I blame the rust on the car being in Des Moines, IA for the first 4 years of its life. ;)

It was very peculiar. When doing the initial inspections, the driver side mount showed very little play when pried on, but the core fell out when the subframe dropped. While the passenger side mount showed a lot of play when pried on, the core was intact, but partially turned inside of itself.

Interesting thread John.

It's on my list also, they look pretty good but it seems that might not be conclusive based on yours that looked good, ... maybe this weekend I'll do the swap and see if they're worse than they look. I already did the other links in the suspensions somewhat as PM, didn't have subframe bushings at the time.

You are not lying. I can't even get my independent mechanic to face the truth about the rear subframe mounts, and he's a very good experienced MB wrench. I think it's because the mounts are such a pain to R&R, most people are in denial that they can go bad. He took a look back there and told me 'everything looks just beautiful'. He has a rep for not replacing parts just for the hell of it, and saving his customers money, which I can respect. Meanwhile the car's all over the highway. I'm just going to have to do this job myself I suppose. I feel like I'm trying to convince people that UFOs exist or some such. I'm sick of the wiggle and the accordionlike play in the rear end.

I had my indy replace those subframe mounts on my now sold 87. When I asked him to do it, he just shrugged and said: are you sure? Yup. She rode like a new one after that.

how can I conclude that I need subframe bushings, my car has a clunk that cannot be pointed out unless I violently bounce the rear end when standing, and it comes from the same side. I wedged a screwdriver between the mount and frame and moved it around, it was moving with quite easy pressure. I dont think thats normal.

That doesn't sound normal at all. I rented the tool from a member on this board and it sure made the job easier. If you're going to do it yourself I'd recommend going that route although there's more than one way to skin a cat. I slathered it with KY Jelly and it made getting it in pretty easy in conjunction with the tool.

+1 for rent the tool.
I bought one - it was a Chinese knock off tool - still works great though. (includes the tool for removing the front lower control arm bushings as well)

If you are getting clunks front and rear when going over bumps replacing both end bushings makes your car travel like new. (do the sway bar bushings as well.)

Clunking
 

Can not find the source of my clunk either

Solved!
 

Clunking from the rear suspension has been driving me nuts! Found a video from a competing site where the mechanic tugged on the rear sway bar/link where it attached to the wheel. It made a clunking sound! Mine did the same thing! I may have to eventually replace the link but after taking it out and lubricating it up, the noise stopped. A short term solution but it worked! The bushing looked fine and was not worn! Other bushings and subframe mounts look good for now! Car only has 110k but the rubber is getting old! Looks are deceiving!

Can someone please explain to me, how many subframe mounts are there in the 124, and where they are?

Re: It's hard to get people to check the sub-frame bushings...
 

I agree. Very few people realize that the rear end is more important than the front end for safe handling of a vehicle. A loose rear end induces oversteer where the back doesn't follow the front. Just tell them to try pulling a shopping cart backwards if they don't believe you!

I am about to attack my 124.128's mountings myself. 287k miles on it so far.Thanks for these articles everyone.