Caoboy

I bought some rear disk brakes and the bushings are ripped. I was looking at options to replace and upgrade the bushings.

Window weld material. Fill the stock ripped bushings. I was told this is an easy/cheap fix. I would not actually do this, because who knows what beast of a car crash might happen if it fails...

DIY liquid Urethane:
~$35
I don't know if this will actually work, but I could buy some mount filler material and fill up the mounts and basically make them sold mounts, without having to remove/replace the bushings:

http://www.energysuspensionparts.com...sp?prod=DIYMMI


Stock replacement:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-OEM-Honda-Trailing-Arm-Bushing-Pair-/400471897248?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3AIntegra&hash=item5d3dfc34a0&vxp=mtr
$60 for the parts, need to have the bushings pressed out/in and clocked/aligned properly.

PCI Spherical version:
http://passwordjdm.com/PasswordJDM-R...P1854C326.aspx

$270, seems easy enough to install, can install them and have an alignment shop adjust them as necessary? Not sure if an alignment shop is willing/able to do this.

The trailing arms are just sitting here, waiting for me to figure out what to do with them.

Mostly a daily driver right now. Once I start tracking it, and swap it, it's going to slowly stop being driven on the street.

I ask here, because this is the direction the car is going to go. If I fix it, it's good to go, but if I am going to upgrade the bushings anyways, it should just be done the first time.

Insight, comments and wisdom is always appreciated.

TypeRfit

iTrader: (6)

Go with the Hardrace bushings. Not much more then the OEM ones, but are a decent upgrade.

I did their master bushing kit and am very pleased.

10cjennings

iTrader: (1)

+1 for hardrace, I run there bushings everywhere and they've held up well.

essex

there is no adjustment needed for a pci you just bolt them on. in fact there is more adjustment needed with a stock style bushing as you have to clock it right before you press it in if your car is lowered so it doesn't bind.

Xian

Filling them with Window Weld won't result in a spectacular, fiery crash. They won't "fail"... Worst case is that they begin to crack over time and you replace them.

Personally, I'd steer clear of poly. They can (but don't always) bind.

OEM is a great option. It's the same as the Mugen part nowadays. It's also what I'd put on my car.

PCI is supposed to be pretty awesome but noisy on the street. Probably big time overkill right now.

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

You cant go wrong with OEM, or hardrace.
Polys id pass on everytime.
The PCI is a definite track car only upgrade.
You can also get them as specialprojectsms.com

dbang003

the local autox guys say they like the mugen ones a lot. i don't think they're super expensive.

there is always mention of poly ones binding. is binding potential reduced if you grease them regularly?

10cjennings

iTrader: (1)

Avoid poly, particularly in a trailing arm bushing where it's subjected to twisting forces. They bind, deflect, then tear.

Nobody really knows whether the Mugen ones are any stiffer then OEM, supposedly they were once different and now they've upgraded the OEM bushings to a stiffer rubber, but I've never seen anybody do any real testing on their stiffness.

Same thing with Hardrace. I replaced a bunch of old OEM bushings with hardrace and it felt noticeably stiffer, but how much of that was old vs new vs placebo affect? I wouldn't say they are actually any stiffer until there was some real testing/data.

Between the rubber bushings go hardrace or oem, whichever can be had cheapest.

@OP: doesn't sound like you should go spherical yet. For $270, you can replace all of your bushings with hardrace.

Cynical 1

I have used the energy suspension urethane bushings on my last 2 cars and love them.

I daily and track the car and have experienced no noises or binding.

Lo-Buck EF

PCI.

