I searched and it seems no one did a review on poly-urethane bushings so I'll add mine for the archives. First off let me input my suspension setup so that you guys can get a good idea of how everything's set up and what the bushings do.

Car: 1992 Civic DX (EG hatchback)
Suspension setup: Zeal Function B6 coilovers, spring rate: 12kg F/9kg R, shocks set at level 4F/level 5R, GSR front tower strut bar, generic rear tower strut bar, Benen front lower tie bar, Khumo V111 tires (205/50/15) and of course Energy Suspension polyurethane bushings 92-95 civic master kit

I first decided on a bushing replacement while installing my coils. My rear lower control arm bushings were cracked beyond belief. Driving around with them sqeaking 3 times every second drove me nuts. Since my stock bushings are 12 years old and pretty much dead I decided to go ahead and replace all of them. I've seen some writeups about installation so I'm not going to bother with that. I'll just say one thing about installation though: FIND A FRIEND WITH A HYDRAULIC PRESS IMMEDIATELY, it will speed through that process so much faster. Now for the shakedown No crazy illegal type of driving here, just a proper drive through some curvey roads. Normal street driving seems smoother, the ride quality seems better then before with my stiff spring rates. It seems like the bushings absorb the road better than rubber bushings. Now for some turns. As I'm driving along the road I notice that I do not feel any bodyroll when I am turning at the point that I would usually experience it. So I go a bit faster, no bodyroll, the car just turns and responds like a good litttle girl. Now for the not so legal part. BIG HUGE empty parking lot, I throw out 3 cones, a mini-makeshift slalom. I decide to make only two passes through it since it's quite illegal to do it. I speed the car up to 50mph, I make the pass. Same thing as earlier, virtually no body roll at all, the car goes around them as easily as tying a shoe. I make another pass at 60mph, same results except I experience a tiny bit of oversteer. Overall I'm very impressed with the poly-urethane bushings, it eliminated any squeaking sounds (be sure to lubricate them for a day before installation), it smoothened up the ride quality and most of all improved the overall handling performance of the car greatly. I bought my set for $70, a very worthwhile investment. I would rate them just as important as coilovers. To put it into five simple words: "Best bang for the buck!"

I'll slapping on them Azenis next week so I'll add to this a bit more

 

Damn that's cool. I've been wanting to do that since all my bushings are torn as well, but it is ALOT of work and alot of $$$ if you don't have a hook up with a hydraulic press.

you get props from me.

How long did it take you to install the whole kit?

 

Well I started off
- burning the original rubber bushings on my front upper control arms and sanding the residue off (1.6 hours)
- trying to get my first bushing on unsuccessfully and giving up (1.5 hours)
- found a guy with a hydralic press, got two put in (20 minutes)

So 1 bushing takes about 5 min to remove and to put a new one in. So 10 minutes per bushing. Other than that good luck, I'll never try to install bushings w/o a press again. But Every bushing installed cost me $10 so I ended up paying $200 for the installation total.

 

Huh? it took you so long to install the new bushings? i installed my rear bushings, which i bought enegry suspension master bushing kit, with all bushings need, and it just plops right into the supsension arms/compoents... those poly bushings do not need to be hydraulically pressed.. you proably installed the wrong bushings or something...

 

I'm pretty sure they were the right bushings, they all fit in after 1 day of sitting in lubricant. The box did say Civic 92-95 master set. Unless I am suddenly struck with a large object on the head and become illiterate I do believe they are the right ones. I mainly used the press to push the old bushings out, getting them in was not that much of a problem. The upper front control arms are the bitchy ones though.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by THEINTEGRATION &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well I started off
- burning the original rubber bushings on my front upper control arms and sanding the residue off (1.6 hours)
- trying to get my first bushing on unsuccessfully and giving up (1.5 hours)
- found a guy with a hydralic press, got two put in (20 minutes)

So 1 bushing takes about 5 min to remove and to put a new one in. So 10 minutes per bushing. Other than that good luck, I'll never try to install bushings w/o a press again. But Every bushing installed cost me $10 so I ended up paying $200 for the installation total.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sounds to me like you left the rings installed...

Did you just burn out the rubber... that's it?... cuz you're supposed to cut out the metal linner to the bushing...

The poly bushings should press in by hand or at WORST a vice... DEFINATELY do not need a press...

I have a BONE STOCK suspension besides the master kit and I get asked regularly what kind of suspension I have... by people who either have or have been in cars with suspensions...

I'd say that says it all right there...

ALthough a year down the road the DO squeek and I got the "graphite impregnated" ones that are supposed to resist squeeking...

It's a BITCH of a job to do... but it's well worth it IMO...

