Polyurethane or VAG Rear suspension bushes???

[corradophil 3]

I have read loads of posts about rear bushes. Some people swear by vag ones because you retain the passive rear wheel steering effect. Others say if you have uprated suspension, which mine does, use poly ones because they will withstand greater loads keeping the geometry correct during cornering although losing the passive rear steering.

 

My C has poly front bushes and I am very pleased with them, but plan to change the rears soon, so I'm interested to get as many opions as possible from people who have changed them to help me decide.

[NickVR6 0]

I hav'nt done any yet, but reading the posts it seems best to poly everything other than the main rear axel bushes, like you say for the passive rear steering. Cant help on experience though, unless you can wait about 2 months! Doing all mine prior to the mot!

[davidwort 0]

I hav'nt done any yet, but reading the posts it seems best to poly everything other than the main rear axel bushes, like you say for the passive rear steering. Cant help on experience though, unless you can wait about 2 months! Doing all mine prior to the mot!

 

Phil, as you might remember I've just replaced my rears with OEM quality Febi bushes from GSF, after a week or so driving it on the new ones all I can say is that the car handles great now, it's running on new koni's with eibach springs and 195-50-15 tyres with slightly wider than standard 7" alloys. All the front bushes are new standard OEM too. The alignment and camber is spot on too, checked after doing the bushes.

 

I can't speak from experience with any poly bushes, but the new OEM rubber is certainly spot on for me now, cornering is such a good feeling I've found myself throwing it about a bit more just 'cause it feels so accurate and responsive. Getting back into my mk4 golf really opens your eyes as to how good the Corrado was when it came out :)

 

David.

[corradophil 3]

nick48480, I'll probably change mine before then, so I'll post my comments when it complete.

 

davidwort, Glad you are happy with the outcome of your work, I am more inclined to go for OEM ones. I am yet to experience how good a Corrado can handle, mine isn't bad, but both my Golf GTIs and my standard Leon Cupra were/are more impressive than the Corrado at the moment.

[Chris VR6nos 0]

On the topic of steering geometry! I'd like to say that the standard bushes are fine and word under hard cornering to passively rear steer.

However, if you have changed things like the shockers and or springs or lowered it or uprated anything else like ARB's then the rear steer WON'T act like it would with sloppy std suspension, the next thing is that to use the rear steer the car has to lean over far too far for my liking and makes the handling more of a guessing game than it should be, i've just uprated my VR suspension to something a bit lower and marginally firmer and although it's not as firm as i'd like it, the car seems obviously better without being harsh and does manage the hard corners much more accurately, the rear steer was to comensate for the high & soft (compromise) ride of the standard car to help with it's sportyness, the american cars are meant to be worse again god help them.

 

My opinion from experience!

 

 

Chris

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Fit all new VAG rubber all round along with good dampers and springs and the car will be totally transformed. Feels very sure footed, agile and most importantly, predictable. This is of course assuming the heavy metal parts (BJs, rack etc) are in good order too.

 

Dial in some tasty -1.2 degrees negative camber action aswell and you'll be smiling from ear-to-ear every corner you attack.....

 

My opinion from experience :wink:

[Henny 0]

kevhaywire, with ya there... although I ran -1.5 degrees on J-DUB for the ultimate in tyre eating cornering! :oops: :lol:

 

Again, my experience from opinion... ;)

[davidwort 0]

Fit all new VAG rubber all round along with good dampers and springs and the car will be totally transformed. Feels very sure footed, agile and most importantly, predictable. This is of course assuming the heavy metal parts (BJs, rack etc) are in good order too.

 

Dial in some tasty -1.2 degrees negative camber action aswell and you'll be smiling from ear-to-ear every corner you attack.....

 

My opinion from experience :wink:

 

I can see the negative camber from the pic of your car!

 

Mine's a fraction over VW spec and it feels pretty good too.

 

David.

[NickVR6 0]

Phil, some mixed opinions then! Would be very interested to here your final choice and what you think when fitted though, many thanks!

[corradophil 3]

Yep, I knew this would produce varying posts, but the more opinions the better. It is good to be able to draw from other peoples experience before deciding.

 

Interesting comments about the front camber, I remember experimenting with the camber on my MK1 Golf, I think I ended up at around 1 - 1.5 degrees negative and that stuck like sh$t to a blanket.

[Chris VR6nos 0]

I've set mine up with 0 camber but to be honest it does feel a little better as the lads described but i have to say, stick a charger on and you feel the std bushes give and in my opinion, give too much so if there is a benefit with a charger fitted there must be a benefit fitting uprated bushes even without that extra power but kev is going to find out soon enough!

 

 

Chris

[Mike Edwards 0]

I have Powerflex rear bushes on mine.

 

I would recommend fitting genuine VAG items.

 

The rear most bushes on the front wishbones however...

[24V Renshaw 0]

This is my own experience of poly bushes.

 

I fitted poly bushes throughout to mine, the fronts are excellent, but when I fitted the rear ones it was a big mistake. Unless all you are doing is track driving stick with the OE rear bushes. The poly ones transmit a lot more vibration and noise through the car and felt no better in terms of handling. I swiftly removed them and put brand new OE ones in but definately do Poly for all the other bushes.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Jay

[Chris VR6nos 0]

Ah well that's me out numbered

 

 

 

Chris

[olly elworthy 0]

i have powerflex throughout on mine, including the rear beam, and its very sure footed and predictable, i have done thgis as i have used this set up in both my mk1 and mk2 golfs,

think all this passive rear steer stuff is just hype, stick some proper bushes in there and locate that rear beam firmly,,, makes the car feel so much tighter on the limit,

and i have a proper tool for installing standard rear beam bushes so i didnt change them for ease of fitment either,,,

2p,,

[corradophil 3]

Hmmm, I was tempted to use poly bushes, because I am very happy with ones I put on the front, and Chris VR6nos's comments back this choice up. Then Kev kind of changed my mind a bit, and G60Renshaw changed it some more and made me decide on OEM....

