't really fail that often, you might be better off opening up the old one and giving the bearing a clean and re-grease instead of paying for new ones ?

thanks, i really need to fit my springs so i will give them a good clean up and get some bearing grease and fingers cross its all good!

I replaced mine and the improvement was excellent. No more knocks and much lighter, smoother steering.

ahh what do i do, change them or clean them up?!!?!?

The top mount bearings on my coupe had collapsed completely.

I was getting clonking from the springs as I turned the steering, plus clonking over bumps.

If your coupe knocks and clunks from the front then get some replacements in, I regreased mine at 88K miles and they felt like AP1 described, much smoother steering.

These bearings feel a little rough even from new if you turn them in your hand, put some weight on them as they would be in the car with the weight of the car on them and they feel smoother.

Whether to refurb the old ones or just replace your new ones really depends on how old they are at the moment and at what condition they are at. I bought new ones as i didn't want to take my suspension apart only to find that i'm better off getting new ones. New ones aren't that expensive anyway.

However, my old ones which I took out are only a few thousand miles old and seem to be in 'as new' nick after cleaning them up and regreased.