Also roadracers say they where out in under a season of racing... so daily driving should kill them in a year or 2... But again it's a like 100 bucks for just about every bushing in the car... and once you've done the original install getting the old poly's out and the new one's in should take seconds...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Did you just burn out the rubber... that's it?... cuz you're supposed to cut out the metal linner to the bushing...</TD></TR></TABLE> yeah did that It was still a biatch to get in, I had 92% of then removed by press, and 92% pressed in manually by hand. Burning them out still left a lot of residue that had to be sanded off. So I decided pressing them out would be a cleaner job. I smelled like burned rubber and couldn't smell anything but burned rubber for the next few hours.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by THEINTEGRATION &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> yeah did that It was still a biatch to get in, I had 92% of then removed by press, and 92% pressed in manually by hand. Burning them out still left a lot of residue that had to be sanded off. So I decided pressing them out would be a cleaner job. I smelled like burned rubber and couldn't smell anything but burned rubber for the next few hours.</TD></TR></TABLE>

well from this comment, it sounds like you did not remove the outer metal sleeve that holds the rubber. it has to be pressed out. you said it left alot of rubber residue, if it did, then that means you did not remove the sleeve.

so the question is did you remove the sleeve?



as you see on stock one, see the metal sleeve, is that removed?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NonovUrbizniz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Also roadracers say they where out in under a season of racing... so daily driving should kill them in a year or 2... But again it's a like 100 bucks for just about every bushing in the car... and once you've done the original install getting the old poly's out and the new one's in should take seconds...</TD></TR></TABLE>

really???
Damn that would suck to keep having to replace them. Maybe OEM is the way for me.

Oem= 12years or more
E.S.= 1-2 yrs

please more comments on this one from people with experience with the product for longer periods of time.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4DRPIMPIN &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

really???
Damn that would suck to keep having to replace them. Maybe OEM is the way for me.

Oem= 12years or more
E.S.= 1-2 yrs

please more comments on this one from people with experience with the product for longer periods of time. </TD></TR></TABLE>

me, i just started with them on my car, will know next year how it looks, i will be doing alot scca and i take corners hard around here. ( in safe areas) plus i love exit ramps as well too.

 

LOL lucky for us we got access to school lift and press. Got the whole car on new bushings kicks ***. 8 hours of sweating. Rear was the biggest bitch!!! The car rides awesome though well worth it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by VTECR021 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so the question is did you remove the sleeve?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yeah, did that too. Well it's more like I left the sleeve in there but then later on I noticed that I had to take it out. They just refuse to go in sometimes. Plus I lubed them all before putting them in, that added a bit to the difficulty, having them slide around and all.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NonovUrbizniz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Also roadracers say they where out in under a season of racing... so daily driving should kill them in a year or 2...</TD></TR></TABLE>They should last longer I believe. Poly-urethane is more resistent to wear than rubber is. Rubber will crack and weaken when they wear, poly-urethane is more of a plastic polymer. Plastics are generally more resistent to wear than rubber. The guy that pressed out the old bushings for us told us that he did the bushing thing too. Not only did he noticed an increase in handling but he also mentioned that they should last twice as long as rubber bushings.

 

yeah dude you must of left the metal sleeve inside, first you need to press out the rubber then cut into the sleeve with a hack saw, and then press it out. Some times you are able to tap the sleeves out if you cut them enough. And new bushings should be able to get pressed in with just bare hands.

 

Did some quick research on poly-urethane as a material
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by http://www.sdplastics.com/polyuret.html &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Polyurethane is a unique material that offers the elasticity of rubber combined with the toughness and durability of metal. Because urethane is available in a very broad hardness range (eraser-soft to bowling-ball-hard), it allows the engineer to replace rubber, plastic and metal with the ultimate in abrasion resistance and physical properties. Polyurethane can reduce plant maintenance and OEM product cost. Many applications using this ultra-tough material have cut down-time, maintenance time and cost of parts to a fraction of the previous figures.

Urethanes have better abrasion and tear resistance than rubbers, while offering higher load bearing capacity.

Compared to plastics, urethanes offer superior impact resistance, while offering excellent wear properties and elastic memory.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't see why these bushings shouldn't last longer than the OEM rubber. I'll back to you guys in 20 years to finish this review

 

a friend and i did this in about 6 hours. we used an impact gun & a ball joint press. i couldn't imagine doing this by hand.

did your kit come with the rear lca bushings? mine didn't for some reason i elected not to install the trailing arm bushings, because they are too stiff, and create bump steer. and the tie rod end boots aren't even worth doing. i also didn't feel like doing the steering rack bushings. did you? do they make a difference?

but the bang for the buck with this mod is pretty high. it really stiffens the chassis up nicely. response is incredible, and the car feels more stable at speed. with an ex front sway bar and the comptech rear, body roll is minimal.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jwn7 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
did your kit come with the rear lca bushings? mine didn't for some reason

i also didn't feel like doing the steering rack bushings. did you? do they make a difference?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, a good amount of bushings went into just the lower control arm (3 bushings per hole, 3 holes, 18 bushings just for the LCAs alone)

And yes I did the steering rack, just the 4 small ones, not the big one with a cut through it, that's for cars equipped with PS, which I don't have. I do believe there's less play on the steering wheel, but that's a result of replacing all the bushings though.

