Polybushes

[AlabamaShrimp]

My Fiesta ST has a hard ride as standard but after 10 years it's getting sloppy and banging about more than ever. So instead of just changing the broken bushes for normal ones I'd thought about a full set of Polybushes.

 

Thing is I know they can make the ride hard and am worried it might make the ride even harder.

 

So has anyone used these? What are they like to live with and in the end was it worth doing?

[UltraWomble]

I polybushed a Mk2 Fiesta years ago during my Lax Power phase.

 

I shall ask just one question....

 

Do you like your teeth?

 

 

Hard? Jarring? Unforgiving ride afterwards?

Bloody hell yes.

[fordperv]

I find polybushes great to be fair, all my cars have felt firmer but still stayed comfortable to drive, remember it's all down to the shore hardness of the bushes and where you use them, alot of people make the mistake of getting the hardest bushes they can find then complain that it's spoilt their car.

 

This should give you an idea of hardness and their uses

 

http://www.superflex.co.uk/hardnessguide.php

[AlabamaShrimp]

Thanks for the link. For some reason I never thought about getting different hardness ones for different areas. Tbh I'm sure the place I looked at just sent a set that were all the same.

 

After the ST I was going to do the mk2 if it was OK but I do like how squashy it is.

[mercrocker]

They may be a necessary default choice if the rubber alternative is anything like the marshmallow they spray black and sell to British classic owners.

[3VOM]

My Fiesta ST has a hard ride as standard but after 10 years it's getting sloppy and banging about morbihan ever. So instead of just changing the broken bushes for normal ones I'd thought about a full set of Polybushes.

You must have the weirdest predictive text software - Morbihan is an area of Brittany. Although some of those country roads are a bit bumpy.

[sierraman]

I polybushed the rear link arms on the Mondeo, I was buying the standard ford bushes and replacing them all the time. The polybushed ones lasted years. Can be tricky to press in as they tend to be harder than the originals. Worth having for wear prone parts, but to be fair the Fiesta isn't particularly hard on the suspension in the same way older fiestas and Kas used to wear the wishbone bushes out with monotonous regularity.

[Skizzer]

The Autoshite way is to make your own out of old kitchen chopping boards, as someone on here did recently (RatDat? 4wheeledStool? One of our resident resto heroes).

 

I'd find the thread and link to it but I'm on a phone this morning. Soz.

[Heidel_Kakao]

The Autoshite way is to make your own out of old kitchen chopping boards, as someone on here did recently (RatDat? 4wheeledStool? One of our resident resto heroes).

 

I'd find the thread and link to it but I'm on a phone this morning. Soz.

 

 

It was Krujoe in the Samara thread, on page 13.

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/8827-samara-rofl-%C2%A3350-3-for-%C2%A310-last-shout-now-live-draw-sf16/page-13

[derskine]

I've got them on my Cortina, can't say I really notice them.

[UltraWomble]

Obviously I got "hard as nails" ones then.

 

Who made an engine mount out of the sole of an old shoe? [/off_topic]

[Asimo]

I used them on the Subaru Legacy track control arms. No noticeable effect on either ride or vibration but big improvement in steering and seem to last unlike the original squidgys. 

[AlabamaShrimp]

Sounds like a good idea so far. Anyone got a workshop and a press I can use

[Bren]

I fitted them to my mondeo - rear subframe bushes are a weak spot.

 

I pulled them in with jaguar head bolts and washers.

 

They are hard, but stop the suspension moving around so much, meaning the tyres wear less.

 

Can somebody post the link to the French guy who made one out of one of his sandals?

[fordperv]

Sounds like a good idea so far. Anyone got a workshop and a press I can use

This is autoshite we use sockets, washers and threaded bar or sockets and a vice

[AlabamaShrimp]

None of which I have!

[fordperv]

Bugger, I'd say your cheapest and easiest way then is to buy a length of threaded bar and sufficient washers and nuts and do it that way, I presume you do have a socket set?

[Tamworthbay]

As they are cheaper to make than decent rubber ones you have to ask yourself why oem ones aren't poly bush if they are superior.

[fordperv]

Well it could be down to planned obsolescence by car manufacturers why bother making a product that lasts when you can sell another product when it fails, it could be down to the general publics view on noise, vibration and hardness

[AlabamaShrimp]

Bugger, I'd say your cheapest and easiest way then is to buy a length of threaded bar and sufficient washers and nuts and do it that way, I presume you do have a socket set?

I'll get some. I've got loads of tools just not always the ability to use them

[stripped fred]

My mr2 has polybushes all round as the original rubber items were perished. It was done about 8 years ago. It rides really nicely and although firmish as also has a koni sports suspension kit I am very happy with it. There is very little play and it feels very direct. Recommended +++

[lisbon_road]

I have used them on my Sierra for the compliance bushes, the ones on the track control arms at the front.  They are a notorious weak part that doesn't last long.  With just one bush in the set up being poly, the ride is ok.  I really like the idea of soft poly bushes but haven't seen them much myself.

[Tamworthbay]

Well it could be down to planned obsolescence by car manufacturers why bother making a product that lasts when you can sell another product when it fails, it could be down to the general publics view on noise, vibration and hardness

I doubt it's the latter as if it was they would offer it on 'sporty' models. I can't think of a single big manufacturer that uses them from new but there be ones that I don't know about. I wonder what the likes of Ferrari and Porsche use?

[PhillipM]

As they are cheaper to make than decent rubber ones you have to ask yourself why oem ones aren't poly bush if they are superior.

Because polybushes are actually bearings, not bushes, so you end up with loads of friction and wear that a twisting rubber bush doesn't suffer from.

 

Porsche use spherical bearings on the very high end models, rubber elsewhere  - as a nice ground ball bearing running against Teflon/Kevlar in a sealed boot is a far lower friction solution than a grippy rubber substance against a steel tube that's open to road grit...

[littlered]

I doubt it's the latter as if it was they would offer it on 'sporty' models. I can't think of a single big manufacturer that uses them from new but there be ones that I don't know about. I wonder what the likes of Ferrari and Porsche use?

 

At least some of the MG ZRs were fitted with polybushes. I bought a set for mine and only found out once I'd taken it all apart.