I noticed some of my bushings are starting to show their age - cracks, etc. Should I replace with rubber or polyurethane? If poly, what brand? Graphite-impregnated or not? If I had somebody do the install, what's a good ballpark for the cost?

Thanks in advance!

Are you looking @ doing control arm bushings up front or the multi-link bushings in the rear?

In either case I'm less and less inclined to recommend poly bushings the more I get into rebuilding the suspension on my own car. In one of the threads above CC referred to the shoulders of the bushings binding when the bolts are tigthened and that's 100% true. When I took apart my front end over the winter and after removing the front spring my control arms (with poly bushings) wouldn't even rotate about their axis under their own weight becasue the shoulders were crushed and caused binding.

After I installed new bushings they rotate freely with very little slop.

The more your suspension binds the less efficient your springs and shocks are, which means all that work you put into their setup goes down the tubes.

I haven't inspected them all yet, just noticed the front uppers were starting to look a little ratty. Those del-alum bushings look intriguing - I read in one of the threads that a guy had 30K miles on his.

Thanks for saving my breath on that one Tom!

Anyways I think poly are fine in front as long as you ensure the dimensions are proper, or trim accordingly.

Is rubber even available?

I have seen mention that the rubber bushings aren't available anymore, but I haven't done much searching on that front - was too busy drooling over that Banski setup.

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If you'll allow me to tease you a bit more: I have a new front suspension on my car now that has handled quite well so far this season. I've been @ the track with it 4 times this year and have been happy with it's handling characteristics so far. I still have a few more events before I'm going to tear it down and inspect it to ensure that it's robust enough.

The kit replaces the lower bushings, upper bushings and the upper control arm spindle. The reason for replacing the spindle is to ease re-assembly. After having to press the old control spindle out through both bushings I said to myself that there had to be an easier way. I was able to put the bushings in the control arms with a simple bench vise and the spindle is specially designed to assemble without a press, on the bench.

Delrin is used in all the key areas of motion.

Sounds like a much simpler solution. Is it a track-only setup, or would it be suitable for the street?

I have to vote Banski.

I have it. And I love it.

Yes... I have had it for some time, but have remained quite due to the fact it will be a story soon...

However, what it does for the C4 is nothing short of amazing.

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Simpler was certainly the goal, along with trying to be better than the urethane solution.

It would be suitable for either street or track. One thing even I've been surprised by is the feedback I've gotten from both applications for the rear suspension. Better grip is better grip no matter what kind of pavement you're on, and that's what we're all looking for.

Sounds very intriguing - thanks much!

On the rear of my C4 I had stock bushings....then polys and now banskis....

I would not go back to stock or polys....
Now I'm saving up for something better than polys for the front...


My C4 is not a garage queen its daily driven ...at times its daily driven pretty damn hard..


Mike

Mine is a daily driver while it's out of storage, too - that's a good reco, Mike!