Why should you replace

The rear crossmember bushings absorb frontward/backward shock of the car, that is, when you accelerate, brake, shift, or hit a bump, these bushings keep you tranny, driveshaft, differential, etc, from banging into each other or the frame of your car. The bushings are located one on either side of the crossmember, which can be seen in just in front of the rear tires. There is a wonderful description of how to inspect the crossmember bushing on Z31.com...here's the link...I'm not going to re-explain the whole thing 'cause I followed these directions to do it myself (Archives #159). If you can't find it there...look here (159.htm). Read, then come back.

The reason you want to replace the bushings is to save expensive parts from additional stress and especially to get rid of that annoying clunk you've been hearing whenever you shift, accel/brake, or hit a bump. Other benefits will be better acceleration (believe it or not) and a much softer launch and ride. After replacing my bushings I felt like I was driving a whole new car...no joke, its night and day with new ones.

Now that you have read that, don't fear, its not too hard, but it just takes some time. Here are some pics of what you might see when you inspect your bushings....Notice the crack the arrow is pointing to? On the passenger side, which statistically appears to wear down faster, the whole center ring on my bushing had detached itself from the rubber and fell out when I inspected them.

I will give you 3 major suggestions to make this job easier.

1) Make sure that your mechanic can do the job and do it right!!! I asked PepBoys and they said they could do it, but when I brought it to them, they said, "Oh, we didn't know the bushings were that big." This was at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving!!! On Friday I went to my local Nissan dealer at 8:00 am. and they promised to have it done by 3:00 pm. They called me at 12:00 and said, "We don't have the tool we need to press these in." They said they can't just purchase specialized tools for this job 'cause I'd be the only one who came in wanting it done. They then said the only way to do this right was to purchase a new crossmember w/the bushings already installed...POS's. I hate my local Nissan Dealer. Finally I went to machine shop some 15 miles out of town...just a bunch of grundgy guys working the weekend for some extra money. They did the job for $25 and even let me play with some of their tools. They didn't have the exact press tool they needed, but we made them up. We ended up pressing the new bushings in with an old piston from a Chevy small block V-8. They also had no way of getting the bushings out...so you may want to follow the directions in the archive #159 and get them out before you go. I ended up using a hacksaw at their shop while they worked on some other projects...but even then they didn't just fall out. These suckers were rusted in solid!!! We ended up using an air hammer with a cutter attachment to get them out...check out these pics!!! Holy Heck!!! So...take my advice and make SURE that the shop can do this job, or you'll be without your Z a couple more days.

2) Remove the springs so you don't have to mess with their strength...they will win!!!

3) If you plan to buy the bushings from Courtesy Nissan, give them plenty of time to get them to you...they sent me two different bushings and I come to find out one is the original and one is the "new" one they started making that is supposed to be stronger than the original. But when I got them all I saw was two different, yet similar looking bushings. It also took over 2 1/2 weeks to finally get them in!!!

The left picture is the center "sleeve" that fell out as I checked the bushings...this was Passenger side, which appears to be the most common side this happens to. The right Picture is what you're car will look like for a couple days.

Other things you may consider are: clean up while you have the parts down...you'll never get the chance again. I repainted the member stays, the crossmembers, and much more while all that crap was out of the car. You'll probably end up going to get an alignment. Those crossmember bolts are a pain in the A--. You will also hate the four bolts holding the crossmember to the differential. Try not to swear too much...it'll make you a better man/woman. Here is an added pic of all the parts I took off while doing this job.