I also skipped the cover for the balljoints because I am using skunk2 cambers in the front and it won't fit.

 

oh okay..

btw when i did it on my Prelude, at my auto tech class, i used the hydraulic press and found a socket of the same size of the sleeve, and a bigger socket on the bottom for support that is bigger than the sleeve, and just pumped the hydraulic, it just went thur with a loud squealing, screeching sound, not so friendly sound. did all bushings in like 10-20 mintues, no burning and melting of rubber was needed.. For the civic, i had to drop it off at s shop cuz i had no access to hydrauilc press.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by THEINTEGRATION &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yeah, a good amount of bushings went into just the lower control arm (3 bushings per hole, 3 holes, 18 bushings just for the LCAs alone)

And yes I did the steering rack, just the 4 small ones, not the big one with a cut through it, that's for cars equipped with PS, which I don't have. I do believe there's less play on the steering wheel, but that's a result of replacing all the bushings though.

I also skipped the cover for the balljoints because I am using skunk2 cambers in the front and it won't fit.</TD></TR></TABLE>

You are LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY... those balljoint covers SUCK... they don't seal properly and LOTS of people have complained in the past of their ball joints going bad shortly after installing them... One of my ball joints has gone bad since installing them... however I have a very high milage hard driven car so... I am not going to say for sure that's what caused it...

But most say not to use those or the RTA bushings as mentioned...

Oh and I found the quote and link for the roadracing thread on ES that says they wear out fast....

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by solo-x &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i had the master kit in my car as well. the bushings wore out in less then a year even with regular greasing. right now i'm using factory bushings throughout the car and i'm quite happy. they require less maintenance and the car doesn't feel any worse for it. and it don't squeak, rattle or groan.

i would still like to know how replacing the _pivot_ bushing on the trailing arm "reduced body roll".

nate-who is looking into the mugen trailing arm bushings</TD></TR></TABLE>

taken from:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=447213

 

Hmm, that's extremely strange. I'll get back this post in about a year or so then

 

Some weeks back, I was doing some major researching on trailing arm bushings and read a ton of information on H-T. After reading through all of the information, I've decided to go with Mugen Hard-Rubber bushings because the poly ones tend to wear out sooner.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDM Ninja &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Some weeks back, I was doing some major researching on trailing arm bushings and read a ton of information on H-T. After reading through all of the information, I've decided to go with Mugen Hard-Rubber bushings because the poly ones tend to wear out sooner.</TD></TR></TABLE>


The poly ES or Prothane trailing arm bushings cause "bump steer"... at a certain point in the normal travel of your trailing arm... they force the trailing arm to move over sideways.... making it seem like you have rearwheel steering all of a sudden... not exactly the safest design.

Wear is only a minor concern... imo.

All my ES bushings are over a year old and they all seem fine... I'm gunna be doing some more susp. work in the next week or so, So I'll check them out and post back here... I know that at least some of them have started to creek.. unless thats the few remaining stock bushings...

Overall even if they did wear out in a year... I'd still buy them and re-do them every year... they give GREAT improvement over stock bushings (even new ones) and they're DIRT cheap... to replace ALL your bushings stock would be over 300 bucks MINIMUM... and mugen... probobly more like 1k+...

I'll stick to ES and change them if they go bad... Except for the trailing arm...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NonovUrbizniz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Overall even if they did wear out in a year... I'd still buy them and re-do them every year... they give GREAT improvement over stock bushings (even new ones) and they're DIRT cheap... to replace ALL your bushings stock would be over 300 bucks MINIMUM... and mugen... probobly more like 1k+...

I'll stick to ES and change them if they go bad... Except for the trailing arm...</TD></TR></TABLE>


so far we have 1 bad experience. until we see some significant reoccurances, i wouldn't worry about it in the least. even then, just replace them when it happens.

 

funny, as I progressed with the bushing install on my buddie's car, he said the ride got worse and worse with each install. We did the front lower LCAs first. It handled better, but rode a little worse. The rear were a few weeks later, and he said it rode even worse. It isn't unbearable, just not as smooth as before, more of a shocking ride.

 

I'm running a pretty stiff spring rate, shocks are set pretty high too so I'm already used to the harsh ride. Personally I think the ride quality improved after the bushing install.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DavidR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">funny, as I progressed with the bushing install on my buddie's car, he said the ride got worse and worse with each install. We did the front lower LCAs first. It handled better, but rode a little worse. The rear were a few weeks later, and he said it rode even worse. It isn't unbearable, just not as smooth as before, more of a shocking ride.</TD></TR></TABLE>


everybody has different preferences, your friend proably does not like harsh rough ride, proably just likes soft ride.

Once you upgrade your suspension to handle well, exepect it to get a little stiffer, and rougher or even really stiff.