What is the difference in performance between the Mugen Rear Trailing Arm Bushings and the Energy Suspension Bushings? I am aware of the Noise, Comfort and Price difference but for auto-cross I need to weigh the difference between performance vs cost?

 

Supposedly the Energy type urathane rta bushings will bind as the suspension travels. The stock or mugen ones defelect enough to stop that from happening. I've only owned torn up 190k stockers, so I'm not speaking from experience. This is what I've heard and it makes sense to me.

 

this topic had been debated alot. Most people will say replace it with the Mugen piece or a stock OEM one because of binding issues. I plan on using OEM

 

most recently discussed in depth in this thread.
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1106029

heres my thoughts on the rear trailing arm. just my thoughts, not much experience other than bugging alot of other ppl who have more experience and reading up on wes' very informative layout and owning a pair of mugen bushings ive yet to install.
i think its hard to say whether stock replacement and mugen trailing arm bushings are really different, when the difference is only stated as 130% hardness (i take that as 30% more, not twice plus 30%) of original rubber. its obvious that they use the same mold and equipment probably, which is still a major plus.
for the price of these bushings either from OEM or Mugen (from king motorsports or other retailers), its pretty much the same price, the arguement as to if theyre worth it is fairly moot. if the bushings are in fact the same, then really, no big deal.

wes, it is an interesting hypothesis on how honda suddenly arrived with a factory replacement of the bushing and i think its a legitimate claim. unless someone from honda parts supplier can confirm, we may never know for sure.

in any case, theres nothing to lose from just buying the mugen replacements. unless you only needed one.

poly bushings certainly arent designed to allow the flex that the OE design allows. whether thats really that detrimental to your handling is up to the user. i know of several people who are successful at competing in autox and road racing WITH the poly RTA bushing. its not like it causes the rear suspension to cease to function. if it binds, then it just changes the suspension geometry and dynamics, which the driver deals with. i dont think anyone has even compared going from say ES/prothane bushings, back to new stock/mugen bushings and said there was a difference either way, that one would be better than the other.

i do know of one racer who very early on developed his OWN spherical bearing for the rear trailing arm and competed very successfully with a CRX in ITA. he mentioned among other things that modifying the rear trailing arm was not really worth it over his competitiors who left it stock. but he was always a bit unconventional in thinking, and its only one opinion.

the "binding" that goes on in the rear with poly bushings is different than the binding ive heard going on in the front, which is mainly the inboard lower control arm (because of the design of that bushing). so its not inherent in poly to bind, to say that poly is bad and worthless. the upper A arm bushings for example can only rotate in one axis, so they are a perfect candidate to replace with poly.

another point id like to add about the rear trailing arm from Wes' article ( http://www.performanceforum.co....html ), i really commend you Wes for illustrating effect on the bushing as the car may sit when LOWERED.

http://www.performanceforum.co...6.jpg
http://www.performanceforum.co...7.jpg

i just want to point out that this may be perhaps why so many rear trailing arms NEED to be replaced, because when you lower the vehicle, it causes a twisting motion beyond what the rubber is designed to accomodate, causing the tears in the top and bottom rubber.

so from this point, poly bushings actually are insensitive to this because the inner dogbone is free to rotate.

otherwise with OEM (style) bushings, you SHOULD readjust the whole rear trailing arm bushing everytime you change your ride height. something to keep in mind...

 

Tyson; Your fingers must hurt after typing all that!

Civais; The only quick answer was pointed out by Tyson; the mugen bushings are not that much more money than the "new design" factory ones, just buy them and be happy!

Wes

 

ctrl-c owns.