Bushes - Replaced the major ones!

**beeza** · 02-10-2009 01:34 PM

My car is a 96EK1 Civic Sedan.

So this is replacing the 14 year old OEM bushes with Mugen bushes.

The pics are of the Left Hand Side bushes.Offcoasre I had both Left and Right hand side bushes replaced.

FRONT

Front Upper Control Arm:

Installed:

The difference?

Major.No longer does the car bottom out at the front over the same bumps/dips that it was before.Feels way more solid and after dropping into a dip in the road,it will rebound/recover FAR easier/smoother/nicer.BIG Improvement,very happy!

Front Lower Control Arm bushes:

You need a special tool to install these,I will have to get back to ya on this one!

REAR

I had 3 sets of bushes put in the rear:

Rear Trailing Arm bushes:

Installed:

Rear Upper Control Arm bushes:

Rear Compensator Arm bushes:

Installed:

Again a BIG difference at the rear.Solid,holds true through the big dipping/swooping corners (that I drive on everyday)

Where as before the chassis of the car would roll and a lot of the energy/force would be going 90 degrees to where your driving,NOW,chassis/body rolls is minimal,energy is conserved and driver experience has been increased by 30%

Old bushes decrease performance and most importantly takes away the all to important - Driver experience.

The car feels Brilliant

The rubber on the old bushes were old,worn and had deteriorated and torn in places

COST

* Mugen Rear Upper Control Arm Bushes $195
* Mugen Rear Compensator Arm Bushes $135
* Mugen Front Upper Control Arm Bushes $220
* Mugen Front Lower Control Arm Bushes $125
* Rear Trailing Arm bushes $195 (I Love U Speedy!)

Installation - $280 and took 5hrs.My main man needed to make up special tools to remove the old bushes.

Total - $1150,say $1200 once the Front Lower Control Arm bushes are in.

I will getting a wheel alignment ASAP too.It's needed.

Was it worth it?

O,HELL YES,ABSOLUTELY!!

Braking feels better,more confident,speed bumps are much easier to manage etc etc etc you feel the benefits all the time

I don't care about going fast,I care about 'Driver experience'

**ITRfaithful** · 02-10-2009 02:00 PM

awesome! i'm looking to do this too, did you take the car into a shop or did you do it most yourself?

**dinorider** · 02-10-2009 02:00 PM

Oh man I am SO going to do this to my car when I have enough $$$. Where did you order your bushes from?

**SPEEDCORE** · 02-10-2009 02:16 PM

Where is the price of the RTA bushings in your cost list?

**FastFwd** · 02-10-2009 02:20 PM

I just completed the following in ES last night:

Front Coil Spring Isolators
Rear Coil Spring Isolators
Tie Rod Dust Boots
Front Sway Bar End Links
MPR Lower control arms
Whiteline Rear sway bar end links
Skunk2 Front upper ball joint
Front Shock Mount
Shifter Stabilizer
Skunk2 Rear Upper Control Arm
Skunk2 front uppder control arm
Steering Rack Bushings - Power Steering
Front Control Arm Set
Rear Control Arm Set
Ball Joint Dust Boots
Rear Trailing Arm Bushings
Rear Compensator Arm Bushings
Front Control Arm Bushings
Front Sway Bar Bushings
Steering Rack Bushings
Ball Joint Dust Boots

All up costed me $430 from the US and i did it all at home in my workshop with a Jigsaw, small fire, bench vice, drill and whole saw.

I can put up pictures tomorrow to show my progress also if you like.

**beeza** · 02-10-2009 02:27 PM

^^ I was gonna put the ES kit in for ages but opted against it due to many on the net who say 'Way too much vibrations'

What do you think?

Originally Posted by ITRfaithful

awesome! i'm looking to do this too, did you take the car into a shop or did you do it most yourself?

Cheers mate!

I took it too my muffler guy,he owned the fastest V8 in Aus for a while,so he knows his stuff

Unless you have the tools or the knowledge to make the tool needed AND are able to remove the suspension parts and put em back,'a real pain in the ass'

That was Geoff's words if I remember correctly

That's why I gave him plenty of notice/warning that I was gonna dump this job on him hehehe

Don't bother by yourself.I tried but it ain't that easy.

