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Polyurethane suspension insert review (LONG)

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Old 03-25-2003 | 05:58 AM
  #11  
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You should have taken step by step pictures of the whole process ad I mean step by step.
Old 03-25-2003 | 06:01 AM
  #12  
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Thanks for the review.

1. How long did it take you?
2. You've had the motor mount inserts for a long time now haven't you? Does the polyurethane "soften" up over time?
3. What does your tool list for the job look like? Is this adequate:
-drill
-hacksaw
-punch and hammer
-wirewheel on dremel

Looking forward to hearing your impressions after the alignment.
1. Took me about 2-3 hours to get the front suspension off (if I didn't screw around). Took me like 6-8 hours to take the bushings out, and press the new ones in the front.

Rear took about 1 hours to remove. Taking the bushings out for the trailling arm took me about 3-4 hours. The ITR rea lca's took about 1 hour to remove the 3 out of 4 bushings, and the last bushing took me like and 1 hour on it's own.

Installation of the front end took me about 2-3 hours to put back on (tryin' to find where the bolt went and so forth). The rear end took me about 2-3 hours because the rear lca and trailling arms were a pint in the ass. Plus I had to reassemble the parking brake cable go into the trailing arm and all that nonsense.

2. I've had the Prothane motor mount inserts for about a year and a half. No softening up that I can tell of.

3. Tools I used:
Drill and various drill bits
Jigsaw with blades to cut metal sleeve
4lbs hammer (anything smaller is a waste of time)
Punch, but I used mainly a flat head screw driver
Wire wheel on a drill
Also a bench grinder that had the wire wheel on one side.
22oz Corona

I also had to bite the bullet and have some stuff pressed in at my friends shop. 95% of the stuff I did all at home.

If you got access to a blow torch use it, but I don't know anyone with one. So drill and saw your way through


I pick my car up from the shop in 6 hours Cost me $200 to get them installed
Jesus that's not a bad price. I called up a ricer shop in my area for shits and giggles to see how much they'd charge, and they said $100 just for removal. I thanked him for the good laugh. I'd still say do yourself.
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Old 03-25-2003 | 06:01 AM
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Originally posted by OblivionLord
You should have taken step by step pictures of the whole process ad I mean step by step.
http://www.uncg.edu/~jkschisl/susp
Old 03-25-2003 | 10:44 AM
  #14  
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Originally posted by Bumnah
Jesus that's not a bad price. I called up a ricer shop in my area for shits and giggles to see how much they'd charge, and they said $100 just for removal. I thanked him for the good laugh. I'd still say do yourself.
Yeah it's a small shop that a bunch of my road racing guys recommended.

I didn't have time do go through this all myself so I asked someone where he got his bushing installed on his One Lap Of America Firebird and he recommended this place.

He's like $20-40/hour.
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Old 03-25-2003 | 07:55 PM
  #15  
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Finally got her aligned and found new problems.

I noticed a significant amount of rubbing and scraping. I also had weird brakes. If I pumped them up they'd work fine. After the first use. I'd have to pump them up again.

I didn't open up the lines when I did the work, so I didn't see how the brake lines had air in 'em. I was thinking perhaps a dieing master cylinder.

After worryin' about it for a few hours I got a chance to jack the car up at my friends house and see what's up. It turns out one of my axle nuts was lose and started to come out. I tightened up the axle nut, and I cut some fender liner to get rid of anything hitting the wheels. I checked the other side to see how the axle nut was, and it was fine. That has appeared to fix 99% of my problems. Brakes are fine no odd rubbing or scratching.

Differences:
The car seems to be lower right off the bat, I dunno if it's because of my camber kit or what but the car is def. lower on all four sides. I dunno how that could've happened, but it did. I maintain almost full suspension load in the rear. With the rear jacked up I have a 2 finger gap between the rear tires and the fender well. Pretty mean looking .

Driving impressions: Simply put the car is more stable around everything. I didn't do crazy with it, but I def. did push it around turns. It seems to turn in well. There is signficatnly less "spongeness". I have greater confidence throwing the car into turns. I shifted hard into second in a hard left turn, the front end stayed on line no weird movements no wheel hop. The car is def. stiffer. There is not cushioning of the little bumps. But there is also no bouncy effect.

The car feels rejuvenated. I also have no odd squeaks from the bushings. I dunno if they develop over time or what, but I hope I don't have any squeaks. Everyone should go crazy with the grease doing their stuff.

Hopefully this post was helpful.
Enjoy.
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Old 03-25-2003 | 08:15 PM
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my car actually sat a bit higher, because of the new perky bushings..
Old 03-26-2003 | 06:32 AM
  #17  
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1. How long will the new bushings last vs to the stock bushings?

2. Where can you buy those new bushings?

3. I got a 98, do I even need to consider the bushings at this point?

Manincamino your site has great pics but, some of it confuses me cause there aren't words
Old 03-26-2003 | 08:03 AM
  #18  
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Originally posted by ManInCamo
my car actually sat a bit higher, because of the new perky bushings..
i'll leave that alone.......

yea the car im buying has these bushings in the rear, but not up front (dont ask me why), how much do the kits cost cause ill just order a set and finish the front up, or i can just wait for jon to come home for the summer and steal his
Old 03-26-2003 | 08:56 AM
  #19  
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Originally posted by OblivionLord
1. How long will the new bushings last vs to the stock bushings?

2. Where can you buy those new bushings?

3. I got a 98, do I even need to consider the bushings at this point?

Manincamino your site has great pics but, some of it confuses me cause there aren't words

1. From my readings, a lot longer than the stock rubber.

2. ES sells a hypeflex kit which has a lot of the bushings you'd want. I'd research into what Prothane offers and how much they charge for their kit. User here named Westcoaststyle sells the ES kit, and I order my Prothane stuff from Phils INC (www.philsinc.com).

3. That would depend. What kinda 98 civic do you have? Do you have a dx or cx or lx or an ex? The best time to do this would be when you are doing a lot of stuff at once. Let's say you are swapping in the whole Si front suspension. So you alreayd have extra LCA's to swap in. So if you are doing a full suspension swap to something better you'd replace the bushings for the new suspension, and simply swap everything over. So you get new bushings and new Si suspension. If you are doing the rear disc brake conversion. You swap out the rubber in your new stuff, and put it all in together. That makes the most sense. I should've done this when I swapped over all my ITR suspension, but I made a bad choice, and had to literaly do everything over again.

Hope I helped.
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Old 03-26-2003 | 09:10 PM
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Mine is an ex lowered with yellows and skunk2 coils. I dont notice any ride problems so im wondering if even doing the bushings is even beneficial to my driving style which Im not a racer but, an economical driver. Maybe there are key points as to what the bushings would look like when they are bad? If you have a few pics as to what should look severe then please post. I plan on doing all the work myself since ive done the work on the rest of the car myself as well.




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