Poly bushing upgrades for PT - Reviewed...

[THS_Cruiser03]

Hi Mopar buddies!

Recently as most of you have done already, I needed to have my wheel bearings replaced. The driver was howling nasty, the passenger only barely but you know - you delay, you pay.

So I have been thinking for a while about upgrading to the polyurethane bushings on my car (along with other significant mods) to improve the handling, braking and cornering. So while they had to pull the control arms off to do the bearings I thought it might be a good time to do the bushing upgrade too. *Note to you all - there is a significant savings on labor if you do the bushing upgrade when you do your bearings...FYI

So now that I have smooth quiet bearings, new ceramic brakes, new rotors, and new energy suspension poly bushings I thought I'd give a report on my feelings about bushings after about 2k miles (car currently has about 68k).

Pros:

- Nicely improved road surface feel - that same type of communication from the asphault back through the wheel similar to what I felt in my Rx-7's

- Surprisingly, the steering effort feels reduced. Not sure why, but I like it.

- Cornering - The car must be pushed significantly harder than stock to induce hard body roll. She stays pretty flat on 30 MPH off ramp curves even at nearly 50 MPH.

- Quick lane change - This may be the best thing about them, the car is more agile on it's wheels, the steering input feels more exact. Pick your line, put it there and it goes there. This nicely accentuates the PT's handling which is already pretty good for a higher profile vehicle.

- Improved braking - It seems like there is less brake dive now, though I'm not sure how much of that is related to the new brakes or not.


Cons:

- Road noise - Along with the improved road surface feel through the wheel, I think I'm getting a bit more road noise vibrating into the body from the suspension. It's nothing major, but at say 75-80 MPH cruising you notice it more than I used to. Probably only one or two dB increased.

- Bump reverb- Normal bumps an small potholes seem harsher now, but she handles them fine. However when you hit a real doosy (such as a pavement up-heaval) or rough RR tracks you get this sort of bump-ba-dump. The bump seems to reverberate a second time through the chassis, and it doesn't feel so hot. Though I think this comes with the territory of firmer suspension as my Rx cars didn't like that type of thing either.


The nice thing is my car still doesn't have the rear sway bar upgrade (coming soon) and the rear suspension bushings are not poly, they're still stock. So I think with those two things I can make her handle even better.

Hope you guys enjoyed the reveiw. Comments? Questions?

Shopping links:

Front control arm bushing set:
Energy Suspension Chrysler PT Cruiser Front Control Arm Bushing Set - AutoTruckToys.com


Front Sway bar bushings:
Energy Suspension Chrysler PT Cruiser Front Sway Bar Bushing Set - AutoTruckToys.com


Front end links set:
Energy Suspension Chrysler PT Cruiser Front-End Links Set - AutoTruckToys.com


Tom

[Jabouty]

Nice post, and thank you for the review.

I would request links to the items you used for your upgrades (selfish reasons mostly, but I think would help the overall review). I'm in need of a new hub and bearing (me passenger side is teh weebles) and am thinking of upgrading while the stuff's apart as well.

[THS_Cruiser03]

Okay I'll update the post with the linkys. Glad you liked the review.

Give me a few minutes to post them.

Tom