review: 7G complete prothane/urethane bushing kit
Do your stock bushings look like this?
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4457/1qi7.th.jpg
Even if they don't, the OEM bushings on the 7G are sloppier than my ex-girlfriend bouncing up and down on her new boy-toy right now. As the car encounters bumps, hard turns, and everything else the suspension undergoes, all the dozens of bushings are flexing or bending in some way, transfering energy less efficiently into the shock/spring assembly.
Does this mean your ride will get stiffer after you put the new bushings in? Strictly the opposite. A lot of bounce and swager can directly be attributed to sloppy bushings. With urethane bushings from <span style='color:red'>prothane</span>, unlike the energy urethane bushings, it is almost impossible to flex or bend them at all with your bare hands. I can fold an OEM bushing in half with my hands after a hearty jerk-off session. With efficient suspension that directly sends all "shock" straight into the springs/shocks, the car is "allowed" to absorb all undesirable conditions on the road faster and more effectively. I would also like to point out that the bushings fill in the lateral spaces for every joint, thus furthering the control of deflection. Bottom line, your car is going to ride smoother than your buddy's benz, provided your suspension is respectable.
I never fully understood the seriousness of the OEM bushings and their supreme sloppiness until I went to remove the trailing arm. If you are doing this install yourself, do yourself a favor and grab a hold of that trailing arm while the big end is still bolted in the car. Now flail that puppy around. I could actually touch my sideskirt with the trailing arm being forced laterally. When you put the prothane in, bolt the big end down and try to flail it around again. What's that? You can't even move it side to side? You can thank me later :wink:
First, you must remove the OEM bushings. Everyone has their own method, and mine is a result of combining others'. Ideally, if you have a hydralic press then you only have a few hours of work ahead of you. If you don't, the next best step IMO is to create a self-sustaining fire. I used a propane torch.
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/5...0795ll0.th.jpghttp://img102.imageshack.us/img102/9...0778wh9.th.jpg
It takes about 5 minutes with the torch, but once you get it going you can hammer the inner metal sleeve out or twist it out with pliers. Use your judgement to decide when the rubber becomes loose enough.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7...0781tx9.th.jpg
Now the inner metal sleeve has been removed; there is still a significant amount of rubber (unless you let it all burn away, takes longer) and the outer metal sleeve that holds all this mess together. Using a sawzall, cut from the inside. Make sure to cut just enough for the metal sleeve and not to go over onto the actual suspension component. A little overcutting is OK, but anymore than a credit card thick starts to make this into a ghetto mod. This isn't a hyundai forum...
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1561/img0782oo2.th.jpg
The inner metal sleeve on left, outer "master" metal sleeve on right.
Now this is the point where energy and prothane bushings differ. For one, energy bushings are black. Prothane bushings come in either black or red, and we all know which color adds more horsepower. In all seriousness, I couldn't find the black prothane bushings anywhere. SBR, RRE, the whole crowd just had them in red.
Energy bushings can be twisted and played around with one hand. If you can get a prothane bushing to contort to the smallest degree with your bare hands, I feel sorry for the next guy that picks a fight with you.
Also, the complete energy bushing kit doesn't replace the rear inner lower control arm bushings. The complete prothane kit does. The energy kit also doesn't supply urethane swaybar bushings. My prothane kit came with rear 17mm, rear 18mm and front 18mm swaybar bushings. This alone convinced me to buy the prothanes before I knew they were 1000x stiffer than the energy bushings. More on this later...
The prothane bushings come in halves. How do you install these? Simple. You apply the supplied grease to the bushing, and slide one half in.
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7...0879th0.th.jpg
Apply grease to the other half, install. Apply grease to the inner brass rod, install. You should be looking at:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9288/img0784fh3.th.jpg
Now how hard are the energy bushings to install? I got a huge headache just thinking about it. Bottom line, the bushings come as a WHOLE. Therefore, you must PRESS the bushing into the suspension component. This requires some motor oil to help slide the bushing in, a vice, a lot of time (too much time IMO), and a lot of energy to shout when the bushings pop off or slide in the wrong direction. It sucks. Bad. Unless you have a hydralic press, then you're golden.
Now for the lower control arms. Almost all the bushings in the prothane kit are just urethane with a metal (brass?) sleeve inserted through the middle. However, the toe control arm and lower control arm (REARS ONLY) uses a slightly different setup.
First, here is the rear lower control arm's inner bushing with the rubber completely burned away. Remaining is the outer metal sleeve:
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/2...0793fc2.th.jpg
Sleeve removed:
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2...0794ss9.th.jpg
The prothane kit uses a new metal sleeve, inserted here:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7...0791nk6.th.jpg
Grease and insert prothane inserts and metal sleeve:
http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/130/img0792fk3.th.jpg
All finished!
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/4...0806gj3.th.jpg
After just one corner...
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/8...0797yo2.th.jpg
All the rear bushings on display:
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/9747/rearsrx7.th.jpg
From RRE's website, here is a complete list of what the prothane kit replaces:
http://roadraceengineering.com/parts/prothane/
------------------------------------------------
I cannot stress enough how much better the car handles. Even driving in a straight line feels better, if you can even imagine that. I'm not even going to get started on this because I'll be typing for days on the benefits that i'm enjoying, all the while i'm still noticing new ones, even 2 weeks later!
<span style='font-size:25pt;line-height:100%'>IT IS SUPREME.</span>
It is recommended that you get an alignment after this install for the obvious reasons: the rear toe control arms are now misaligned. Also, the bushings are no longer flexing when the car is sitting. And when was the last time you got an alignment anyways?