Originally Posted by dinorider

Oh man I am SO going to do this to my car when I have enough $$$. Where did you order your bushes from?

Yonas,JDMYard,he has em' all!

Originally Posted by SPEEDCORE

Where is the price of the RTA bushings in your cost list?

I was working up to your post.I was looking forward to a - 'Well done beez! Great job mate!'

**FastFwd** · 02-10-2009 02:38 PM

well done beez great job mate

ummm well i like the rough feel, the raw feel of a car. Ive got G4's very tight susp, the ultra heavy duty frotn an rear sways, the polyurethane engine mounts. and now the full ES setup. My car does feel very very tight, dont know about vibrations but its very firm. Car feels like its held together tight, around corners and going over small holes in the road etc feels firm.

personally i dont have a problem with it, but for someone looking for a completely smooth ride then i would say ES is a 50/50 option.

Originally Posted by ITRfaithful View Post
awesome! i'm looking to do this too, did you take the car into a shop or did you do it most yourself?

Very easy...as i said before all you need is a, tools to remove the parts, Jack, jack stands, wratchets, wrenches, socket sets etc and then to remove the OEM bushings u need Drill, whole saw for the drill bit, jiggsaw or large electric saw of some type, vice, hammer and a pare of hands.

Putting in the ES bushings is as simple as pushing them in or if a little tight using the vice...

Its not that hard of a job but its a bitch. its time consuming, took me almost 15 hours to complete it all.

Shops use hydrolic bench presses to remove the bushings which cuts half of the time down...even still it would be fairly annoying....

Glad i did it tho, got quoted 2500 for labour. me = Free

**flipfire** · 02-10-2009 02:45 PM

Great review. $1154 is a bit costly, but bushings need to be done eventually.

I got ES bushings for my shift linkage and they were pretty hard. Thats probably the cause of the vibrations, the hard compound isnt absorbing it as well as the soft OEM rubber.

**beeza** · 02-10-2009 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by FastFwd

well done beez great job mate

ummm well i like the rough feel, the raw feel of a car. Ive got G4's very tight susp, the ultra heavy duty frotn an rear sways, the polyurethane engine mounts. and now the full ES setup. My car does feel very very tight, dont know about vibrations but its very firm. Car feels like its held together tight, around corners and going over small holes in the road etc feels firm.

personally i dont have a problem with it, but for someone looking for a completely smooth ride then i would say ES is a 50/50 option.

Hmmm HARD...I like a nice tight smooth ride

Originally Posted by FastFwd

Very easy...as i said before all you need is a, tools to remove the parts, Jack, jack stands, wratchets, wrenches, socket sets etc and then to remove the OEM bushings u need Drill, whole saw for the drill bit, jiggsaw or large electric saw of some type, vice, hammer and a pare of hands.

Putting in the ES bushings is as simple as pushing them in or if a little tight using the vice...

Its not that hard of a job but its a bitch. its time consuming, took me almost 15 hours to complete it all.

Shops use hydrolic bench presses to remove the bushings which cuts half of the time down...even still it would be fairly annoying....

Glad i did it tho, got quoted 2500 for labour. me = Free

Awesome Job!!

$2.5k for labour

Here's the other leg,PULL IT!

**FastFwd** · 02-10-2009 02:53 PM

Yer ns told bs...

I do know places usually cost just over 1g just for installing. But honestly i got all of the bushings for $430. and thats the total cost of a completely bushing kit and installed if you do it yourself. Cant go wrong with that.

**beeza** · 02-10-2009 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by flipfire

Great review. $1154 is a bit costly, but bushings need to be done eventually.

I got ES bushings for my shift linkage and they were pretty hard. Thats probably the cause of the vibrations, the hard compound isnt absorbing it as well as the soft OEM rubber.

The cheapest you can do it is $1200 less the $280 install.So $920.

Yes,that's the cause of the vibrations,all too common a story on the net.

Many remove them cause they are sick of the vibrations.

Originally Posted by FastFwd

Yer ns told bs...

I do know places usually cost just over 1g just for installing. But honestly i got all of the bushings for $430. and thats the total cost of a completely bushing kit and installed if you do it yourself. Cant go wrong with that.

If you like your car hard/stiff and vibrating