Polybushes - Any Good?

[Lewis's Friend]

Hi All

I'm looking for some information on polybushes. I'm currently pulling the suspension of my MX5 apart, in readiness for a rebuild. This will include new bushes all aound.

I was planning on upgrading to polybushes, as a performance mod, and as they are easier to fit! However, speaking to a guy who works in the car industry as an engineer, he said I shouldn't do it.

His reasons were that in his experience normal rubber bushes were a better combination of control and damping. He also went on to say he didn't really see how polybushes could hope to work as well as rubber, given that the central metal sleeve is free to move like a bearing and as such you sacrifice a lot of the 'rotational damping' (for want of a better phrase) as it will try to return to its rest position.

I confess I have no knowledge on the matter, but hoped there might be those here who can explain it to me?

Cheers

[Lewis's Friend]

cptsideways said:

The MX-5 Mk1 championship winning cars run standard but new Mazda bushes

The cars were slower on the polybushes

Thanks for the feedback all.

Possibly a stupid question, but where would one source oe bushes? Direct from mazda, or is there a website?

Cheers

[Lewis's Friend]

Cheers for all the info chaps. I think I'm going to stick with OEM bushes. Partly as these seem to be the best fit for what I'm after, and partly as polybushes on Mx5's seem to be rather a fraught subject, with stories of snapped wishbones with improperly fitted polybushes (in extreme instances I would imagine)...