Energy Suspension sucks! Options

[Racer X]

I'm curious to see what my stock caster bushings look like.

My factory bushings looked surprisingly good at 101K miles.

About 92K of those were accumulated in eastern PA (think lots of road salt and crappy roads).

[robz71lm7]

My stock caster bushings were both torn at 30 something thousand miles-although the car was 10 years old at the time.

[Timz06]

I blew the exhaust gasket out between the header and y pipe at Road Atlanta, and my caster bushing melted.

[sgarnett]

OK, I've got some new confusion to add to the mix:

The stock front lower control arm bushings on my 2001 Z28 ARE the Moog bushings. Exactly. The part numbers and markings molded in the rubber match perfectly on both the caster and camber bushings.

My car is somewhere in the mid 30K range on mileage, and that includes several years of autocross at local events on 275 tires, mostly on fairly slick lots, and only lowered to 27".

My stock "Moog" caster bushings are torn. Of course, they are rubber and will fail sooner or later no matter what. Lowering these cars is tough on the caster bushing. They have not totally failed yet, but they are not far from it.

What I don't know is whether the earlier cars used some other bushings that fail even sooner, or if the "proven" Moogs are simply holding up at first because they are still fresh and pliable. I also don't know how long mine have been torn.

Really, almost 4 years isn't a bad service life for a stressed rubber bushing, but now I'm wondering whether Prothane might be worth a shot.

[ESPCamaro]

My question is what did Sam's stock ones look like. His car is the same year as yours.....If GM added different parts on the same model and year of car, HTF are we to keep track?

In any event I'll be adding ProThane parts. While I'm sure that they will be MUCH more durable than the E/S part, I don't expect much more than 1.5-2rs.

[sgarnett]

My question is what did Sam's stock ones look like. His car is the same year as yours.....If GM added different parts on the same model and year of car, HTF are we to keep track?

In any event I'll be adding ProThane parts. While I'm sure that they will be MUCH more durable than the E/S part, I don't expect much more than 1.5-2rs.

It's quite possible that there were multiple suppliers for the bushings.

The original bushings have two holes passing all the way through to allow easier vertical movement of the control arms. At first I thought the Moogs just had shallower depressions, but that was just because there was still some paper-thin mold flash across the holes. The molded-in part numbers pretty much nail it anyway.

So, I wonder which will last longer - a fresh set of the stock/Moog bushings, or Prothane? Obviously neither is going to last forever.

I'm going to try Prothane for the camber bushing anyway since the Moogs are no better than stock. More importantly, the camber bushing isn't accessible on my press. After trying it, and repairing the damage, I gave up and removed the rubber core.

I already have the caster bushings pressed out, so I have until tomorrow to decide whether to install the Moog as-is or burn out a brand new bushing and install the Prothane.

My schedule keeps slipping ....

[robz71lm7]

OK, I've got some new confusion to add to the mix:

The stock front lower control arm bushings on my 2001 Z28 ARE the Moog bushings. Exactly. The part numbers and markings molded in the rubber match perfectly on both the caster and camber bushings.

My car is somewhere in the mid 30K range on mileage, and that includes several years of autocross at local events on 275 tires, mostly on fairly slick lots, and only lowered to 27".

My stock "Moog" caster bushings are torn. Of course, they are rubber and will fail sooner or later no matter what. Lowering these cars is tough on the caster bushing. They have not totally failed yet, but they are not far from it.

What I don't know is whether the earlier cars used some other bushings that fail even sooner, or if the "proven" Moogs are simply holding up at first because they are still fresh and pliable. I also don't know how long mine have been torn.

Really, almost 4 years isn't a bad service life for a stressed rubber bushing, but now I'm wondering whether Prothane might be worth a shot.

My stockers were out at 30 something K as well. Like I said in that PM a while back the prothanes are much better than ES, but I don't think any bushing will last long. It just isn't a good place for a bushing-it needs to be a rod end. I might tear mine down mid-year to inspect the prothanes, but I'll definately have them out next winter.

My ES's were so obliterated that I had damaged done to my LCA's.

Sean if you want you can just throw in the moog and see what happens to my guinea pig with prothanes since they're already on my car.

I'd go ahead and replace the camber bushing with prothanes-nothing wrong with poly there.

[sgarnett]

My ES's were so obliterated that I had damaged done to my LCA's.

Sean if you want you can just throw in the moog and see what happens to my guinea pig with prothanes since they're already on my car.

I'd go ahead and replace the camber bushing with prothanes-nothing wrong with poly there.

Well, at least I don't have to ruin my brand new Moog caster bushings just to salvage new shells, or try to get the old ones back in tight enough. Apparently the Prothane caster bushing doesn't use the shell, unless I'm very confused (the other locations do).

The lower half of the Prothane caster bushing looks fine. I'm a little skeptical of the upper half, which doesn't really fit/engage as positively as I expected. It does need to be able to flex though, so maybe .... (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

They look easy to install, though, so it should only take a few extra minutes to test fit them on the car before deciding. I'm already way behind anyway (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[firehawkclone]

I also will be installing the prothane set, and i'll be doing some OT event's and street driving with street tire's for now.

It will take me sometime(hopefully) to get some feedback but i'll post up my finding's.