suspension bushings

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

B

bcman

Senior Member
Well, the corners of my car are getting all squeaky, and steering precision is getting a little blurry. so it's time for new bushings. Any recommendations? what's better, rubber or poly?
 
Energy Suspension bushings. they are the best. all aftermarket bushings are polyurethane. only OEM are rubber...theres no good reason to get OEM again. the price of OEM from the dealer would probably cost more than a good aftermarket set like Energy.
 
ES = not necessarily the best, but they're pretty damn good and available everywhere. I'm running a set in my car.
 
ES bushings won't necessarily get rid of noise either... If you don't grease them JUST right, they have a tendency to creak, especially on cars with a lot of chassis flex. A friend's del sol sounds almost scary going around sharp right hand turns but it handles flawlessly. CREAK. Poly bushings make the car a lot louder overall I think... More road noise gets transmitted to the frame. It's night and day vs old stock rubber bushings in terms of handling.

What is best for you depends on what you want to get out of your car. Poly last longer and have better performance characteristics, rubber is more forgiving, quiet and gentle.
 
yea my friend has a set of poly engine mounts and they make his car sound like a tank inside and the car is hella quiet outside so just depends on what you can put up with. i want to put the ES bushing all around my civic does anyone have an opinion on how they help or hurt.
 
Thanks for the responses, guys. I took the car in to a mechanic yesterday and he said that the rear trailing arm bushings are shot (the really large bushings). I'll probably replace all bushings with ES some time in the future, but the trailing arm bushings really need to be fixed soon. Does anyone know if ES makes poly bushings for the trailing arms, or do they just make the smaller bushings?
 
Originally posted by sportlinecrx@Jan 8 2004, 02:38 AM
Energy Suspension bushings. they are the best. all aftermarket bushings are polyurethane. only OEM are rubber...theres no good reason to get OEM again. the price of OEM from the dealer would probably cost more than a good aftermarket set like Energy.
Click to expand...

spoon makes slightly stiffer rubber bushings but they arent as stiff as energy suspension
 
Originally posted by mjfubar+ Jan 8 2004, 12:36 PM-->
mjfubar @ Jan 8 2004 said:
i want to put the ES bushing all around my civic does anyone have an opinion on how they help or hurt.
Click to expand...

I have mine installed- the full kit, including the trailing arm bushings. They're all greased "just right" so they don't squeak AT ALL. I love it. The car feels so tight, and it's nice and quiet too.

:)

bcman@ Jan 14 2004, 12:41 AM
Does anyone know if ES makes poly bushings for the trailing arms, or do they just make the smaller bushings?
Click to expand...


Yup, they make a separate trailing arm bushing kit. I think that the master kit for the Civic actually does NOT include the trailing arm bushings, so go ahead and do yours now. You won't be buying duplicates if/when you do the master kit. Just those two bushings will make a MAJOR difference in how your car feels, trust me.
 
ok so Energy is not the best. my bad :) still very good though. can't go wrong with them.
 
Stay away from the ES trailing arm bushings. (the rest seem to be pretty good).

Those perticular bushings don't allow enough deflection and movement, as the TR requires. The result is binding, which is of cource, not good.

The mugen is a good alternative. It is stiffer than stock, but not so stiff that it hinders the motion required.
 
i would use the mugen trailing arm bushings and poly everywhere else. i see alot of the honda challeng guys doing this to keep the geometry of the rear suspension, i guess the poly is too stiff for proper movement back there.

EDIT:
haha, i just read the post above me, so uh, ya, what he said.
 
Hmm. I haven't noticed any binding... but if I run into it, I'll take it all apart and throw in another set.
 
Too late! I already bought a set of ES trailing arm bushings. I'll let you know what they're like once I get them installed.
 
Hey calesta, how did you get the metal spindle out of the OEM bushings? My ES kit only comes with the polyurethane, but no spindles. I'm considering machining new spindles, any advice?
 
Anybody else have suggestions? should I machine new spindles, or just scrape all the rubber off the OEM spindles?
 
Originally posted by bcman@Jan 20 2004, 05:21 PM
Hey calesta, how did you get the metal spindle out of the OEM bushings? My ES kit only comes with the polyurethane, but no spindles. I'm considering machining new spindles, any advice?
Click to expand...

You use the stock spindles (if that's what they're called)- just burn or grind the old bushing material off the spindle, then install the bushing and old spindle.
 
What's the best way to get the rubber off the metal sleeve that stays in the trailing arm? It's nearly impossible to cut it out, because of two crescent-shaped pieces of metal within the sleeve. I'd burn it out, but I'm worried about the fumes and annealing the metal sleeve. What would you recommend?
 
remeber not to flip the spindles around they need to go bak in exactly the way they came out
 
im not sure how much rubbers there. But i say take it out back put some vice grips on it and grap a lil hand torch. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top