Davidss

I have tried hardrace and poly and I prefer poly.

mattbatson

on my eg hatch, my bushings were mostly gone. I had a lot of cars at the time (bout a year ago) and for a quick fix I filled them both with windo weld while they were still on the car.
literally it took me 5 min, and I just squeezed as much as I could in there with the access that I had.
Not sure I would recommend my technique

however, I have had no issues.
I haven't run it on a race track with race tires yet, but with somewhat sticky street tires I have pushed it in some off ramps and other corners that I'm pretty familiar with and there were no surprises.
no snap oversteer or anything of that nature.

it is a street car for now, but will be doing track days with it soon, and am building it towards that goal...
just fyi from someone who has done the windo weld thing

lafabrifibra

iTrader: (1)

I always run hardrace. Their inexpensive and do the job

redlinetuning

Do it right the first time. Go with hardrace, affordable quality bushings.

speedjunkie_g35

I have OEM and I love them. I auto-x and taking my hatch to the strip every chance I get. The handling improved drastically over the old worn out bushings. Hard race would be my other choice. I went with OEM because I got a good deal at $30 a piece. I am not a fan of poly bushing and will go back to hard race when my ES bushing wear out.

FlewByU352

Here we go again with this debate that has been gone over hundreds of times. I'm just going to start telling people to do whatever you have to do or feel like doing, and that is the right option.

For the reasons why people say polyurethane is bad, spherical have all of the same geometry. Now that panties are bunched lets look at why. The stock bushing is meant to flex forward and back hence the gaps in it to change toe. This creates more stability if you throw a grandma behind the wheel and she suddenly stabs the brakes or yanks the wheel.

Now you tell me how a spherical bushing or bearing can move forwards and backwards like that? It can't. So where is the binding issue? The Energy Suspension bushings are quite pliable and I have moved my suspension through a complete range of motion by hand further than it could ever move in roll. No binding issues and smooth as could be. 40,000 miles on them and they still look and feel just fine.

Stop beating a dead horse. Run what your wallet is happy with. And for under $200 to do the complete car, I'd gladly spend that if they only lasted half of what they have so far. To the OP, window weld those sons a bitches if that's what keeps you going. If the rubber is just cracked it shouldn't be a problem. If it is completely torn, then I might worry a little more.

Xian

You must have magic poly on your car... or you were moving the suspension before tightening the bolts down. The poly at the back of my car has a ton of stiction/bind.

Driven

I really liked the Prothane RTABs, and it was easy to replace.

FlewByU352

I guess so because I've never had an issue. I'm not about to take my coilovers off to take a video of the free movement. So just run what you want to run and it's fine.

Black R

I really want to try out sphericals...

Colin

iTrader: (1)

I definitely liked upgrading from Mugen to PCI - however I wouldn't run the PCI on a street car. For a street car I'd just go w/ Hardrace, Mugen, or OEM. As far as I can tell there isn't any strong data which compares those later three so I'd consider them relatively equal and probably just go based on price, or in the case of Mugen, baller status.

Caoboy

The reason I ask, is not to spark a debate, but mostly to figure out if PCI is worth upgrading at the moment, given the trailing arms are sitting in the garage waiting to be installed, or to just put in some stock and go. I didn't know of Hard Race (been out of the honda/import car scene for a while) but if it's only a little more, and people say it's a really good upgrade, I might as well give it a shot.

Davidss

If you are talking a stock spring rate car poly I can understand the concern. But on a car with race car spring rates there is so little movement I don't see much issue with poly. However if you wanted poly and were concerned with bind you could easily install the bushings with superglue (to keep them clocked in one position) then drill a few small holes at the top and bottom for relief. This would keep the bushing stiff fore/aft but allow it to rotate.

Runnerdown

It's not filling the gaps what makes the poly bind or have issues. It's the vertical tilt as the suspension travels. Oem allows this movement as does spherical. The poly will be forced to distort and make the pin hole egg shaped.

Xian

WRT the RTAB, yep. Seems like that would allow for the inherent rotation of the RTA but still keep it positioned and stiff relative to fore/aft movement.

The bind that I've seen in my rear suspension is due (IMO) to poly being used not just in the RTAB but also in the entire rear LCA. There's enough stiction/bind that, combined with the rear shock pressure, the back of the car won't settle to normal ride height after being up on jack stands until you physically "push" the car down. How much effective spring rate does this add to the car of the car? No idea of the specifics but it seems like it would be pretty considerable... longer term, I'll go to a mix of poly and OEM style at the front/rear in an effort to allow the suspension to move a little more freely.