Strut Mount Bushes with Fitting Position Front and Rear, Front Axle

Strut mount bushes are the rubber or polyurethane components that sit inside the strut mount, absorbing vibration while locating the top of the strut.

Where the design allows them to be replaced separately, they are a considerably cheaper repair than a complete mount, and they address the part that usually wears first.

What Strut Mount Bushes Do

The bush is the flexible element within the mount assembly, sandwiched between the strut and the body.

Its job is to allow small amounts of controlled movement while resisting everything else. The strut needs to move slightly as the suspension works and as the body flexes, and without that compliance the loads would go straight into the shell.

At the same time it has to isolate. Road noise and vibration travelling up the strut stop at the bush rather than continuing into the cabin, which is why a car with perished bushes sounds noticeably harsher than one with good ones.

The balance between those two requirements is what the bush material and design are chosen around. Too soft and the strut moves more than it should, taking your alignment with it. Too hard and every input reaches the cabin.

When Strut Mount Bushes Can Be Replaced Separately

This is the first thing to establish, because not every design allows it.

On vehicles where the bush is pressed into a housing, the bush is a serviceable item. The housing stays, the old bush comes out, and a new one goes in. That is the cheaper repair and it is what this category covers.

On bonded designs, the rubber is vulcanised to the steel housing and the bearing is integrated. Nothing separates, so the complete mount is replaced as one unit.

Check which arrangement your vehicle uses before ordering. A bush kit will not help on a bonded mount, and buying a complete mount when only the bush has perished is spending more than the repair requires.

Where both are available, the bush is the right call when the housing is sound, the bearing turns freely and only the rubber has deteriorated.

Polyurethane Strut Mount Bushes Against Rubber

Replacement bushes come in both materials and they behave differently.

Rubber is what most vehicles left the factory with. It is quiet, it absorbs vibration well, and it deflects under load more than people realise even when new. It also perishes, cracks and separates over time, which is the failure that brings people here in the first place.

Polyurethane holds its shape under load where rubber gives way, which keeps the top of the strut located more precisely. That means the alignment stays where it was set rather than moving as the suspension loads up, and it means the bush lasts considerably longer because it resists the oil, heat and weathering that finish rubber off.

The trade is a small increase in noise and vibration reaching the cabin, since a firmer bush isolates slightly less. On a vehicle that carries weight, tows or covers rough surfaces, that trade is usually worth making.

Hardness varies within polyurethane as well, so a bush chosen for a touring 4WD is not the same as one chosen for a passenger car.

Choosing the Right Strut Mount Bush

Fitment is determined by dimension rather than by vehicle name alone, which matters if you are working on something modified or older.

The outside diameter has to suit the housing it presses into, the inner diameter has to suit the strut shaft or the sleeve that passes through it, and the overall height has to match the space available. Getting any of those wrong means a bush that either will not seat or will not hold.

Material hardness is the other decision to make. A softer bush prioritises isolation and suits a passenger car driven on sealed roads. A firmer one holds the strut more precisely and suits a vehicle carrying weight, towing or covering rough ground, at the cost of a little more noise reaching the cabin.

Check whether the kit covers one side or both, since some are supplied per corner and others as a pair. Buying one when you need two means a second order and a second trip.

Where a vehicle has different front and rear arrangements, confirm which end the kit is for. Front positions on a strut suspension have a bearing to work around, and the bush is usually a different part to the rear.

Signs Your Strut Mount Bushes Have Worn

• Knocking or thudding from the top of the strut over bumps
• Increased road noise and vibration coming through the cabin
• Steering that feels vague or imprecise with no worn joints to explain it
• An alignment that will not hold specification between services
• Uneven tyre wear that keeps returning after correction
• Visible cracking, splitting or perishing in the rubber
• A gap where the rubber has separated from its housing
• The top of the strut visibly moving when the suspension is loaded

The knocking is usually what prompts the investigation, and it is easy to attribute to a shock absorber or a sway bar link because all three make noise from the same part of the vehicle. Looking at the bush directly is what settles it.

How Worn Bushes Affect Your Alignment

Worth understanding, because this is the cost people do not see coming.

The bush locates the top of the strut, and the top of the strut is one end of the line that sets camber. When the bush softens or separates, that top end is free to move under load, so camber changes every time the suspension is working.

The alignment machine reads the vehicle standing still, where the bush is not being loaded, so the printout comes back correct. Then the vehicle drives away and the angles move again as soon as it corners or brakes.

That is why a vehicle with worn strut mount bushes can be aligned repeatedly and still wear its tyres unevenly. The fault only exists under load, which is the one condition the alignment rack cannot reproduce.

If tyres are wearing out despite a correct alignment, the bushes at the top of the strut are worth inspecting before anything else is replaced.

Strut Mount Bushes on Lifted and Loaded Vehicles

A modified vehicle works these harder than a standard one.

Lifting a vehicle changes the angle the strut sits at, which alters how the bush is loaded. Heavier springs pass considerably more force through it than standard ones. A vehicle carrying a bull bar, winch, canopy and drawers does that continuously rather than occasionally.

That is why bushes at the top of the strut are worth inspecting sooner on a touring 4WD than the general guidance would suggest, particularly on a vehicle that spends time on unsealed roads where the loads arrive constantly.

If you are fitting a lift or heavier springs, replacing the bushes at the same time makes sense. The strut is already coming apart, and putting new suspension on top of perished bushes gives away part of what the new components were bought to deliver.

Pressing Strut Mount Bushes In and Torquing Them Up

Reaching the bush means removing the strut from the vehicle and releasing the coil spring, which is the same access required to replace the mount or the strut itself.

A compressed spring holds serious stored energy and a compressor slipping causes real injury, so this is work that belongs in a workshop unless you have the correct equipment and know how to use it.

Because the access is identical, the sensible time to replace bushes is during any job that already involves the strut. Fitting shocks, springs or a lift kit all reach this point, and adding the bushes costs the parts and very little labour.

Grease polyurethane on assembly with a lubricant made for the material, since silicone and PTFE based greases are correct while lithium and petroleum based products degrade it over time.

Do both sides together, and have the alignment set afterwards since the top of the strut has been disturbed.

What Else to Inspect While the Strut Mount Is Apart

With the assembly off the vehicle, a few minutes of inspection saves going back in later.

Check the bearing if the design has one at the front, since a bearing that binds or feels notchy brings back the steering complaints a new bush was meant to fix.

Check the housing that the bush seats into as well, because a housing that has worn oval or corroded will not hold a new bush properly, and that turns the job into a complete mount replacement.

Look at the bump stop and dust boot while everything is accessible. Both protect the strut shaft and seal, and both are inexpensive next to the labour of reaching them.

Check the spring seat and its isolating pad for cracking or perishing, since a failed pad lets the spring contact metal and the noise that follows gets blamed on the bush.

Fulcrum has been fitting suspension since 1976, across 16 Service Centres and 200+ authorised workshops nationwide. Having the bushes done during a strut job, with the alignment set in the same visit, is what the network is there for.

Find Strut Mount Bushes for Your Vehicle

Select your vehicle to see the strut mount bushes available for it, in rubber and polyurethane. Book fitting through Click and Fit, or talk to your nearest Service Centre about whether your vehicle takes a replaceable bush or a complete mount. Every part we supply carries our warranty, a fitment guarantee and the backing of a nationwide workshop network.