The big red beast, a model year 2000 4.0 HSE, has gotten especially "lumpy" in roll over the past year or so. Particularly noticeable over nearside humps and hollows. Initial suspension movement seems a little too free then the dampers seem to catch up with a soft but sharp bump settling into a smooth but over damped feel. Currently just over 88,000 miles on the clock so I guess its suspension parts getting old. But which ones?

First noticed a couple of years back primarily appearing to be back end sway related. New OEM Panhard rod bushes in the Land Rover pack toned it down for a bit but obviously not a full cure. OEM Boge shockers went on this year as Mr MoT man was getting antsy. Seemed to do the trick and toned things down considerably but a couple of thousand miles down the line problem is back to seriously annoying again. Plan A for next step is to blitz all the other suspension bushes in one or two goes. Does this sound reasonable? Are there any unexpected issues with getting things out and undone. My usual practice is to replace all the bolts when doing this sort of job so if the quick, easy and effective way is "just destroy the nuts and hit it" thats fine by me. Recommendations for OEM quality bushes? I usually mail order from BritCar. No particular reason, just habit from when they were the only folk who had it all in stock for a job some time back.

I have the Laser Tools P38 specific bush fitting kit, a 12 ton press in the workshop and one of those Chinee universal bush removal kits so should be no tooling issues. Bought the Chinee kit primarily for the sleeves. Saves the mucking around looking for big sockets or making something up. Two decent lathes in the shop so making is no great problem but finding the material can be. Classic 10 minute job that takes an hour too.

I've contemplated getting a second set of suspension parts to re-bush and, where appropriate, re-paint at my leisure. Worth it or not? My MoT man is pretty good and only 50 yards round the corner so I can drop it off and walk home but has a thing about advisories. Especially paint and surface rust underneath so the occasional bit of re-decoration keeps him happy.

Anything else to be done whilst its all hanging loose. Recent airbags so no issues there. Maybe fit re-con prop shafts or at least change the UJ's given the miles. I figure that by 100,000 miles we will be in the zone where replacement should be expected so its not overly early.

Clive

Your find the ball joints will have play, but mot never seems to show them till they're really knackered, bushes, I use island4x4 or LRdirect.
My front prop gave up at 135k, so uj's might be worth doing, if you've got the props off a set of hand brake shoes wouldn't go amiss.
Difficulty is down to each bush, but sounds like your pretty well equipped for the job

I'll let you know Clive as I'm just about to redo all of the bushings, shocks, TR and DL ends on front of mine.
I've chosen a two hit approach, just because I dont want to leave the axle connected to the car only by the bags, it's easier to get things aligned back into place if doing one side at a time and I'm doing the job in my down-time over a few days. I keep forgetting that the VSE project isn't my day to day work and doesn't pay the bills!
Bushes choice. I'm going for genuine LR, just because I don't want to be doing the job again in a few thousand miles. OEM these days can mean anything. I've even spotted a Chinese company called OEM something or other so they can use OEM in their product info. Of course even LR genuine parts are OEM and their suppliers have probably changed over the years so who knows, they might even arrive at LR in a big truck with Britpart on the side for reboxing, but anyway...
As far as pitfalls, just the usual anticipated rusted bolts, some of which will no doubt have to be persuaded with heat or cutting to leave their places of residence. Like you, I will have new ones to hand for everything anyway. The won't be LR though- just suitable generic ones.
In that "while you're down there" kind of way, UJs would be a good call. No need to do complete exchange prop unless splines are worn. Best ones I found when i did mine were genuine GKN at £10 each from
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rover-Discovery-1-Propshaft-Universal-Joint-GKN-TVC100010-RTC3458-RTC4587-/370132652818?