 

olly elworthy, did you notice an increase in noise and vibration when you fitted them. My car is used on the road only and unless someone buys it will become my daily driver again soon, so I don't want a hard as nails unrefined ride, I had enough of that in my MK1 Golf.

[olly elworthy 0]

its not quite so refined on poor road surfaces, but not really much worse, maybe if your sat in the back,

my cars quite noisy full stop because of my exhaust and rsr charger outlet,, overall though dont think i would go back to std bushes,, i prefer how the car feels with poly bushes in the rear,

if you do buy them make sure you get good quality ones like powerflex,

i have a race poly bush set in my mk1 and they are really hard and they do transmit vibrations etc,, excellent for track use but a no-no on a road car,,

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I've done all this with my MK2s, so there's no way I'm ruining an already stiff ride by putting plastic bushes on my C. The rear poly WB bushes, creak when you brake and pull away, no matter how much lube you put on. It's harmless.....but it's not confidence inspiring or a good advert for german refinement. It's clearly audible outside and inside the car....

 

Oh and wait until the winter when the shure rating stiffens up with the cold....you'll so regret poly then.

 

It all depends if the car is a daily runner or not and if you're prepared to sacrifice refinement. Some people are, some aren't..... horses for courses.

 

Anyway, Chris, that pants mate. You forget I had 220 bhp going through the front wheels in my 16V T MK2 and the rear WB bushes never had 'give' in them in the way you describe. They're designed to have give in them anyway.

 

If adding a charger is strong enough to squash bushes under acceleration, I'd be more concerned with the suspension turrets being pulled apart personally....which reminds me, need to order my front and rear braces....

[Jimbob1970 0]

I recently went for Poly bushes all-round, and I prefer the car now, to how it was.

However, the original bushes were all pretty knackered, and I also had other worn mounts etc replaced at the same time, so I can't say what new OEM bushes would have done.

 

That doesn't help much does it?....

 

 

:roll:

[gibber 0]

My golf daily driver runs poly bushes at the rear, and I got to say kev, I get no sqeecks or creaks, in any condition, and the golf is a cabrio so I would defo hear anything like that.

As to weather they haddle better I cant comment, as I replaced worn out bushes so it felt way better anyway, but the golf does handle like its on rails, but I put that down to 9 inch of rubber on each corner and a 2 inch widened rear axle! :twisted:

[dinkus 10]

When thinking about bushes you need to bear in mind that most people have replaced 10yr+ old bushes with new ones. This will obviously transform the handling of the car.

 

I would guess that there probably aren't many people that can give a like-for-like comparison between new VAG bushes and new poly ones. It doesn't mean that people's opinions aren't valid, but it's worth noting.

 

Similarly, it's also worth noting that every single journo that drove the Corrado when it was new said it was the best handling car they'd driven in years. That must mean that the VAG bushes can't be that bad when new.

 

My guess (and this is just a guess) is that the VAG bushes work a treat (Kev's car certainly feels very planted).

 

Using poly bushes instead will stiffen the car up a bit over the standard ones, but at the cost of refinement and probably extra wallet damage.

 

If you like a nice hard rattly one, go for poly, if you like a decent, but slightly softer ride, then go for VAG.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

My golf daily driver runs poly bushes at the rear, and I got to say kev, I get no sqeecks or creaks,

 

You're lucky then mate as both my Golfs that had purple powerflexes creaked :? I did some Neuspeed ARBs on a mate's MK4 recently and even the poly bushes for those creaked, LOL!

 

I remember my old MK1 had Bugpack poly bushes on it (and engine mounts) in the days when poly was a cool thing to do.....and they were awful. The only compliance in the entire chassis was pretty much chassis flex and the tyre sidewalls! Sometimes, being too stiff can be bad for you and your partner :lol:

[olly elworthy 0]

well i like my poly ones, no rattling creaking nothing,

if people want to upgrade handling then put poly ones in if they want to restore it to factory feel then fit the VAG ones,,

people have their own opinions and experiences,,

but for me its powerflex polyurethane all the way!!!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Handling is subjective, you can't catergorically state that fitting plastic bushes improves handling. That's from the same school of thought that flat cornering = good handling. It doesn't meant that at all. 'Handling' is how the car makes the driver feel behind the wheel. If a driver feels confident, then the handling can be considered good as the car is doing what the driver wants/expects.

 

Imo, plastic bushes contribute nothing to what my definition of what good handling is and rear ones completely remove the subtle signals of where the limit of adhesion is....

 

And it's usually always the people that don't have to endure really cr@p roads on a daily basis that sing poly's praises....

[olly elworthy 0]

i take your views on board kev, but i do lots of trackdays (not in my corrado in my golf) so i am quite aware where the limit of adhesion is,, probably why i like the feel that polys give,

Oh and i live in the middle of nowhere in Devon,, nice smooth roads what are they?!?!?!?

just because i like them doesent mean everyone else will,

the person must make there own decision after scrutinising all our views and deciding what pros and cons the different options have related the their individual needs.