I’m looking to tighten up the feel of my car a bit. I’ve got 150K miles on my car so i’m sure the stock rubbers are showing there age. I’m not interested in taking my parts to a shop and and having them pressed in and out…trying to keep this job as cheap as possible. I saw the energy suspension kit on ebay for about $140 shipped. Here is all that it comes with.
-Front and rear control arm bushings
-Front strut rod bushings
-Front shock bushings
-Rear shock bushings
-Front end links
-Steering rack bushings (w/power steering only)
-Transmission shifter stabilizer bushings (manual transmission only)
-Ball joint boots
-Tie rod end boots
Could I install al of these with just hand tools. Thanks for any advice.
so, if you burn em out do you use lighter fluid or what?
as for hte rears, i would just buy a new control arm like from omni or something that way you only need to worry about that fronts.
also, to save some down time you could pick up a set of front control arms and remove hte bushings, then put the new ones in and hten install the arm???
i got my front lca bushings out without burning them or having them pressed out. all you need is some wd-40, a 30mm socket that you want need any more any a small sledge hammer. lots of elbow greese required but i got both sides done in a day
Lower control arm shock mounts.
Spring mount (the big round rubber at the top of the spring).
Also my RTA bushings make some squeeking. 75% was gone with the shock mount bushings though.
I heard you are suppose to grease the hell out of the polyurathane bushings (like in the energy suspension kit) so they don’t squeak, is that true? If so what kind of grease are you supose to use?
I would also tell you to buy oe trailing arm bushings. They are were most of your noise will come from. I installed the es kit along with ta bushings and I was able to buy a 20 ton press from harbor freight for 200ish if I remember right. I would definately reccomend picking one up or finding a press to use. It will save you a good chunk of time and can easily pay for itself. Maybe its just me, but there is nothing more frustrating then not having the right tool
I installed ALL bushings from ES Master Kit and ES Trailing Arm Bushings with nothing more than:
Bench Vice
Saw Zaw
Torch
Hammer
Chissel (sp?)
It was not very difficult to do at all. Just took a little time that’s all. In the end it was all worth it. So next time someone says you need a press to install them, they are WRONG. It just makes it easier.
First of all, I wouldnt reccomend ES ta bushings at all, as they have been reported as causing binding and premature wear/failure. Also the rubber will give you a slightly smoother ride. Secondly, many of those bushings are press fit. If you want to try and jerry rig tools, go ahead, but I wouldnt do it myself. It is going to take more time, it may also create issues with hardware, and for anyone who works on cars often a press can be often handy. When I installed my suspension, it only took a couple minutes tops per bushing to change them with a press.
ummm i pushed my ES LCA bushings in BY HAND! grease them up with the grease they give you and put both halves in then use 2 C-Clamps to hold the halves together and put the provided sleeve in after you grease both the sleeve and the center of the bushings where it goes. one you have it in front of you itll be self explanatory.
one you get the bushings started, put the LCA on the floor and stand on the bushing, it will go in. my LCA’s look sick now, i cleaned them all up, rubberized them and installed the new bushings.
does the binding problem apply to Prothanes as well?
Yes the poly bushings can go in by hand, i am refering to the removal of the oem bushings, most of which are rubber with a steel inner and outer sleeve.
The prothanes work alot better than the ES RTA bushings. Ive seen reviews where they say there atleast 5x better (cost 5x the cost in some cases).
As for the bad ride comment with poly RTA bushings. If your bushings are dead right now. It will be a good bit better of a ride, yes the oem rubbers might be slightly better still. but i find no complaints on noticing anything on everyday driving.
i burned the rubber out of the inner metal sleeve, then got all the residue off with a wire wheel on a dremel tool, and put the LCA in a vise and cut the metal sleeve with a small metal saw, then used a small punch to tap the sleeve out.
I have had ZERO problems with the rear trailing arm bushings since the install. I read all of the bad feedback about the binding and why it binds as well. I still decided to go with them anyway. I’m not in to cornering hard, and taking turns fast so I’m not really worried about it. I figure if there were enough people having problems with those particular bushings ES would have recalled them or discontinued them. They’ve been in the business for a very long time and I trusted using there product for daily driving with occasional weekend abuse and have not had any problems. If you have the money I would go with the Mugen RT or OEM, and pay a shop to do all the bushings. I see no problem using a little bit of “grandpa’s techniques” to get the job done. It doesn’t matter how you get the old part out as long as you’re not damaging the part itself, or bushing. HTH
BTW, I also used the same technique below. Burn the rubber, cut the sleeve in 3 sections, then tap out the shell with a punch or chissel. For the RTAB, I burned the old rubber, used a wire wheel to get a very smooth surface, lubed the hell out of everything, used the bench vice and old license plate to press the new bushing in.
Just out of curiosity how long did it take on average to remove an entire bushing? If i remember right I spent around an hour to have everything pressed and new bushings installed. I remember the only issue I had was getting the ta bushing aligned as best as possible. I know that one side was off on its lateral spacing as when I had the alignment done, I ran out of toe adjustment, but other then that It was without a hitch.
Haha…I will definately pay to have them pressed out next time. It took about 1hr to remove the 3 bushings in control arms and press new ones in. About 1.5hr (each side) to do trailing arm bushing and press new one in. At that rate, about probably a good 10hrs of work for everything.
