Anyone in the Bayarea, CA know of a shop that would install the complete ES master kit bushings on our DA’s for fairly cheap… I’ve called Tech3 and Midas and they are giving a rough estimate of around $700 cuz it’s labor intensive. To anyone that has done this by themselves, roughly how long did it take for you guys?
I can’t really do it myself cuz I live in an apartment complex but it looks fairly easy… anyone willing to help me out… of course I’ll pay 
Try Exact Motorsports or Auto Innovations. Both in Milpitas.
I’ve tried Auto Innovations already, they said they don’t want to touch it…
I’ll call Exact right now… thanks!
spend a weekend and do it yourself. Thats what I did on my and I’m loving it.
K just called Exact Moto and they quoted me $1100! WTF?
spend a weekend and do it yourself. Thats what I did on my and I’m loving it.
So how did you do it? Did you take all the parts off and brought it to a machine shop to have your old bushings pressed out or did you do all of it at home?
Did it at home with a vise and a lot of grease.
I’ve done the swap in 1 day a few times. There is a trick that you can do. Go to a salvage yard and buy a set of front and rear lower control arms and press out the bushings and put in the ES bushings. That way when you are ready to do the work on your car you have less down time. Do not install the dust covers for the balljoints, they crack after about a year. The factory dust covers are much better.
I did it at home, it was an excuse to go to harbor freight and buy a press… I also second leaving the ball joint covers. I would also get a set of new oem t/a bushings while you are at it.
I used the ES t/a bushings and have not had a problem with them. Then again I drilled in two grease fittings per trailing arm.
I’ve done the swap in 1 day a few times. There is a trick that you can do. Go to a salvage yard and buy a set of front and rear lower control arms and press out the bushings and put in the ES bushings. That way when you are ready to do the work on your car you have less down time. Do not install the dust covers for the balljoints, they crack after about a year. The factory dust covers are much better.
Hey thanks for the advice about the salvage yard… that would help save alot of time since I need my car for work. I installed my springs and stuff before but never attemted to change bushings… hope it’s not too hard…
Thanks for all the suggestions so far! :rockon:
got any pics of this??i have the ES t/a bushings as well and haven’t installed them yet because i’ve heard of the binding issues.
holy christ whatever you do dont spend a thousand, or even several hundred to have that sorry, squeaking piece of crap kit installed. that will be the worst money you ever spent on your DA hands down. please do yourself a favor and research whats in the es bushing kit. imho the only good things in that kit are the steering rack bushings, the shifter bushings and the swaybar endlink bushings. everything else from that kit i installed i removed bc it either squeaked so bad i couldnt take it or i found something that didnt squeak that performed better. for a true daily driver car get a hard rubber bushing kit, and nothing else. i put the ES kit on my car myself and even though it tightened it up a lot compared to worn out factory, the suspension binded a lot and made a lot of noise. you can get aftermarket control arms and all kinds of stuff for $1100. all of those items would negate buying any of the ES stuff. what are you paying for? control arm or and shock bushings? radius rod bushings? more than likely your shocks dont need bushings and if they do spend the money on true coilovers. aftermarket lower control arms in the back, a camber kit up front. that covers everything but the flca’s. i spent about $400 on sphericals to do my front lcas but its a racecar. i believe hardrace and mugen make hard rubber bushing kits for our cars. get one of those, you will thank me a million times over!!!
I’ve installed the ES kit on 4 of my cars and have never had any squeaks.
My teg is a daily driver with the E/S kit and it doesn’t squeak.
almostboosted - yeah I’ve got some mixed reviews about the ES bushings form here and HT about the squeaks… kinda making me hesitant to install them but since alot of guys on here say they have no problems with them, I’m gonna go ahead and try it out.
Thanks for the heads up though…
For the guys that have no problems with squeaking, maybe it’s because you blast up your music most of the time when you drive like me and you can’t here the squeaks? LOL seriously though, I drove one day without music and I picked up alot of bs noises from the DA and once I blast it up, problem solved :bowthank:
ive had the ES bushig kit on my car for a while and it never squeaks…and i dont have a stereo so i hear everything:burnout:
Did it at home with a vise and a lot of grease.
da9leo - so you changed all your bushings using a vise and grease? You didn’t even need a press? If that’s the case, I’ll give that a try with a vise…
i have the prothane kit and no squeaks at all. plus i have a couple es bushings for the sway bars.
if you don’t have a press, you can always burn out the rubber then use a hacksaw and cut the metal sleeve. then hammer it out with a punch or a air chisel. if you have access to a torch you can heat up the sleeve and hammer it out as well. theres a lot of ways to do this without a press. and actually, i have a press at work and i still did it with a air chisel because the press just doesn’t work. the metal sleeves are to thin.
hybrid90, any updates? I also live in the bay area and in need of changing the bushings. Would appreciate your experience.
i would also love to do this…whats the difference in the prothane and es bushing kits? i know my REAR T/A bushings are shot, but all my other bushings seem ok but i would still love to do this. Is it better to just buy those lower rear control arms for the rear since it comes with new bushings to save time. This just seems like it takes a lot of time to do,
DA9leo why don’t you help me do this one day? 