OK guys. I swear I searched. Didn't find much on this particular subject, which surprised me.

I'm turning my attention to suspension. Right now, I'm bone stock with 185K+ miles. Shocks were replaced in 2007 for stockers. So, I'm cherry and want to make good choices.

I think I've got a good handle on shocks, springs, sways, etc. from the Suspension Hierarchy thread and others (read . . . I'm confused as hell . . . so many choices).

But what about bushings? Worth replacing? If so, what is the material of choice. I would think stock rubber for 100% street use, some kind of poly for 100% track use, ??? for mixed use? What about the harder rubber Mazdaspeeds?

My head hurts.

 

Check my sig. Smooth as butter. A little too soft for what I was after but a stiffer shock/spring combo and Ill find that sweet spot. DD.

 

And if you're not the kind that's good with figuring out license plate abbreviations, rbluemx6 means the Energy Suspension master kit.

 

If you ever track the car, get the poly bushings. If not, who cares? I have poly on my track car and love them, but I also have great shocks too. It would be nice to have them on my daily, but if you're not loading up the suspension on the track, its not worth the labor.

 

Yeah I just spent a crap ton of time(14+ hours) this past weekend installing my ES polyurethane control arm bushings. Granted, this was the first time I disassembled all my control arms, but it was definitely a lot of labor... I also went ahead and replaced the eccentrics since mine had over 90k miles on them.

I feel like it was worth the effort overall. The car feels much stiffer/crisper. I also daily my car, and more stiff of course means a rougher ride on the street. So it is a compromise, and I could see how it wouldn't be worth it to some people. If you have the time/energy, I highly recommend it.

I ended up burning the old rubber bushings out and that was fun

 

Fire! Fire! Heh, heh!

Worth doing poly for auto-X vs. track? Sounds like it.

 

I burned out my diff bushings and the fire truck came by to put a stop to my insolence.

 

I did the ES master kit too.
The funny thing was that the bushes that came out looked as good as new. I was disappointed to see that, wondering if all effort was wasted by replacing good as new bushings.
I had the "65MPH" shimmy but it is gone now. All and all the car feels tight and right. So It made a difference even though my bushings looked good.
The only thing I would not change is the diff bushings. It makes the car vibrate. But that could be the engine mounts as I changed them the same time.
I would do it again.
I did not torch them out, Just used a 3-leg puller. Lubricate the old bushings before you pull them out with some WD40 and they will go easy. It took me a day of work to do all bushings. Maybe even less.
You do need an 4 wheel alignment after putting the bushes on.

 

Did the '97 with poly and love it. Little harsher ride. Used the torch for it and other than messy, a few beers and a buddy make it a lot easier/fun. I did the suspension and the diff in one shot and was okay. I did get the vibrations after the motor mount switch but since my old ones where in 4 pieces so who knows. Car corners on rails compared to before.