Technical Rear shocks

[p6baseunit]

I have a feeling new shocks with solid rubber bushes would be easier and more effective. Those powerflex bushes will transfer noise into the car!

 

[SolarB]

I've never been convinced by PU bushes. If they are so great why aren't they fitted as standard rather than the more expensive rubber bushes all manufacturers seem to use?

Having said that, for racing applications I can see their advantages.

 

[SolarB]

Hold that thought, PU bushes are a lot more expensive than they used to be!
Perhaps they are now a suitable alternative. Certainly Powerflex and Polybushes are more expensive than a rubber OEM fitted bush.

Will have to look at all my rubbers over the weekend.

 

[irc]

I reckon the most important difference with PU bushes is that the centre metal bush can turn against the PU material, so the bush is not stressed by rotation.
With the near-horizontal shocks on the 500/Panda/KA, a few degrees off when fitting seems to make a big difference.
Trouble is, a pair of PU bushes is only slightly less money than a reasonable quality pair of shocks, and you still need to press out the old bushes.
Normal bushes can be wrecked pretty quickly if they are torqued with incorrect ride height.
I do tend to get the height as close as I can to normal, and then loosen and re-torque after a couple of days when fitting shocks on Pandas - hard to tell if it makes a difference yet, but no repeat failures so far using standard shocks and bushes.

 

[p6baseunit]

Hmmmmm I have a very long interest (since I was 19 - 24years) in the Rover P6, - Rover 3500s of the 1970s. Over the years people have fitted polybushes to the suspension on these cars and a there have been number of rear suspension leg failures due to stress cracks (1 fatal accident) where polybushes were fitted instead of the rubber void bushes.