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

[Stambo]

you might as well do an alignment after getting all those bolts loosened up!

I have decent experience with a press for doing wheel bearings and such. Did you just press the old ones out and press the new ones in? Almost like a press in wheel bearing?

[Galcobar]

I have decent experience with a press for doing wheel bearings and such. Did you just press the old ones out and press the new ones in? Almost like a press in wheel bearing?

Interested in the how-to as well. Side question: did either end of the suspension arms (the four arms which run in lateral pairs) show themselves to be spherical bearings when you pressed out the original pieces?

It's been pretty much determined in fifth-gens that the outboard ends contain spherical bearings and the inboard ends contain rubber bushings; wondering if the sixth-gen is different since the design for the lateral arms changed somewhat.

[hurley97]

I have decent experience with a press for doing wheel bearings and such. Did you just press the old ones out and press the new ones in? Almost like a press in wheel bearing?

Interested in the how-to as well. Side question: did either end of the suspension arms (the four arms which run in lateral pairs) show themselves to be spherical bearings when you pressed out the original pieces?

It's been pretty much determined in fifth-gens that the outboard ends contain spherical bearings and the inboard ends contain rubber bushings; wondering if the sixth-gen is different since the design for the lateral arms changed somewhat.

I don't think so. You mean like a wheel bearing where there is actually rollers or ball bearings contained in it correct? If so, I didn't see any. In both sides of the two trailing arms from the cross member to the hub there were thick metal collars between the rubber and the arm. They made a pretty loud banging noise when we pressed them out and I'm pretty sure they came out very deformed, so whether we crushed them too much to be able to tell if there was an actual bearing in there, I'm not entirely sure. The larger bushings in the control arm that connects the body of the car to the hub was just rubber.

And yea, I did just press the old ones out and press the new ones in. When we did Dusin's fronts in Manny's garage we used the vice.