Bullwings

Neither. If you want a majority track setup setup (i.e. > 80% of time is on track and/or driving to a track even), go with sphericals. If you want to replace beaten up OEM bushings and retain OEM longevity, but add a slight bit of stiffness, go with harden rubber - both Hardrace and Mugen offer a full line up.

I would avoid poly-urethane, it's a cheap solution that offers the worst of both worlds. Also, the biggest spend or effort is in the removal and installation.

A full set of harden rubber for all 8 control arms + 2 toe links from Hardrace will run you ~ $800. The labor to bring it to a shop and have it all installed will easily run you $1000+.
If you're doing it yourself, it's something that you probably only want to do once and never again. Don't eff it up with poly...

B serious

OE bushings only last a couple of years??

Mine are 18 years old...

Anyway, let us know how you like what you buy.

Are the ones you're buying a floating type? or bonded?

Limeay

Don't take it to heart, what i meant was it does not last the life of the vehicle. Just like engine mounts don't last the life of a vehicle even though thats different from a suspension part. I do not know how you got away with that for 18 years, are you talking about S2000 bushings? Poly bushings, i believe majority if not all have limited lifetime warranties. I do not see the problem with that. Seems my understanding of OE and Poly are different from that of everyone else's.

I'm not sure if its floating or bonded, doesn't floating type just mean that the bushings do not use a metal shell for the outside which these don't use and bonded is the type that has the bushing glued to the metal shell?
Anyways i have this reply from whiteline themselves

"Hello,

Although some of our bushings are grease free, these particular bushings are not. This a 75 durometer open molded bushing. One of the most significant differences about Whiteline bushings is that they are not injection molded. The majority of other polyurethane bushings are injection molded like common plastic products. This is not always ideal because an injection mold can cause for uneven distribution of the polyurethane’s raw ingredients. As a result of our open cast molding, our polyurethane bushings have a much longer life due to a superior manufacturing process. This in turn leads to extremely high durability. If you have any other questions, please let me know and I will be happy to help!

Jared Rodriguez

Data Entry and Customer Service"

Here's a link on Rubber vs Poly lifespan:
http://www.suspension.com/blog/rubbe...sion-bushings/

Limeay

If i do do this, I'd perform this replacement myself. Labor is way too much, i'm capable of it myself.

Limeay

Uhh... i thought i listed that i wanted street performance mainly (daily driver) and a small side of track time if i wanted to. I might not have wrote it that way but i sure did list it. No disrespect. Also if you know about wisefab kits they are sphericals bushings.
I do not have the email for this but i did talk to wisefab. They also have sphericals too, i asked them will the sphericals wear out and they told me yes and it would be much harsher.

Quote from ModIntegra, Team-integra spherical-vs-poly-oem-lca-bushing:
The purpose of an flexible bushing (rubber, urethane) is to absorb road shock and suspension travel compliance due to flexing of the frame and suspension parts, and non-perfect suspension geometry. If you reduce the flexing of one part that is supposed to normally flex than another part will have to work twice as hard. You will feel more of the road and possible damage to the car if hitting a pot-hole or something big. Would you rather be punched by a person bare handed so the force is instantaneous or punched by a person with a pillow wrapped around his hand so the force is gradually applied. This is the same concept about why you should keep the stock crank pulley with the torsional damper on it.

Quote from F'ing matt, Honda-tech spherical-vs-polyurethane-2850857/:
I wouldn't recommend spherical bearings unless it was a track car or one that atleast saw an occasional track day. They have nothing to absorb vibrations from the road and wouldn't make for a very fun daily driver. NVH is a bad thing in a driver.

Quote from Function7, Honda-tech spherical-vs-polyurethane-2850857/:
We do not recommend spherical bearings on a daily driven car. You'll find the benefit/cost to be very low.

We spent a lot of time getting our poly bushings "just right" before we first released our arms for sale in 2003. Our bushings are designed to mimic the behavior of spherical bearings without the associated cost, and they last longer than the spherical bearings too. There is a small amount of compromise in terms of performance as you would expect, with the poly bushings.

If you insist on changing out to spherical bearings, we do offer a retrofit service ($100 plus shipping) for your current arms. We prefer to perform the service instead of just selling the retrofit parts because it ensures that the work is done correctly.

I hope this helps you make the correct decision.

Izyga09 yea i would def stick with the polyurethane if your not going to track the car, you are not going to benefit that much from the spherical on a daily driver.

Limeay

Thats not what they say. Rubber vs Polyurethane Suspension Bushings - Suspension.com

noodels

On removal of your oem,you will see there design and quality & only then

B serious

Have you gotten under the car and looked at your factory bushings? With the exception of the compliance bushing, they all last a very long time if they kept clocked properly (if any suspension components were ever taken apart).

What makes you think they wear out so quickly?

Yes, quite a few of mine are original. 85K miles, 18 years. Lots of people get 150+K miles out of factory bushings.

No offense to you either...but I think you read some blogs online about how "amazing" poly is and drank up all their koolaid.

None of those blogs answer the question:
Why do OEM's choose rubber or sphericals? Why don't they use poly?

Have you explored that question?

S2000 factory bushings use rubber and lots of metal "washers" to prevent deflection. Doesn't that sound like it would add the same NVH as using a higher durometer polyurethane? Why would Honda prefer this more complex and expensive method? Why didn't they just stick some poly bushings in there?

Again...not trying to change your mind, as your decison doesn't affect me. Just trying to discuss.

Car Analogy

You mean what the place that sells polyurethane bushings says about them?

Yes, if you lube them regularly, and keep them clean, they can outlast the rubber bushings (though I contest lifetime of vehicle). But thats very misleading. The labor involved in lubing them is nearly equal to effort to replace them, which is a lot.

Why is longevity a worthwhile attribute? You don't have the parts expense, labor, and downtime. But what if the 'lifetime' parts require similar labor and downtime much more frequently than another parts actual replacement efforts? Then lifetime isn't such a bargain anymore.

You can add zerk fittings. Then its more labor up front, saving lots of labor down the line. But to do it right, you'll need to grove out channels for lube to flow evenely around entire surface. So its quite a bit of up front work.

Either get quality spherical, or stick with rubber.

I haven't even discussed the biggest poly negative, stiction. There is an initial reluctance to articulate over anything less than large impacts. This leads to a stiffer ride, and less ability for tires to follow road contour. This effect is more significant for lighter cars. Big muscle cars have used poly to somewhat positive effect. Small sports cars not so much.

flanders

I think Whiteline use a nice knurling inside their bushings which keeps some of the grease still there after you press in the metal collar, Powerflex lacks this.
I agree that rubber or spherical would be better but if you still want to use poly then Whiteline is probably the least bad choice.
Would be interesting to see their version of the compliance bushing though, but it seems they don't make one?

My car runs on Powerflex front lower bushings and the rest is all Hardrace sphericals.