poly / nolathane front lower bushes- sucess or fail ?

[speedzter]

Did a quick search and couldn't find what I wanted.
I took a set of used lower front control arms to Pedders to get the old rubber bushes removed, and said I have nolathane bushes to put in.

He gave me a big lecture on how crap the poly style bushses are, and said they might last 6 months !

This is the bush I'm planning to use:
http://www.nolathane.com.au/product_...=45756&sq=1959

Has anyone had success with the large front poly bushses lasting ?

Cheers

[Trump]

Old mate just wanted you to buy what he had on the shelf.

I'd personally go Superpro over Nolathane. They have that little bit of extra give compared to the compound used in the Nolathane product.

[mcfly94]

Superpro over Nolathane any day.
Ive used superpro on the UCA, strut top, sway bar d-bushes and lower shock mount bushes.
To be honest i like the feel of genuine rubber in the inner uca, and would definitely recommend putting genuine rubber/mackay equivalent in the lca.

[snap0964]

+1 Superpro. Very durable and hard wearing. Agree using rubber for the LCA's - urethane bushes you'll feel the harshness. Superpro fine for everything else - particularly the radius rods - too much flex with rubber.

[Sox]

As the others have said, Superpro have a different formula to Nolathane and last much longer.

I have a few AU's that have every bush replaced with Superpro and couldn't recommend it higher.
Way better than the standard rubber.

I haven't noticed much increase in NVH, in fact I feel in some ways it's improved as the suspension handles large bumps much better.

The extra control is well worth it.

[speedzter]

Thanks for the replies.
At least no one has bagged the poly bushes.
Not really worried about NVH.

All of the bushes I have are Superpro except for the big front lower one.
For whatever reason, I didn't like the design of the 3 piece Superpro version as much as the Nolathane 2 piece version.

Cheers

[mcfly94]

Originally Posted by speedzter

Thanks for the replies.
At least no one has bagged the poly bushes.
Not really worried about NVH.

All of the bushes I have are Superpro except for the big front lower one.
For whatever reason, I didn't like the design of the 3 piece Superpro version as much as the Nolathane 2 piece version.

Cheers

As long as you havent bought a nolathane front lca bush your fine, if you have, sell it and go buy genuine/mackay youll thank me later.

[speedzter]

Well, funny (long) story.

After fitting new front shocks, springs and upper arm bushes, I took the ute to the local steering specialist to change the lower arms with the used bare ones I supplied, and asked about using lower front poly bushes, and they said they use them a lot, but only use Superpro.
I showed them the lower front Nolathane bush, and they said theyshould be OK but they have never used them!.

I got a call from them saying they couldn't get the Nolathane bush to fit back into the mount brackets saying it was too wide ??
So in the end they supplied and fitted a Superpro bush .
They also said that Superpro have a lifetime warranty !

After all this hassle the lower arm bushes and ball joints were still in fairly good condition, even after 175000 km's
Even the wheel alignment wasn't that bad, and that's after nearly 100,000 since the last alignment !

All this work was done mainly because the front tyres scrubbed out badly on the inside, and also I wanted to to raise the ute ( replaced superlow springs with low springs ) due to our crap roads.
But now I blame most of it on poor quality tyres

[FNQracing]

I had nolathane front LCA bushes in a BF and I absolutely hated the darn things. Great handling, horrible NVH. Avoid at all costs unless you are building a track car. Cement bushes would have been nicer.

[speedzter]

Just a quick update,

It may be my imagintaion, but It "feels" like the front suspension is working a lot better .
Probably more a function of slightly more travel going from Superlow to low, but it feels like it "tracks" the bumps and undualtions in the road with more control.

As for NVH, I can detect a slight increase (just !) of fine vibration or rumble transmitted through the ute depending on the road surface, but overall considering I have gone from all rubber to all Poly' , there is very little difference than before.

Overall I'm exteremely happy.

[BigJamo]

Im doing the same to our AU2. I have all the bushes ready (both front and rear) and am still searching on an easier way to get the LCA bush back in. I think i should be fine considering its a 3 piece bush.