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Suspension Bushings: Spoon VS. Ballade

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Old Mar 2, 2018 | 10:29 AM
  #1  
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Default Suspension Bushings: Spoon VS. Ballade

Hey guys, so my car is pretty much at the point where I feel like I should replace all my suspension bushings. My S is a daily driver with 145k and last time I got an alignment, my compliance bushings need to be replaced. At that point I figured it would be a good investment to replace all the other bushings as well. I've been trying to do as much research as possible and wanted to hear other people's experience and knowledge between Spoon and Ballade bushings.

I'm leaning a bit more towards Ballade just because it's a bit more affordable at around $900 or their other kit at $1000, as far as I can tell, the only difference is the cheaper set is machine finished and the more expensive kit has black coating. Spoons kit sits at almost $1200 for their full kit.

My car is mainly a daily driver and go on the occasional spirited canyon drives, but I do want to fully enjoy the car and attend autox and track events, maybe a few times a year.



Spoon:






Ballade:






Any help would be appreciated!
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Old Mar 2, 2018 | 11:03 AM
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i would just do the spoon bushings unless you want to deal with the added maintenance o spherical bearings.
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Old Mar 2, 2018 | 11:59 AM
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Are you sure the other bushings really need to be replaced? The Compliance Bushing takes a real beating, and goes bad way before all the others. 145K dd miles (so presumably a decent amount of hwy) there is a high probability your other bushings are all perfectly fine. Why spend $1k+, and a whole lot of labor, on parts you don't need?
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Old Mar 2, 2018 | 12:25 PM
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Yeah I'd inspect all the bushings and just replace the bushings that are really beat up with Spoon or Mugen replacements.. I'd bet only the compliance bushings need to be replaced
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Old Mar 2, 2018 | 12:33 PM
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Originally Posted by hoobastnk90
i would just do the spoon bushings unless you want to deal with the added maintenance o spherical bearings.
Ballade states there is supposedly no maintenance needed for their bushings.

Originally Posted by Car Analogy
Are you sure the other bushings really need to be replaced? The Compliance Bushing takes a real beating, and goes bad way before all the others. 145K dd miles (so presumably a decent amount of hwy) there is a high probability your other bushings are all perfectly fine. Why spend $1k+, and a whole lot of labor, on parts you don't need?
Originally Posted by afzan
Yeah I'd inspect all the bushings and just replace the bushings that are really beat up with Spoon or Mugen replacements.. I'd bet only the compliance bushings need to be replaced
​​​​​​​I know for a fact the other bushings are ok, but like I said I would rather replace everything and it's more preventative maintenance.
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Old Mar 2, 2018 | 12:38 PM
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I'd look into buying the Spoon ones either from RHDJapan or Jessie Streeter. I'm assuming you're in the US. Exchange rate is still favorable. RHD is asking $816 not including shipping.
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Old Mar 2, 2018 | 12:45 PM
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it seems like the order of bushings goes
oem
rubber
poly
spherical
in terms of hardness/harshness
i have poly bushings from energy suspension on mine, but alot of other members prefer the rubber bushings.
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Old Mar 2, 2018 | 12:48 PM
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You should check Hardrace rubber bushings, should be a bit cheaper than Spoon or Mugen.
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Old Mar 2, 2018 | 12:58 PM
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OEM type bushes are a fantastic design, and on a correctly set up S2000 are amazing don't overlook them..
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Old Mar 2, 2018 | 01:48 PM
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I'm currently in the same boat. Like the guys stated before, I'm probably just going to replace the front compliance bushing. I did a visual inspection recently of my front arms and they looked fine. I have ~130k miles and 10 years of use on mine; no track, but lots of canyon use. If I do replace any of the other arm bushings, it will just be the lower arms and I would replace them with either Mugen or Spoon. It's costly to have a shop do all the work, so it would save some coin to do it yourself. Unfortunately, doing it yourself requires either a press and/or ball joint press kit.
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