new Radius arm bushings. Stock or Polybush?

[SnakeLogic]

I need to replace my bushings there (radius arm ones).  Stock or Polybush?  If Polybush, blue or orange?  and why?

Cheers

[snezza69]

A lot of people on this site will recommend Polybush, I myself have fitted them on my Disco, and I think the ride is better but the old bushes were shot so this is no garantee that yours will too.  The big benefit is ease of fitting.  I had to burn out the old rubber bushes but the new Poly ones slipped straight in with a touch of grease.

As far as I am aware, poly pushes are the same with the colour denoting supplier (I may be wrong here also), I fitted the Brit part yellow ones, and they seem fine.

Hope this helps.

[Sheddy]

I polybushed my Disco throughout back in February.  I'm replacing them with OEM bushes as they fail.  So far I've replace all the front shock opnes and the trailing arm ones.

Tells a tale.

[Richie_EB4]

From memory.....polybush's are blue or red.......deflex bush's are orange or yellow.
Deflex is the cheaper option.

[TDi90]

i would stay standard...

[muddyweb]

I use Poly on there purely because they are easier to change.   I don't believe they offer any particular ride improvement, or last any longer.  (If anything they might last a bit less time)

[Sharpshooter]

I polybushed my Disco throughout back in February.  I'm replacing them with OEM bushes as they fail.  So far I've replace all the front shock opnes and the trailing arm ones.

Tells a tale.

Hi Sheddy. Can i ask. Did you have genuine bushes, or deflex or another make. I have genuine polybushes all round on both my 110, and my discovery 1. I can say they are much nice on the road, and off the road on both vehicles.

The idea of polybush, is that they arnt succeptable to damage, like the rubber ones. Also, the design alows the bush to flex more. Robber bushes are bonded, whick restricts their movement. Whereas Polybushes are seperate, and allow them to move more freely, as they should.

Most Polybushes fail due to noty being fitted correctly. I have fitted several sets to all kinds of vehicles, and only ever had one fail. This was due to the bush being slightly damaged by someone trying to fit it before.

I bought my bushes for my 110 from a guy on ebay. He had them fitted to his 90, and siad they didnt do whet the were supposed to. When they turned up, i could barely get them apart. They were dry as a bone. I cleaned them up, and gave them plenty of grease when fitting. All i can say, is if you want to come and have a ride in either of my vehicles. Your more than welcome. Im sure you wont be dissapointed. :)

[BtB]

There are two types of origional polybush, 'Classic' which are red. These are designed for road vehicles (fast road work, towing) and its sugested that driving on dirt tracks is the most off road they should have. They will stiffen up the suspension.

Thewn there is the 'Comfort' which are blue. These are softer and give more shock absorbsion. They were designed for offroad use to allow more flex. It also states they are simular to standard.

Polybush also have a 'Dynamic' range. There isn't much info about these on their web site. They are  orange in colour. They list th e dynamic for the series 2 disco.

I have been fitting Explorer bushes as and when i have needed to replace (mainly because i needed a coupe for work that i was doing and i couldn't get hold of anything else. The only thing i could buy was a full Explorer kit). I have had no trouble with them. When i start having trouble i will look into fitting blue (comfort) bushes.

Alot depends on the vehicle and its usage. For examlpe it could be a very important feature that you can change the bushes yourself any where. So a 3 part bush is the way forward.

[Xtremeteam]

personally i would stick with OME as they were proven,from my experiance ive found polys to wear the metal rather than the bush wearing  

[davidlandy]

Got orange polybushes on mine and found them to last not very long at all

the only advantage is that they are easy to change (after the first time) from OEM rubber ones.

in 2 yrs I have I had to redo the front , starting with the panhard rod then the front radius arms as the front axle was twisting back and forth causing a clunking.

not impressed at all.

but Im not sure what my recommendation is!

[extreme90]

ive got genuine polybush dynamic orange on mine
been on a year now had some serious grief and they now i need to replace 3 of them and thats it the rest are all ok
i agree with tim, no vast inprovement over stock bushes
just is they that easy change

[Range Rover Blues]

The colour just depends on the mood of the moulder, it's a dye.

Manufacturers like to use colours to denote the stiffness of the polyeurathane, it's measured by shore hardness, being perhaps 25% harder than rubber.

Deflec ones from Paddocks are currently Orange, the same bushes from Rimmers are black.

Some are red, some yellow and some blue.

I find they tighten up the handling on my lifted Rangie, less body roll.  i can understand the wear in the bush mounting if lots of crud gets in there and works like a grinding paste, poly itself is very wear resistant due to it's compliance.

Anyway, as a general rule I think extreme off-roaders/racers/trialers like the durability and compliance (softness) of OEM rubber.  Remeber that there are 2 types of radius arm bush, Defender and early RRC use a single rubber element, later (EFi) Rangies had a dual rubber, with an intermediate sleeve to stiffen the bush and help with body roll.  These might have reverted to the softer bush when Anti Roll bars were intorduced but not on my car.

Those of us who use our cars more for leasure like the serviceability of poly. I changed my Panhard rod polybushes because they were 2 years old, no sign of wear and no deterioration due to oil contamination (another failing of rubber) but I changed them anyway.  It cost £4 including new sleeves.