Upgraded Suspension Bushings, front control arm and rear trailing/adjustment arm bushings Options

[hurley97]

A while ago I bought these Polyurethane bushings for the rear suspension and I finally got a chance to install them




You can get them on eBay here
or from Red Rocket Performance, or user RedRkt01 here on 6gc, mr2oc, or celicatech


We had installed the set for the front on Dustin's car a while back, link to thread here, and they made a huge difference. I wanted to do the rears first in my car to see the difference between just the fronts and just the rears. So I did.

They replace the bushings in both rear adjustment arms, trailing arms, and control arms. I brought the car to work and installed them with the help of one of the guys I work with. The job required the use of the press, vice, air hammer, torch, the air gun, and a few hand tools. Not really a job I could have done by myself outside in front of the house, might have been able to do it in Manny's garage but it would not have been easy and would have taken at least all day if not all weekend. It took us about 3-1/2 to 4 hrs to finish the job. And yes, you really need to do an alignment afterward.

I didn't really take good pictures during the process and all I have are crappy pictures of the finished product. Maybe I can get some better ones on my day off.












First Impressions:
I've only put about 150 miles on the car since the installation and most of it has been back and forth to work in traffic. I do have to say, these things are very bad for me. People already tell me I drive like a maniac and I'm usually the only person on the road who speeds up to take a corner, but now I just feel like I can go even faster all the time. I have gotten a little time with some corners and all I can think about is finding more corners and driving even faster around them. I actually got my front wheels to loose grip around a corner while the rear had not problem and just guided the car around. The car feels much more solid overall and, it might seem weird, but I feel like the steering is more precise.
I used to take 30mph curved exit ramps at 75-80mph and be scared, hovering my foot over the brake pedal just in case I needed it. Now, I have complete confidence in my 80mph exit ramp and speed up the whole way through. So far so good

(I really am not that much of a manic though... not all the time anyway)

This post has been edited by hurley97: May 31, 2011 - 5:25 PM

[jordisonjr]

That's almost exactly how mine looks as well, but I wasn't able to capture it very well.
This is what mine look like with the car on the ground: (Not the greatest shots but this was what I was able to get)



And then once the car is in the air, and wheel off:



So I was fully planning ot be laying under the car all night yesturday, but Batmans comment got me thinking:

If you can move the arm/bushing then the bolt isn't tight enough.
Does it tighten enough to keep the arm in place ?

So the first thing I checked was if the bolt going through the bushing vertically into the chassis was tight enough. Sure enough, it was fairly loose, ~50 Ft Lbs or so. So I tightened it up to around 80 ft. lbs. and dropped the car back down.

Tried shaking the wheel back and fourth with my hands, which caused a pretty hefty clunk/movement in the arm before, and no movement or noise.
So I went for a drive, accelerating pretty hard and stopping pretty hard, and no noise yet. I stopped extremely hard once to try and re create the noise, and there was a small pop, which I think was the LCA re-seating to where it should be, because it only happened once, and hasn't yet happened again after testing.

So I drove the car to work this morning, and it seems to have solved the issue. I'm not completely convinced that this was the only problem, but I'm going to continue driving it for now and hope for the best. I'll keep this thread updated in a week or so if this is the solution, or if the issue comes back.

This post has been edited by jordisonjr: Aug 13, 2015 - 8:36 AM