Monday, November 15, 2010

SuperPro lower arm bushing...

in all car suspension linkages, there are rubber bushing to avoid metal-to-metal contact... benefits of having rubber bushes is they absorbs flex and vibration transfered from the road to the chassis... rubber bushing also far cheaper to produce... however, rubber bushes also do flex a lot under extreme stress... under such conditions, they do not last very long and will break/tear very soon... polyurethane (PU) bushes, or in layman term, performance bushes, are far stiffer and last much longer compare to rubber bushes... they do not flex under extreme stress, hence maintaining perfect wheel geometry, optimizing handling and stability of the car...



SuperPro bushings are one of many PU bush manufacturers around the world... they originates from Australia and has fare share of research and development under their belt to build one of the best bush around... they do offer 3 year warranty on their product on Australia ground, but i was told only 1 year warranty was given in Malaysia market... i guess Australia roads are far better compare to pot-hole ridden Malaysia streets...



i only bought the lower arm bush due to budget limitation... complete set for saga iswara will cost approximate Rm550, which includes lower arm bushing, antiroll bar linkage bushes and steering rack bushes... the lower arm bushes which i got already cost Rm380... FYI, for saga iswara model, SuperPro only available for front set, as aforementioned above... none available for the rear trailing arm bush...



installation took almost a day as the lower arms need to be sent to machine shop to get the smaller bush pumped in... after it has returned to the workshop, it is just a matter of fixing everything back in position...



lower arm main bush...



my broken rubber main bush... notice the weak hollow section which allows flex...



review, normal drive feels rather same... but when u drive more aggressively, steering feels a little sharper... anyway, i was not hoping much on performance improvement... i'm buying it for reliability... see how long PU bush can withstand my driving style... :)