Hi all,

What bushes are the best for an everyday rodchange 998 road car? I have the 2-piece rubber bushes at the moment, two are re-usable and the others not. I was considering replacing the old ones with new rubber ones, but there are polurethane ones on the market that are 'better.' How are they better?

we designed & made "one-Piece" engine steady bushes years ago,,, have plenty of them in stock

they`re the bees-knees,,, easy-fit & last forever

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

The benefit of polyurethane is it's a stiffer material so less movement is allowed, but they do wear out fast (IMO they have less than half the life of rubber). Some of my suspension rubbers were new 3 or 4 years ago and now their showing signs of wearing out and I'm a bit annoyed they only lasted that long If you want to fit new bushes every year or two than go for it but I want no hassle motoring.
They can go brittle so they break and crumble away once they start to deteriorate, so if you don't check them you could end up with no bush at all. They can also go slimy and deform a bit.
I wouldn't use them on a road car unless your going to give it a full check over every month and be prepared to put new ones in whenever they start to show signs of wear. With rubber you can run them a bit longer after they start to deteriorate simply because they don't deteriorate as fast.
Also with engine stabilizers I reckon use the rubber ones because they are softer so they absorb some of the hash movements of the engine.

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Respect mine and I'll respect yours.

I use the rubber steady bushes, keep oil off them and they last for ages.
As said above I found poly bushes transmit too many engine vibes to the body.

I like the rubber for the lower arm inner pivot too- when assembled they are a stable `live' rubber mount. You cannot do this with poly, it tears....
I also found with using poly there the stuff flows out of shape after a while.
Poly has its uses, but IMO this ain't one of them.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Matt, I hope you are bringing a few sets to the Muster?? Mine are shot.

M

I have tried both rubber bushes and polyurethane. Poly, as stated before, is too hard. It doesn't achieve a middle ground. If you think the rubber bushes move too much you then have to decide how much abuse you're willing to inflict on the bodywork.

polly of days gone by was pretty bad, as people have suggested , especially the Nolathane brand,,,

but our new ones are the middle ground, newer material, oil resistant, & last for ages

& yes i`ll bring a pile of em to the Muster

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Like everyone else said and my personal experience has found, you'd be lucky to get 2 years out of nolathane, rubber a bit harder to fit but lasts and feels better.

I put nolathane lower front control arm bushes in my Outback because they were 1/4 the cost of genuine, after 18 months it sounded like a kingswood with rusty ball joints and bumps made it clunk like it had a worn rack end. Genuine ones there now.

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Dean Hutton's first car was a Mini.

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll probably go with new rubber ones. It's a pretty standard 998, so I really don't need the performance aspect of the urethane ones, and I don't think I need more road noise.

The rubber ones have worked for the last 33 years I suppose.

I haven't seen TheMiniMan's 1 piece bushes, but there is a local guy we get to make these for us as well. And they can be made at different grades for a soft or harder mount. And they are EASY to fit, none of the trying to squeeze the 2 piece rubber ones in. So depending on the car/owner as to what arrangement of soft to hard we use.

Don't get me wrong, i'm a big fan of rubber bushes and i think a lot of the poly bushes are junk in most applications. But the bushes we get made, which i imagine are just like the ones TheMiniMan has are excellent for engine steady bars. You really should try them.