bushings, polyurethane or new rubber?

Mid sized sedan with 160k miles over 9 years. Looking to reduce alignment distortion when cornering. Soft springs and dampers and will remain relatively soft down the road. New wheels with lower profile tires to reduce sidewall flex, front strut tower brace, and camber bolts. Like that I can use any curbing at vir or njmp without upsetting car. Looking to avoid any substantial increase in noise, vibration, or harshness. Want better feel at the track without upsetting the mother in law if I am driving her around.

What say yee? Is the oew rubber so far gone that new rubber bushings will give me the improvement I am looking for without any downsides? Or... Is the handling changes I am looking for only attainable with polyurethane and people make the noise and vibration out to be worse than it actually is?

I'd recommend new rubber...polyurethane is noisy, at least somewhat harsher, and sometimes maintenance-intensive.

Rubber.

Poly feels different. More like a bearing - there's less deflection, but smoother movement. But it's high maintenance in my experience, if they start to seize then you get more NVH and decreased suspension compliance.

i sense canoe sales coming on... the only time i ever hear a car described as a "mid sized sedan" is on broadcast tv detective shows that don't want to pay royalties to a particular car company..

I don't think so, he's been a member for a year, almost to the day.

I have never put OE rubber back in anything I drive and I haven't really had issues but I DD the tow rig so my cars are usually for play. I try not to use polyurethane for things with twist or motion though - I use nylon or sphericals if I can. Poly is OK for subframe or engine mounts but it gets really squeaky or binds on things like swaybar mounts if you don't keep after it (like everyone else said).

Cool, about the mid sized sedan thingy, I just get too many questions when I tell people I have two track cars. A Miata and a Chevy Malibu.

I remember the Malibu thread.

I have never put rubber back into a car when there can be Poly, an upgrade is an upgrade. Maintenance is just lubrication.

...which, in the case of my car, means a full teardown of the suspension and an alignment :) That's the thing, poly isn't necessarily an upgrade. It wouldn't be on most of my Miatas.

I prefer rubber. I have an f body and in all but a handful of positions the poly bushings are not an upgrade because they do not allow movement in all directions like the factory rubber does.

Example- poly bushings add roll stiffness to the rear of the car when used in there at LCA. When used in the caster bushing positions it generally leads to a shredded bushing or a broken LCA.

On many occasions poly is not an upgrade, do your homework.

The places I'm comfortable using poly is engine mounts and on the sway bar. When using the proper grease I have had less issues with poly sway bushings making noise than the oem. rubber.

I recently did a full suspension overhauland swapping to all new rubber 1LE bushings from wore out 160k stockers made a bigger difference than the koni/bmr/st setup I installed.

For a dd I would install rubber and not think twice about it.

This applies to most cars, but I didn't see you say a specific one. It does not apply to a handful of cars that have issues with the factory rubber bushings like a GTO in which most of the troublesome spots are suitable for poly and are almost required.

In reply to Fr3AkAzOiD:

Get you a set of sway bars from a maxx. They're decently larger and will probably have more affect on the car compared to poly bushings, not to mention probably cheaper too.

I'll be putting a maxx front bar on my DD in the near future to make it less wallowy.

Poly is only good for bushings that don't deflect in two dimensions. I've never been really happy with them. Better than a toasted stock bushing and not as good as a new one.

Spoolpigeon wrote: In reply to Fr3AkAzOiD: Get you a set of sway bars from a maxx. They're decently larger and will probably have more affect on the car compared to poly bushings, not to mention probably cheaper too. I'll be putting a maxx front bar on my DD in the near future to make it less wallowy.

I am leaving sway bars for last. Between malibu, malibu ss, Pontiac G6 gxp (shares malibu platform), Saturn Aura (shares malibu platform), and some aftermarket Addco bars I have quite a few sizes to play with for the front and rear.

I loved putting them all over my Crown Vic when it was the track car....but wish I had rubber now....of course they would be toast by now again if I had went with rubber and the poly bushings are still holding up great and not making any noise. And I think it's a plus when I'm towing as well, but again I'd still rather have rubber.

To maintain comfort, going to 1000lb/in+ springs, performance shocks, and all poly bushing is NOT the best plan.

I have similar concerns w/ a '05 S197 DD. I'll be installing struts, shocks, lowering springs when the weather breaks. The only poly bushings are in the BMR adj. PHB but they are fluted w/ zerks.

While I'm in there thought might as well replace sway bar bushings and end links. Prothane or OEM rubber? 48K miles on chassis.

Opti wrote: The places I'm comfortable using poly is engine mounts and on the sway bar. When using the proper grease I have had less issues with poly sway bushings making noise than the oem. rubber.

Another safe place to use them is on the steering rack. If they're in good shape they don't move at all and suspension forces aren't being put through them, so you don't have problems with noise or lubrication.

I put poly in the PT Cruiser control arms, swaybars and a few other things and never hard a squeak at all. The truck is getting Poly everywhere I touch (springs, shackles, swaybars, control arms, mounts - well, I am sort of touching everything)

I'm gonna try them in my front control arms if these new rubber bushings get destroyed within a year again.

i don't know the layout of the newer Malibu suspensions, but Moog offers an upgraded bushing for some lower control arm bushings that is essentially a cheap roto joint and doesn't cost that much more than a craptastic stock replacement rubber piece. i can get them for both my 95 Neon "race car" and my 01 GTP, so they probably offer it for a next generation Corsica like you have..

^I would be interested in that. Sounds like the "superflex joints" available for offroad vehicles.

nice to get a real discussion on this, on import sites everyone always raves on polyurethane bushings like they are gifts from jesus.

GameboyRMH wrote: ^I would be interested in that. Sounds like the "superflex joints" available for offroad vehicles.

http://www.moogproblemsolver.com/moog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/MOOG_Control-Arm-Bushings_Sheet.pdf

similar page, with applications:

http://www.moogproblemsolver.com/_pdf_en1/MOOG_PS_Bulletin_213014_VCA_bushing_failure_EN.pdf

Moog even sells complete control arms with these bushings and balljoints for those among us that are into easy swaps..

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/1973-88-GM-Midsize-Rear-Control-Arm-Spherical-Bushing,9021.html