Beware continued

[Donels]

I have 'no axe to grind' on either material but metalastic bushes are used successfully throughout industry and in general on many current cars so I cannot believe that they cannot be made suitable for an Elan. Maybe it is the supplier used by the usual suspects?

For industry they can be purchased from Robush Components Ltd in the UK , link https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... i=89978449

I have used them to supply suspension bushes on another car I rebuilt, but I've not checked to see if they do a standard size for Elans, but I doubt Lotus had specially made bushes.

[miked]

Up to each to us choose our type of bushes. Do what you want. Your car.
Main point for me here is about the Elan or Plus 2. I am not really concerned what industry do in general. In the day there were good rotoflexes, dampers and bushes. Things have changed.
I know that poly has friction. Hence rifle boring and lubrication.
I like to drive reliably and have experience of both types and came to a conclusion from actually doing work myself on muliple cars. Not second or third hand information.
I would not comment on anything unless I thought i could help out and had something to share.
I think we need to be a bit more open minded when we try to share benficial information. Some of the comments on here seem a bit tit for tat. I took the time to explain my reasons.
Otherwise there will be less inclination for people to post.
I for one am less inclined to post these days for those reasons. There is a lot of historical information on here from many years back when these subjects were discused in a lot of detail.

[2cams70]

You can use whatever you like on your cars. Sure poly bushes are fine to use if you don’t have an alternative choice and there may not be much of a difference or they may be even better on a racetrack if that is where your priorities lie. For everyday use on normal roads however I think metallastic offer a better solution provided you can still get quality items. There seem to be a lot of closed minds on this forum. As soon as you have an opinion that challenges the norm you get shouted down by all the usual suspects that like to view themselves as experts - even more so by those where it seems personal dislike gets in the way of the discussion presented.

People with vested interested because they may happen to sell stuff that supports a particular bias should also disclose that fact.

[rgh0]

You can use whatever you like on your cars. Sure poly bushes are fine to use if you don’t have an alternative choice and there may not be much of a difference or they may be even better on a racetrack if that is where your priorities lie. For everyday use on normal roads however I think metallastic offer a better solution provided you can still get quality items. There seem to be a lot of closed minds on this forum. As soon as you have an opinion that challenges the norm you get shouted down by all the usual suspects that like to view themselves as experts - even more so by those where it seems personal dislike gets in the way of the discussion presented.

People with vested interested because they may happen to sell stuff that supports a particular bias should also disclose that fact.

I see a rational discussion on why and how poly bushes can work Ok and that there are apparent issues with the quality of replacement rubber bushes. Yes people have their own opinions and they are welcome to express them. I dont see anyone being shouted down, there are roughly an equal number of posts in favour of poly bushes as in favour of rubber bushes. You appear to be the only one bringing personal issues into the discussion

[alan.barker]

Always used metalastic bushes like original no problem.
Alan

[JonB]

I put all new metalastic bushes on my Plus 2 and, when taking it to Peterborough for a chassis repair, it was found that one of them at the front had failed. These bushes came from a respected source, and yet still there was a failure, in under 30 miles of driving. (I did wait until the car was on the ground and level before torquing the wishbone bolts up.)

Fast forward a few years and I'm restoring an S4 DHC. It needs new bushes, I want metalastics for originality, and I am unsure where best to get them from. As interesting as this discussion is, I'm waiting for someone to offer advice on this point. I could go searching the forum history - indeed, I have done - but a maker of decent bushes 10 or 20 years ago may not supply the same quality (if at all) today.

So for me, the pertinent question is... where can I get decent ones?

[Donels]

John, why not try the VP range of bushes available from Robush. If you measure your existing ones I’m sure there will be a standard bush, see page 11 of their catalogue, link supplied above.

[draenog]

I overhauled the front suspension of my +2 in 2019, replacing all 8 bushes in the upper and lower wishbones. Took the car out for a couple of test runs (50 or so miles) and then inspected the suspension. To my surprise one of the bushes had already failed! This was a failure of the bond between the rubber and the outer sleeve allowing the wishbone to move inwards (see pictures).

Not trusting the new bushes (from one of the usual suspects), I examined the original bushes I had removed as a matter of course. Some of them were clearly past it, but a couple from the upper wishbones looked OK. I replaced the failed bush with one of these, and began looking for better bushes. As luck would have it, a couple of NOS ones turned up on ebay.

Some weeks later a second bush failed. This time I replaced all the new bushes in the lower wishbones with the NOS ones (leaving the one previously replaced as I didn't have enough). Since then there have been no new failures.

So this isn't going to help with suppliers of new bushes. But for what it's worth, the new bushes seem to be OK in the upper wishbones (I guess they are less stressed than the lower ones). For the lower ones, try to find some NOS ones and/or reuse the best of the original bushes

[The Veg]

I'd have to dig through the receipt-file to be sure, but I think mine came from Dave Bean circa 2018/19. Under 3K miles on them so far, although that does include some good fangs up in the hills, but so far so good.

[2cams70]

You can use whatever you like on your cars. Sure poly bushes are fine to use if you don’t have an alternative choice and there may not be much of a difference or they may be even better on a racetrack if that is where your priorities lie. For everyday use on normal roads however I think metallastic offer a better solution provided you can still get quality items. There seem to be a lot of closed minds on this forum. As soon as you have an opinion that challenges the norm you get shouted down by all the usual suspects that like to view themselves as experts - even more so by those where it seems personal dislike gets in the way of the discussion presented.

People with vested interested because they may happen to sell stuff that supports a particular bias should also disclose that fact.

I see a rational discussion on why and how poly bushes can work Ok and that there are apparent issues with the quality of replacement rubber bushes. Yes people have their own opinions and they are welcome to express them. I dont see anyone being shouted down, there are roughly an equal number of posts in favour of poly bushes as in favour of rubber bushes. You appear to be the only one bringing personal issues into the discussion

Rohan you’d put an argument in for the world being flat if I posted on this forum that it was round.

[rgh0]

I will state my opinion when I disagree with anyone. No fear no favour. I will also state my reasons for my opinion.

Anyone is free to ignore what I say if they want. It is the internet after all and there are many wrong opinions given on many topics. But my professional chemical and mechnical engineering training and work experience and almost 50 years of Elan building, racing, repairing and modifications has given me lots of analytical data to back up what I say. Because I do not do this for a living I have no axe to grind or no need to protect "trade secrets" which people like the commercial race engine builder have to do. I do it to help keep Lotus on the road and to help people enjoy them.

I have well over 1000 PMs from people wanting advice on engine building and other Elan issues, my inbox and archive folders maxed out years ago from these discussions. These people want facts explained and help with alternate choices but they are not wanting to expose themselves to some of the BS issues that come up on open forums.

I am happy to discuss issue on PMs or in open forums it does not worry me ... nein problem

[MACCA.GLM]

Thanks for all of your posts on this topic.

I will continue to monitor the condition and wear on these poly bush and report if any problems pop up.



Cheers G

[661]

Thanks for all of your posts on this topic.

I will continue to monitor the condition and wear on these poly bush and report if any problems pop up.



Cheers G

Voice of reason.
If they've been put in correctly and are from a reputable source they will give you many years of trouble free, joyous service.

[elan66]

I think that there are plenty of open minds on this forum, they fit whatever they feel is best for their cars/applications or what they find works best for them, there are plenty of options when it comes to bushes, and polybushes vary quite a bit in quality and harshness for the road