wishbone bushes

[matty172cup]

hey is it worth changing my standard wishbone bushes to the poly ones???

Matty

 

[ScarabGreenMan]

My 172 Phase 1 just turned 63k miles so I opted for a bush upgrade. K-Tec racing supply a full wishbone and front anti-roll bar kit for under £120. I got my local garage to fit them and I must say the difference is notable. Having looked at the old ones I have to say they were well-worn, the new PowerFlex items have much improved the steering response. They squeak a bit, though that's to be expected from tight, brand new un-lubricated uprated poly-bushes. I tied in this upgrade with a set of Eibach Pro-Line springs, as the car had just failed it's mot with a corroded back spring. These springs drop the car a very subtle 10mm at the rear, and 15mm at the front. Combined with the poly-bush upgrade these futher sharpened the handling, and actually IMPROVED the ride - the OEM springs were very bouncy, the new Eibach items alot more progressive yet still offer a comfortable ride. Another point worthy of note, the iconic Clio 182 Trophy rides on Eibach springs (selected by Renault), along with it's infamous remote-reservoir SACHs dampers. Hope this helps.

 

[matty172cup]

im only plannin on doing the wishbones im already set up on coilovers and have front strut brace just want to tighten up the front that little bit more Kam racing do the wishbone kit for about £50 so think im going to get them ive seen on here that there are different sizes if i just tell them i have a 172 cup then they should know what ones to send me

Matty

 

[ScarabGreenMan]

Great, what coilovers are you running? What benefits did they offer over the standard set-up? Heard lots about good and bad coilover sets. Will move onto coils eventually, but have other things on my list to deal with first. A front strut is one of them. Cheers

 

[matty172cup]

im using GAZ coilovers at mo alot of people dont like them but i find them good alot better from standard set up

Matty

 

[YorkshireDaz]

Any pics? Matty

 

[matty172cup]

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[matty172cup]

im on my phone at the minute ill put a few pics up tonite im lookin at some solid top mounts to

Matty

 

[ripp]

be careful with the wishbone bushes! they started to squeak and I thought "oh well I expected this" but it turned out that the outer sleeves on 2 bushes came out and were rubbing against the subframe mountings..
this lead to some damage to the mountings but I managed to make some other custom made sleeves and welded them to the arms. I suggest you do the same to prevent this nasty stuff from happening

 

[matty172cup]

do you have a pic of that or a pic of what you have now done?

Matty

 

[ripp]

I do have two pics with one of the bush that came out, but since I'm not at home right now I can't post the pic with the job done. you just have to make or order some other sleeves (or reposition them if things aren't as bad as in my case) and weld them on the arm in 5 or 6 spots as this will be enough to hold them in place. if you want as soon as I get back home I'll post up the pics with the welding done

 

[ripp]

as you can see this is pretty nasty stuff and it will damage your tracking geometry.
Good luck!

 

[matty172cup]

i got ya now dude the outer sleeve that sits around the bush slowly came out so just get them into position and tack them in
thanks for your time getting the pics up much appreciate it

Matty

 

[ripp]

no problem! hope that everyone else will see this

 

[sammyhale22]

I got mine tack welded as advised by powerflex.

 

[ScarabGreenMan]

be careful with the wishbone bushes! they started to squeak and I thought "oh well I expected this" but it turned out that the outer sleeves on 2 bushes came out and were rubbing against the subframe mountings..
this lead to some damage to the mountings but I managed to make some other custom made sleeves and welded them to the arms. I suggest you do the same to prevent this nasty stuff from happening

OK thanks for the heads-up on this, I'm not a mechanic or even DIY meachanic so am new to tuning. Will get the car looked at to see if the sleevs have worked out of line.

 

[ScarabGreenMan]

be careful with the wishbone bushes! they started to squeak and I thought "oh well I expected this" but it turned out that the outer sleeves on 2 bushes came out and were rubbing against the subframe mountings..
this lead to some damage to the mountings but I managed to make some other custom made sleeves and welded them to the arms. I suggest you do the same to prevent this nasty stuff from happening

Got my man to tack weld the sleeves today, said they were all in place ok on the wishbones, but the weld has stopped the squeaking. Good news, thanks for the advice.

 

[SBV116]

I fit some monday, and i find it hard to believe they could fall out! they were a c**t to put in!!!

Did you fit them bushes yourself pal?

 

[GodSpeed]

I have these bushes as well and the sleeves must be welded in place. Not just crappy spot welds as I used the first time. These spotwelds broke after some serious track abuse. So now I have 3x3cm TIG welds on each sleeve.

So do it propper the first time.

 

[franx]

^^ good read. been thinking of doing the rubbers , i think i will stick to oem ones because no track use yet.