Seems i've come a cropper on the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' rule.....

I've just fitted an Energy Suspension poly bush set to my car, a '94 Prelude Si'Vtec import, there was nothing wrong with the original bushes, but being a 13 year old car, thought it would be a good idea to fit and perhaps sharpen up the handling a wee bit.... big, big mistake!

I fitted the whole kit, put new grooved brakes and pads on at the same, cleaned up the wheel arches with hammerite, and now it looks fantastic. The only problem is the car now wanders over the road like crazy - straight after fitting the kit. Hmmmm..... so i double checked all the nuts and bolts for tightness, no problem there, and the only thing I could assume is the bushes werent doing their job.

I've now replaced the lower control arm bushes on all 4 wheels with original Honda ones, and althought the car doesn't wander as much, theres still wander in the system. This leaves the upper wishbone bushes to be replaced with originals, just to get the car handling again. PROBLEM!! Honda dont sell these bushes on their own, instead they sell the whole upper wishbone assembly at £195 each + VAT, so I'm looking at nearly a grand to sort this out - ridiculous! Now i've found someone selling the upper wishbones from a 2.0 Litre Honda Prelude for only £80, will these fit my car????

Please let me know, plus if theres some magic special adjustment i need to do after playing with the whole suspension system (it hasn't been set up for a full wheel aligment yet - need to fix the wandering first!)

 

You are throwing parts at a problem. There is nothing wrong with ES bushings. Something else must have gone wrong during your installation, or you don't have the bushings installed properly. Double check your suspension. Check your ball joints, make sure nothing is binding.

 

Also did you mess with your radius rod bushings?I guess the radius rod is used for adjusting caster,I had a problem with mine after replacing them wwith ES...but it was fixed right up by a front wheel alignment.


Modified by 93sivtec at 2:28 PM 7/30/2007

 

Nope, the only bushes I've replaced are the lower control arm end bushes, upper wishbone bushes, and the damper bushes in the control arm.

Further to this, I've since replaced the ES lower control arm end bushes with original equipment Honda ones. The wander has been reduced, but is still present........ my thinking as to replacing the upper wishbone ES suspension bushes with Honda ones is because the car was working fine before, and these are the only items i've replaced which could cause the car to wander.....

-As for fitting the bushes incorrectly - they only go in one way! so thats not a possibility
-All the nuts and bolts are correctly torqued up
-The ball joints on the upper wishbone and hub assembly - could they suddenly go from working fine to making the car wander about, just by being unbolted, then bolted up again? Don't think so...
- Track rod ends , once again, no problems before, they're all torqued up and theres no play

So where's the play in the suspension set up coming from then? the only thing i can think of is the new components i've fitted, which are the ES bushes...... any help / suggestions as to what else this problem can be give us a shout

 

You can't rip apart your suspension and expect it to function perfectly without getting an alignment

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by InvaderTrax &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You can't rip apart your suspension and expect it to function perfectly without getting an alignment</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

x2 i was jus bout t o say alignment

 

x3 alignment...I got mine right after I changed my bushings-and-junk-and-stuff

 

Plus its a good rule of thumb to always re align at least the front wheels everytime u mess with the suspesion at all.Because even though you might not notice a difference,it can be present under harder driving conditions...ie higher speeds,cornering,having to come to a sudden stop.....the times when you need it to be true the most!

So u need to go get an alignment and throw that horrible motto out the window.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by InvaderTrax &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You can't rip apart your suspension and expect it to function perfectly without getting an alignment</TD></TR></TABLE>

X100

 

Yes you're all 100% right! got a full 4ws electronic and mechanical alignment yesterday and its spot on now...... got many happy miles of driving ahead

thanks for all the help chaps

 

i just replaced LCA bushings on my passenger side, so i knew exactly where you were coming from.