GT4 Zed Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Bushes We all know that the zed out of the box handles very well for DD, fast road and occasional track work but as the start to edge to 40K miles and above the suspension sufer with inability to hold alignment due to the fact that Nissan used so many rubber bushes between varios supension points and as naturally rubber perishes with age or aggressive use and allows play between parts that so have little or no movement al all. Typically you find that the car tramlines alot more and follows all the ruts on the road and excessive bump steer and when you think you have cure the problem with re-alignment it comes back again. These symptoms are worse with lowered cars or runing wider or grippier tyres The chief culprit is the dreaded front compression(banana) arm bush with which commonly goes first. The next is the tranverse link(lower control arm) inner bush which tends to go and once all these are affeected and unchanged the out bushes or spindle will be dammaged next leaving you wih horrible handling and a huge cost. The rear bushes tend to have little issues but because they are too soft means you have squirm and wheel hop especially on acceleration and roll. So replacing them with uprated bushes is necessary if you want a sharp handling car than retaines aligment settings which intend means you have a consistent feel and confidence when opushing on. The problem here is that nissan will only supply the bushes with the arm at great cost and donot sell isolated bushes. Nismo do make so harder uprated bushes but its also costly and will take ages to order. so the only solution is aftermarket which is cheaper than buying oem arms and oem bushes which will invariable perish if you use the car aggresively or lowered. I have done alot of research and as a result want to share some of the options available and provide a forum to discuss individual issues members may have. I have started with bushes and will cover other areas with time. My car is lowered on coilovers and has adjustable suspension on all the key areas for track performance and run on a stiff setup so i can tell you my bushes have had it and i will have to change the lot So in sumary you have the following choices: - Replace worn bushes with new OEM bushes and arm combo at great costs from the stealers. - Buy second hand OEM arms with bushes from the usual suspect (Zmanalex, Lee, Breakers etc)and hope they are in good nick or last. - Buy uprated rubber OEM style bushes and replace worn OEM ones. Nismo, Zmanalex(compression arm bush only i believe) - Buy after market urethane bushes and replace key areas or complete kit. eg whiteline, superpro etc - Buy solid bushes to replace key areas or complete kits. eg SPL, Abbey(compresion arm bush only i believe) The choice of what to go for will depend on what you use the car for, funds, replacement bushing availability. Eg You can replace just the compression arm bush and leave the rest if they are fine with either solid, OEM style bush or urethane and it should be ok but ideally if you wanted precise handling and consistent feel and avoid suspension bind (by mixing) it would be better to use the same bush type all through on the same axle or try and keep the same type on the same axis of the suspension. Eg All inner bushes could replaced with urethane and all outer ones OEM rubber on the same axle. As mentioned before some limitation exist as not all manufactures make all OEM replacement bushing. eg Whiteline makes bushes to replace all the OEM bushes except the compression arm bush. SPL makes solid bushes for all the OEM pick up points and so does Superpro who even make eccentric bushes to give you fixed maximum increase in caster, camber or toe where applicable. In my next post i will suggest scenarios to cheaply replace your worn bushes cheaply and depending on the usage of your car eg track day, budget and if lowered etc. I have been in touch with Superpro UK and they will be happy to offer a 10% discount to any forum members who get the bushes from them but i will direct them to the mods if they want to register as traders here and take it from there or just want to offer a discount code for the forum only. Note: i have no financial affiliation with them or any company for that matter as i go along this thread. i just want to share my experiences and simplify decision making for those with less experience but also provide a place for all suspesion related discussions to take place for the benefit of all members here. I will be getting most of my stuff from the US to save on costs and maybe offering an complete import service to get parts (used/new) from the states particularly from my 350z private sellers or vendors. I am still sorting out a few things and of course will have to register as a member trader to start this. Suspension schematics Link for further reading. a great read and something iwant to emulate here: http://my350z.com/forum/brakes-and-susp ... -a-21.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy82 Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Whilst i can't contribute i'm watching with interest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greekman Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Excellent man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilMH Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 I will also watch with interest . I've already gone for Abbey's rose jointed compression arm bushes, to make that particular issue go away - plus their enhanced arb drop links. My particular interest is in not compromising the ride quality too much for road use. With the roads as they are I personally would place a lot of emphasis on suspension compliance but realise that people will have differing priorities. I wouldn't want a "skippy" car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLizard Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 I will also watch with interest . I've already gone for Abbey's rose jointed compression arm bushes, to make that particular issue go away - plus their enhanced arb drop links. My particular interest is in not compromising the ride quality too much for road use. With the roads as they are I personally would place a lot of emphasis on suspension compliance but realise that people will have differing priorities. I wouldn't want a "skippy" car. no one wants a skippy car, there is a tremendous amount of adjustment that can be done to dial that sort of thing out and a lot of factors that can precipitate