I purchased four Project Silver arms for the rear of the R53. Following advice from another MINI owner, I greased up the ends before installation. The arms were fitted to the car, which then sat for around two years with minimal use—maybe totaling 500 yards just moving the car around. Unfortunately, the red bushes failed during this time.
Discovering the Problem
Once the arms were fitted to the car, they received a light coating of underseal paint and maybe some other crap but otherwise were still new. However, I soon noticed excessive play in the rear end. After removing one of the arms, the extent of the movement became clear—here’s a video demonstrating the play:
Working with Oranje MINI
I contacted Oranje MINI, where I’d purchased the arms, to discuss a solution. I explained that the car had barely been used—it had simply been sitting—yet the bushes had failed. The arms were around two years old at this point, so I understood their position.
Oranje support advised that harder bushes were now available and kindly offered them to me at cost price. While it was frustrating to need replacement bushes, I appreciated their response. I understand they had no way of verifying my claim, but the car genuinely covered less than 500 yards with these arms fitted.
The Solution
Since installing the harder bushes, there have been no problems whatsoever. I don’t have photos of the upgraded bushes fitted, but here’s an image from when I installed the original arms:
If you’re installing Project Silver arms on your R53, I’d recommend requesting the harder bushes from the outset to avoid similar issues if this is even a possibility. It could be i was unlucky and had a bad batch with the red bushes?
