Polybushes - good or not

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What are your thoughts on "Polybushes", or Polyurethane bushings instead of the standard rubber ones?

Do they offer advantages over standard rubber ones and do they have any disadvantages?
 
Never tried em. Many people say they can be noisier than standard rubber bushes but I have no evidence to support this either way.
 
I don't think heat is an issue, well, cetainly not for track days.

Poly bushes are solid lumps of plastic, often with steel sleeves between bush and bolt, with virtually no give in them.

This is an advantage on a race car as it allows for fine adjustment of the suspension and restricts unwanted movement. As a race car is routinely striped and inspected polybushes work well in this environment.

On a road car, the difference in suspension movement between a polybush and an unworn standard bush is virtually unoticable. Anyone who claims otherwise is probably comparing polybushes with worn OEM units, as polybushes usually replace old OEM ones.

What most modders don't appreciate is that to work properly, polybushes have to be kept lubricated, especially the steel sleeve. If not kept lubricated they will start to squeak and the sleeve will wear, resulting in more suspension play than they had before!

If this is rubbush, then please put me straight :)
 
As I said, they will allow finer adjustment, but the difference is small and would not be noticed driving within the speed limits on UK highways. Besides, very few modders have any idea how to set up their suspenson so wouldn't be able to use this advantage over rubber bushes..

If maintained properly they may well last longer, but very few are.

What I forgot to mention is that polybushes tend to transmit more road noise into the cabin as they don't have the noise insulation properties of rubber.

Most people fit polybushes because everyone else does and it looks cool to the general unwashed.
 
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Me sticking with rubber then. The car I am using at the moment rides quietly and smoothy and arrow straight. God I am fussy about suspension geometry.

Forget the mass market alignment, I use Aline in Wellington Road, Dudley, West Midlannds to keep my car on the straight and narrow. Given the state of the roads at present I visit every three to four months.
 
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Me sticking with rubber then. The car I am using at the moment rides quietly and smoothy and arrow straight. God I am fussy about suspension geometry.

Forget the mass market alignment, I use Aline in Wellington Road, Dudley, West Midlannds to keep my car on the straight and narrow. Given the state of the roads at present I visit every three to four months.

Next time your in my home town let me know and I'd love to meet up with you Paul!
 
For normal roadwork I would happily agree that bushes are bushes but some vehicles are used for trackwork so are worth fitting

But bushes do wear out so replacing them definately does give an improvement ( or maybe we should say restores the handling to as new)

The oem bushes are also often a lot more expensive - over double if they are nissan , so that is one reason for using them.

Also there are instances where polybushes will work better. They are sometimes better designed.

My oem stagea subframe bushes for example have open segments so there is much more flex than if the bushes were in one piece .

The whiteline ones I fitted are one piece so flex less



Just for the record I replace the entire rear end bushes with whiteline polybushes - True you dont notice much at normal road speeds but the diference is really noticeable when cornering hard.
 
On a road car, the difference in suspension movement between a polybush and an unworn standard bush is virtually unoticable. Anyone who claims otherwise is probably comparing polybushes with worn OEM units, as polybushes usually replace old OEM ones.

What most modders don't appreciate is that to work properly, polybushes have to be kept lubricated, especially the steel sleeve. If not kept lubricated they will start to squeak and the sleeve will wear, resulting in more suspension play than they had before!

If this is rubbush, then please put me straight :)[/QUOTE]

I used poly bushes on my 306, i changed all of the suspension....and i do litterally mean all of it at the same time, the reason for changing go poly bushes for me at the time was that the oem bushes are crap on 306's they wear quickly and when you increase the torque of the engine the tend to disintigrate quite quickly so the done thing is to upgrade, Lynx make some roller baring bushes for the 306 which do have to be greased preiodicly but they have grease nipples on them so easy to service,
I didnt know that poly bushes required prieodic lubrication though....
On the 205 i wont be bothering with them though because digging out the rubber bushes from the arm (they are pressed in from the factory) and they are way more hasstle than its worth... ill just save up for some rose jointed adjustable arms...
 
So what would you recommend I do, I need/want to renew all bushes on my Mazda mx5, do I just get all original or go for power flex/white line?
I will use it for road use daily, and want to upgrade handling but not make it uncomfortable.
 
Over here any serious road driven registered car that is tracked will eventually have poly bushes.
 
There isn't a single 'polybush' on the Elan. Steering rack is clamped with aluminium brackets, front suspension is rod ends and ball joints, rear is rod ends and OEM bushes, engine mounts are sold and gearbox hard rubber. The rubber in the OEM bushes is approx 2-3mm thick so there is not a lot of flex.
 
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Greetings TTobzz and a Warm Welcome to our TorqueCars Forum my Friend!

Good to have you along with us :)
 
The isn't a single 'polybush' on the Elan. Steering rack is clamped with aluminium brackets, front suspension is rod ends and ball joints, rear is rod ends and OEM bushes, engine mounts are sold and gearbox hard rubber. The rubber in the OEM bushes is approx 2-3mm thick so there is not a lot of flex.

From what little I know about Elans is that they were built to handle not comfort hence the rod ends and thin bushes.and that they were built waaay before there were any poly bushes made for any car.
 
when i reshelled my capri years ago i polybushed everything seemed to be a good move,i dont know of long term effect as sold it soon after as i bought a skyline!,i remember being sort of gutted because of the cost and not being able to see where the money went unless you jacked the car up!!
 
From what little I know about Elans is that they were built to handle not comfort hence the rod ends and thin bushes.and that they were built waaay before there were any poly bushes made for any car.

No rod ends on a standard Elan, only rubber bushes:



The top ones were fitted to the front wishbones (inner) and have been replaced with rod ends. The middle bushes fit in the rear lower wishbones (outer) and I have retained these as there is very little rubber in them. The bottom bushes fit into the lower rear wishbones (inner) - one has been retained and one replaced with a rod end for toe adjustment
 
No rod ends on a standard Elan, only rubber bushes:



The top ones were fitted to the front wishbones (inner) and have been replaced with rod ends. The middle bushes fit in the rear lower wishbones (outer) and I have retained these as there is very little rubber in them. The bottom bushes fit into the lower rear wishbones (inner) - one has been retained and one replaced with a rod end for toe adjustment

Not a lot of room for movement in them ;)
 
No, hence no point in changing to polybushes :)

You must be heading to the airport soon :)

Getting close now with only 1 sleep left :D

We fly out at 11pm Monday night so hope to get a bit of kip on the way to Singapore where we change planes.
 
I hope your still available to answer the odd tricky tuning question OG, 4 weeks is a long time without one of our premier car boffins about :)
 
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