Consensus on poly bushes? (Energy suspension, strongflex, powerflex etc..)

Anzezaf · Post by **Anzezaf** » Tue Mar 03, 2020 10:35 pm

I'm thinking of giving my suspension a bit of a refresh, given the car is now 23 years old. OEM bushes are crazy expensive and some are even discountinued so going OEM will be my last resort.

I'm getting really conflicting information about poly bushes tho.. some say they are perfectly fine, some say they squeak like crazy and some local fella told me his poly bushes went chewing-gum-like soft after barely a year??

Let me know what you guys think, if you have any experience with them?

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Tue Mar 03, 2020 11:52 pm

I though that the whole point of poly bushes was that they do not go soft 'after barely a year'.
I wonder what car and what make of bushes he was talking about.

ATR84 · Post by **ATR84** » Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:50 am

My main concern for fitting them would be if it made the ride rock hard, also I would not like squeaking. I think a few people on here have had them fitted and may be able to comment.

Post by **RattyMcClelland** » Wed Mar 04, 2020 11:13 am

I have full energy suspension polybush suspension, at the same time I replaced all 6 lower ball joints on the type s, both front upper wishbone and rear tie rods with honda OEM parts. Best part of £1400 for all parts and fitting labour over 2 days.
Suspension is super tight, no squeaks or rattles, no harshness to speak of really. Feels the same just tight like a tiger.

Post by **vanzep** » Wed Mar 04, 2020 12:45 pm

I have had issues with the es polybushes going out of shape - rear arb/chassis mounts and front upper wishbone bushes didnt fair well on my BB4 - other es bushes seem fine. I now use oem upper wishbones and strongflex rear arb/chassis bushes. Also looking at fitting oem 5th gen reinforced upper wishbones to 4th gen when needed.
I wouldnt say poly bushes make the ride harder - they just firm everything back up but are quite compliant. Although ive seen/heard squeaking from es polys fitted to 5th gen front and rear shocks and a little bit of noise from 4th gen but generally only when going over speed bumps

Post by **Vtecmec** » Wed Mar 04, 2020 1:52 pm

None of mine squeak or have any issues 5 years after fitting. Also if any go bad, replacement is swift and painless. I feel no adverse effects on the ride quality.

Scott560 · Post by **Scott560** » Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:43 pm

I had the strong flex yellow fitted. I had them changed with other changes so its hard to say on their own what they did. As expected though, there was a tightening of all the movements, and an increase in road noise. Unless you think you need the hard ones, if its a daily car and you like the fact the prelude is a comfortable car, its probably worth going with the softer ones.

Occasionally i hear the odd squeak, but its not often.