suspension bushing review
 

I just purchased another FD and I'm going to need to change out the suspension bushings.

I see basically 3 options:
1)oem bushings
2)Jim Labs Nylon bushings
3)Mazdaspeed


I've already got a set of nylon bushings for the diff, now I need to figure out what I'm going to do for the suspension arms. My goal is to have a car with a balance between performance and comfort, somewhat of a middleground. Price is a factor as I have lost of other things to pay for at the moment.

Now I've read a post by MaxCooper stating that the nylon bushings made the car overly punishing to drive. Id like to hear some more testimony from owners who are currently running nylon bushings.

How do the three types rank in your from your experiences durabiltywise?

Mazdaspeed bushings are said to be a good middleground between stock and nylon but they are conciderably more expensive.

stiffer bushings are required in the trailing arms to prevent toe changes, since it will be difficult to find someone willing to part with ony their nylon trailing arm bushings I will probably have to go with mazdaspeed bushings or aftermarket arms. Any suggestions.

lastly if we could do a price comparison (along with points of purchase) of the three bushing sets...

Do a search for bushing and Howard Coleman. Your questions will be answered.

Here's what I recommend:

1. keep all your current rubber bushings until you get through this whole list; you will probably have spent more than you intended already at that point...

2. check all of the pillow balls and ball joints (replacing these will fix all your problems, most likely, and you will be very happy with the result versus upgrading other bushings while you still have some problems here)
a) if you find bad ball joints, you'll get new rubber bushings when you buy replacement arms (I just got 4 new rubber bushings with my new front upper arms - $510 for the pair)
b) if/when you find bad pillow balls, replace them with the stock parts (~$55 each)
c) the body side of the rear lower lateral link/arm (not the trailing arm; the other one) is a pillow ball suspended in rubber ~$60 each (I found a little play in one of mine, so I ordered new bushings for those)
d) if you find bad toe link bushings, I recommend OEM replacements because they will last longer and perform essentially the same

3. To reduce wheel hop, replace the trailing links with aftermarket units. You'll probably have to replace the rod ends more frequently than any of your other bushings but it will be worth it. Alternately, perhaps someone will offer an upgrade bushing set (pillow balls or nylon/Delrin) for just these two bushings that would last longer than rod ends. The Mazdaspeed bushings might be a good option here, but I wonder if they are stiff enough?

4. If you want to spend more money at this point, get some Mazdaspeed bushings.

-Max

i also want to update the trailing arm bushings, but i hear that they are only available from mazda comp (which u have to be a member) or ordered from japan, that takes 4 weeks or so from when i called corksport racing. i think ill probably just get the rotary extreme trailing arms.

if price is a big factor, replacing all those bushings is gona be expensive. unless there is a lot of play, i would just replace the trailing arms and rear pillow balls, should give alot of improvement.

Thanks for the input, is Malloy going to be the best guy to go to for pillow balls? Also if you have the PNs handy.... if not I'll just do a search later today and post them.
It would be good if we could get a spreadsheet going of all of the PNs for OEM and Mazdaspeed suspension bushings balljoints etc for the forums sake so we can put all of this info in a sticky.

side note: The suspension that I'm working with has over 100k miles on it.

The rear pillowball part# is fd01-26-220 , just got mine from malloy (~$55/ each).

thanks for the intel

you need to also add in the PITA factor of replacing the bushings. You need a hydraulic press/ram to get the stockers out and the new ones in. It was not pleasant and can be potentially dangerous as there is a lot of energy that could be "released" as you use metal bar stock and sockets to push the bushings out with the press. A few times when I did mine they slipped and the noise after the parts flew everywhere was quite unnerving.

I did the 18 piece JimLab bushings (added Zerk fittings) and (6) new rear pillow ball bushings in their respective places. Also added M2 toe links/trailing arms also. I should have some ride feedback soon. I'm running GAB shocks and 550/450# coilovers which is about the spring rate limit for a comfortable ride but still a competitive setup. People run higher spring rates... but I'm sure their fillings fall out of their head more frequently. It is all in the combination.

-Mark