Question on poly bushings

[TominMO]

I used to have poly bushings on my Festiva, where the sway bar meets the LCA. Replaced 'em with stock rubber ones due to too much vibration. I would love to have them back as part of upgrading the handling, along with the LCA-to-body and sway bar-to-body poly bushings. But I really don't want it to vibrate me like I'm in a massage chair.

Thinking back, maybe the reason it vibrated (at hwy speeds) was mainly due to a poor front alignment setup. And of course the rear alignment had not been modded from stock either.

So my question is, with proper neutral toe-in front and rear, would most or all of the vibration go away?

[sc72]

Hey Tom, I have the full set of Poly bushings and have had no vibrations and I think you know what my set up is, the front was aligned a few years back when I bought the bushings from Ben at the Festiva store, it has slight toe in and camber is set at,

-.5 on passenger side and
-.8 on the drivers side
with it set this way it does not hunt going down the road, drives quite easy.

Good luck.

[TominMO]

Hey Tom, I have the full set of Poly bushings and have had no vibrations and I think you know what my set up is, the front was aligned a few years back when I bought the bushings from Ben at the Festiva store, it has slight toe in and camber is set at,

-.5 on passenger side and
-.8 on the drivers side
with it set this way it does not hunt going down the road, drives quite easy.

Good luck.

Thanx 4 the feedback, Karl!

[Sid_RallyX_82]

I used to have poly bushings on my Festiva, where the sway bar meets the LCA. Replaced 'em with stock rubber ones due to too much vibration. I would love to have them back as part of upgrading the handling, along with the LCA-to-body and sway bar-to-body poly bushings. But I really don't want it to vibrate me like I'm in a massage chair.

Thinking back, maybe the reason it vibrated (at hwy speeds) was mainly due to a poor front alignment setup. And of course the rear alignment had not been modded from stock either.

So my question is, with proper neutral toe-in front and rear, would most or all of the vibration go away?

Vibrations only result from alignment when something is VERY wrong, like having 3* of toe or more, or something being loose.
The most likely cause of vibration at highway speed is driveline imbalance. And the most likely culprit there would be wheel imbalance.

[TominMO]

Vibrations only result from alignment when something is VERY wrong, like having 3* of toe or more, or something being loose.
The most likely cause of vibration at highway speed is driveline imbalance. And the most likely culprit there would be wheel imbalance.

Thanks, I'll bear that in mind too.

[ryanprins13]

I used to have poly bushings on my Festiva, where the sway bar meets the LCA. Replaced 'em with stock rubber ones due to too much vibration. I would love to have them back as part of upgrading the handling, along with the LCA-to-body and sway bar-to-body poly bushings. But I really don't want it to vibrate me like I'm in a massage chair.

Thinking back, maybe the reason it vibrated (at hwy speeds) was mainly due to a poor front alignment setup. And of course the rear alignment had not been modded from stock either.

So my question is, with proper neutral toe-in front and rear, would most or all of the vibration go away?

Did the vibration go away when you put the regular ones back in? And if so did you change anything else when you replaced them like wheel alignment, new tires, tire balance....
I cant see them causing vibration at all, plenty of people use them. They will transmit more road bumps to the car is all.
I have the poly bushings on the sway bar to the rad support but not at the lca's and my car drives nice.


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[TominMO]

Did the vibration go away when you put the regular ones back in? And if so did you change anything else when you replaced them like wheel alignment, new tires, tire balance....
I cant see them causing vibration at all, plenty of people use them. They will transmit more road bumps to the car is all.
I have the poly bushings on the sway bar to the rad support but not at the lca's and my car drives nice.

The vibration did go away when I reinstalled the rubber ones, yes. The only poly ones I was using were the swaybar-to-LCA ones. Nothing else was changed; but perhaps the rubber ones were masking a slight imbalance in the wheels, or incorrect toe.

I had the poly ones on a few years ago, with different (heavier) tires/wheels, and also full ride height on stock struts.

Now everything is different. This summer I am going to make some changes: rear camber/toe plates, poly bushings, front coilovers (already have rears), and go back to a Festiva sway bar (I have an Aspire one on there now).

[skeeters_keeper]

Full polly on both my BP swaped cars with no vibrations.

[Sid_RallyX_82]

The vibration did go away when I reinstalled the rubber ones, yes. The only poly ones I was using were the swaybar-to-LCA ones. Nothing else was changed; but perhaps the rubber ones were masking a slight imbalance in the wheels, or incorrect toe.

I had the poly ones on a few years ago, with different (heavier) tires/wheels, and also full ride height on stock struts.

Now everything is different. This summer I am going to make some changes: rear camber/toe plates, poly bushings, front coilovers (already have rears), and go back to a Festiva sway bar (I have an Aspire one on there now).

What condition are the rubber bushings? If an alignment was done with old, squished bushings, it would definitely mess with angles when putting in new bushings

[TominMO]

What condition are the rubber bushings? If an alignment was done with old, squished bushings, it would definitely mess with angles when putting in new bushings

The rubber bushings were either new or very good. Also, my alignment technique/tools back then was not as good as now (string instead of camber plates). :-/