Since I've got my car running pretty much as fast as I need it to now, I'm in the market to upgrade my suspension.

There's a lot of discussion on coilover and racespring setups, so that's not oo much of an issue. What I'm interested in is finding a good complete bushing kit. Any experiences? I've got quite a handful of bushings on my car that wont last more than 10K miles, and thus I want to replace them before they become problematic.

Also... labor involved with putting that damn kit in. Will it be something that I could handle as a suspension newbie, or should I let a professional handle it?

 

i know that Energy Brushings are great... but the install is a b*tch... shop was gunna charge 400-500 to install. good luck

 

I'm installing Energy Suspension's full kit in my son's Integra right now. Since I was replacing the half-shafts anyway the timing was right. With the right tools and a decent manual it's fairly straight forward. However, not without challenges. First, the 6-ton press I borrowed to press out the control arm bushings wasn't up to the task so my Volvo shop is handling that for me. Second, get a really good tie rod/ball joint separator. I used a "pickle fork" and damaged all of the boots. Fortunately, the kit includes new urethane boots-I guess we'll see if they're any good. Could conceivably be done in a single weekend-but if you have to get bushings pressed out by a shop-probably not.

 

trailing arm bushings = HUGE pain in the ass

 

For Control Arm Bushings, check out out sponsor, www.orijinmotorsports.com :thumbup:

 

Meh... I threw the idea past my mom (I just graduated and I'm living at home this summer), and it's a no go to take over the garage for anything more than a night

Taking over the garage would mean that my dad's 1950 ford would have to be curbed for a couple of days, and, to quote my mother, "That is not a possibility"...

Oh well, either wait until I move out, or buckle under and let someone who know what the hell they're doing handle it

 

Just to do the lower front bushings took me a full week. But I did have a lot of other stuff going on -- friend's wedding, family visiting, that sort of thing.

If I went at it seriously, I could have done it in one weekend (assuming access to a big press).

I think that doing the upper front control arms would have added only about two hours to the job. They are pretty simple to remove.

The *worst* time sink was stripping the old paint from the eyes of the front LCA. There is an area that the Energy bushings cover with a lip that is not so covered by the stock rubber shell bushing. The paint was rusting and flaking and I figured it would squeak against the urethane unless cleaned off smoothly; it took many sessions of applying naval jelly to get it clean.

Will report after I do the rear LCAs next week.

Anyway, urethane is incredible. I have Prothane end links on one car and now have the Energy master set going on another. I would be pissed off if I didn't have the urethane option, and had to do all this work to put on new crappy factory rubber bushings that will just oxidize and crack and flop around in two years or so.

 

I read that if you take the car apart and bring them the suspension pieces to get the old bushings out of it is alot cheaper than bringin them the whole car, should I just do this if I dont have a giant press and I can let my car sit for a few days? If I'm doing sway bars and shocks and springs at the same time it shouldnt be too difficult to take out all the pieces right? thanks

 

If all you're doing is sway bar, shocks and springs the only special tool you need is a spring compressor to disassemble the strut assembly. The rest uses basic hand tools. The funs starts when, and if, you decide to do control arms bushings.

 

There's been a lot of talk about suspension bushings in the Civic forum. I just finished doing this and started up a discussion about it. I did the trailing arm bushing also. One of the best mods I've done especially since the 10 year old bushings were wearing out.


Here's some links.
https://www.honda-acura.net/forums/s...light=bushings

https://www.honda-acura.net/forums/s...light=bushings

https://www.honda-acura.net/forums/s...light=bushings

https://www.honda-acura.net/forums/s...light=bushings

https://www.honda-acura.net/forums/s...light=bushings

https://www.honda-acura.net/forums/s...light=bushings