Hey everyone, just wondering if anyone here has any experience with these suspension bushings. I've heard bad things about them so far, heard they were way too soft. What do you guys think? If they're no good from your experiences, what bushings would you then recommend? So far they seem to be the only company that makes bushings for the eg civics.. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough. Anyways, your help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

Depends, whats the applications?

For track/autocross and mild power and DOT tires - stick w/ stock bushings.

RJ

 

We used a mix of stock bushings and Hyperflex in the rear and on the sway bars. Car is much tigher and still rotates as it should on track. The real trick is where you put them and what the suspension setup is. Our CRX is a race car and and the difference from pure stock bushings is real. Our experience installing them is the same as most others-a lot of work. Might I note that we did our Civic with adjustable arms in the rear and they were poly bushed-tightened things up.
The alternate brand that comes to mind is Prothane (they also have a website). The downside for a number ofpeople is the noise the the poly makes. I have found that there is little you can do to completely prevent it.

 

I am currently not a fan of them in my track-only civic. I am getting some evil handling characteristics and they are the current suspect. They are coming our this weekend and being replaced with Mugen rubber bushes. We' ll see if that helps.

 

total waste of money IMHO


just get the motor mounts and shifter bushings (if applicable)

 

My car is about 14 years old. I'm assuming most of the bushings are shot, is there any advantage (price or function) to switching to polyurethane when I replace them. I'm guessing new OEM would be expensive.

 

Guess again-by the time you do the conversion you could well have the same amount of money tied up. The exception is the rear trailing arms-where the big donuts are not readily available by themselves from Honda. A new arm retails for about $250 (I think). The bushing kit from either ES or Prothane will save you a ton and works great. You are correct that a number of the rear bushings are in need of replacement after 14 years. We did the lower control arms and trailing arms in poly and the rest were replaced with Honda rubber ones. The upper arm sells for ~$40 per side.
Use stock rubber up front as it does work very well in street and track day usage.

As a side note for those setting up for Improved Touring-the motor mounts must be stock rubber pieces.

 

Applications? A daily driven autocrosser. Nothing crazy, just something fun. I'm pretty much in the same boat as robbin, I want to replace the bushings since mine are most likely shot. Just wanted to clear up the thoughts on hyper flex. I want to be sure on what brand to use since replacing susp. bushings is a lot of work, want to get it right the first time.

Backmarker, I'd really like to hear your thoughts on the mugen bushings after you've set everything up. Please keep us posted.

 

Just so we know-are you in a stock, street prepared or modified class. The reason I ask is that our former Civic HB had the full treatment with adjustable parts on the rear using poly bushings while the front was adjustable control arms (balljoints on modifed stock arms and rubber bushings). What I found was a lot of squeaking, but a much tighter suspension overall that was still streetable even lowered on Skunk2 sleeves and very stiff springs and Koni "yellows." Trailing arms were not done-the car was too new. The car rotated very precisely thru corners-but wa no longer in a stock class.

 

Rearding the squeaking, there is one Co. that makes 'graphite impregnated' poly bushings which are supposed to reduce the squeaking. I believe they're in the East Coast but I don't know the name. I think ES might be making those as well but I'm not 100% sure.

 

The other manufacturer is Prothane. They sell the trailing arm bushings with the pin molded in and an outer sleeve.

 

The class that I'll be running in will be c mod, that's under canadian rules, don't know what class in the states. I don't have any modified suspension components, just running on springs shocks and bars. Nothing fancy at all. I've heard many discussions regarding hard rubber vs polyurethane, but it seems that it just comes down to opinion. My previous car (ae86) ran with TRD hard rubber bushings all around and I was quite satisfied. Just wanted to see if poly was any better since I've no personal experience with it.

 

I am running them in my LCA and TA. I like the LCA bushings thus far. ES TA bushing design on the other hand is not that great. They seem to be holding up okay so far, but I will most likely pull them out the next time I have my rear suspension out and go with Prothane or Mugen.

 

The prothane will have the same problem as ES.

Go w/ mugen IMO, or find a good used trailing arm w/ good bushing.

 

I have a 89 CRX with all bushings done the ride was ruffer but i could swing the *** around alot easyier and i found at high speeds was alot more stable