it happening, we had some issues last year with the car skipping when it fully loaded one side up, but only in the dry with hot tyres, abbey worked their magic and its all good now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLizard Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 good post btw bennet, hoping to swap out the rear subframe this year so that will come in handy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT4 Zed Posted March 15, 2011 Author Share Posted March 15, 2011 Thanks Steve and guys i hope we can have people conrtibuting their experience, costs etc when making adjustments, swaps to suspension parts and that the traders here can link or advertise their products here too so it is all a one stop info/tutorial thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BACON Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Whilst i can't contribute i'm watching with interest +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLizard Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Thanks Steve and guys i hope we can have people conrtibuting their experience, costs etc when making adjustments, swaps to suspension parts and that the traders here can link or advertise their products here too so it is all a one stop info/tutorial thread. my pit mechanic is learning and helping with the suspension setups at the moment for us so i will get some feedback from him at some point, which will be odd as its usually me giving the feedback... but at the moment the conversation goes like "the cars turning in nicely but the backs soft", then i go out and it feels better Still yet to get a full day in, in warm weather, we have some great setups for wet though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkie34 Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 So who deals with the Superpro kit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT4 Zed Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 You can buy direct from them or any dealer handling their products. I maybe setting up a GB with them soon just waiting for their final confirmation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkie34 Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 I maybe interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMR Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 How much are the complete arms with new bushes from Nissan (or new from Alex if you read this thread) Mine havn't gone, but I replaced the front arm bushes on a Glanza V with 60k on it and the car felt much better so might be tempted to make sure the suspension feel is 100% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jez @ H-Dev Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 I'm interested in this too. We're going to be tracking our 350 a lot this year. I've just replaced the compression arm bushes with the SuperPro bushes and it sorted out the knocking noise and made the car feel a lot better. The car is currently standard apart from Racing Logic coilovers and the compression bushes. I think the next thing on the list to sort out will be front camber arms - currently the camber is about 1'20" but I feel that it'll need to be nearer 2 - 2'30" deg for track work. Although the car is running a fair amount of caster as standard already. I've had a look about and the SPL camber arms look like the ones to go for - anyone got any opinions on front camber arms? 1st trackday this year will be this Monday - really looking forward to it. Going to Bedford for the day. We'll be offering a full suspension setup service soon - parts sales, fitting (inc bush fitting), alignment and corner weight setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMANALEX Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 How much are the complete arms with new bushes from Nissan (or new from Alex if you read this thread) Mine havn't gone, but I replaced the front arm bushes on a Glanza V with 60k on it and the car felt much better so might be tempted to make sure the suspension feel is 100% Here you go mate viewtopic.php?f=157&t=43455 viewtopic.php?f=157&t=43456 viewtopic.php?f=157&t=43458 Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWTech Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 the zed god speaks good post this should anyone need any superpro questions/quotes i also supply them and give good discount too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT4 Zed Posted March 19, 2011 Author Share Posted March 19, 2011 I'm interested in this too. We're going to be tracking our 350 a lot this year. I've just replaced the compression arm bushes with the SuperPro bushes and it sorted out the knocking noise and made the car feel a lot better. The car is currently standard apart from Racing Logic coilovers and the compression bushes. I think the next thing on the list to sort out will be front camber arms - currently the camber is about 1'20" but I feel that it'll need to be nearer 2 - 2'30" deg for track work. Although the car is running a fair amount of caster as standard already. I've had a look about and the SPL camber arms look like the ones to go for - anyone got any opinions on front camber arms? 1st trackday this year will be this Monday - really looking forward to it. Going to Bedford for the day. We'll be offering a full suspension setup service soon - parts sales, fitting (inc bush fitting), alignment and corner weight setup. Jez, nice to give some feedback with the superpro bush. WRT to camber arms i will recommend SPL and Eibach/SPC a distant second. I had Ichiba arms and they do the job and though i did not have any problems with them the quality is not the best and noticed one ball joint had some play and the dust covers were torn on both sides. It is a common problem so i would avoid any similar style camber arm. I have seen a Cusco arm after 1 year of fast road use and DD and it was in a similar mess Anyone modifying for track work, i would recommend doing atleast the compression arm bushes, the rear subframe and diff bushes uprated and engine mount or damper. If budget no limitation the doing all the bushes including engine and transmission mounts will be best. Getting adjustable suspension arms wherever possible, coilovers, ARB, endlinks, brakes, tyres, bracing, short shifter, LSD and weight loss will also be important. Power mods should be last on the cards as they make little difference unless you go FI or major NA. I will be interested in corner weighting if the price is right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.