Miss January

[Johnnyboy]

what was the landed price for these bushes John?

.

Total of £333.99 for two sets from "Energy Suspension".
(List price of $161 each, plus $101 postage (for the two), currency conversion, £40.32 VAT and Parcelforce fee of £13.50 ).

They did however take a while to be despatched because the seller had not actually got all of the individual part numbers that make up the "whole vehicle kit" in stock. (and about 10 days in UK customs...)

[RX7SA]

Hi John,
great work with the bushes, I am up in Brum staying with family over the Christmas break, so was thinking it would be a good time to arrange for me to come over and pick up the bushes hey. I am quite excited to get these on the car, although I imagine it is going to be a tough old job and my excitement might wain a little
Look forward to meeting you and seeing Miss January up close.
Merry Christmas
Simon

[Johnnyboy]

Hi John,
great work with the bushes, I am up in Brum staying with family over the Christmas break, so was thinking it would be a good time to arrange for me to come over and pick up the bushes hey. I am quite excited to get these on the car, although I imagine it is going to be a tough old job and my excitement might wain a little
Look forward to meeting you and seeing Miss January up close.
Merry Christmas
Simon

You can come anytime, with pleasure.

Give me a ring (you have my number, right?) before you set out to make sure we are not out shopping or whatever.

John

[RX7SA]

Thanks John
I think I have your number mate so shall definately phone first. Look forward to meeting up
Simon

[Johnnyboy]

Finally got around to putting the new Poly bushes in the front suspension. The old ones didn't actually look bad at all (at least compared to some we have seen...) and didn't seem to have any play so I had trouble plucking up the enthusiasm...., but having bought a new set of the damn things...

Not quite as awful a job as doing the rear, as less bushes to do (It has taken three months for the awfulness of doing the rears to fade enough to get around to the fronts).

No great difference round town, but took it on the M6 / A14 to Cambridge yesterday and discovered to my surprise that I was driving at least 10mph faster than last week.....

Having reduced speed (hopefully without having gone past a camera) I can say that it has just made it seem much safer somehow. Difficult to put your finger on but much nicer to drive fast. Less affected by road surface and for some reason there seemed less vibration, not more (I was worried about losing the smooth ride and getting more vibration, but it seems to have improved it instead...why could that be??)

Next up, a new oil cooler and maybe a refurbed starter motor.

[Steve-A]

Good stuff John I know what you mean about bushes making the car feel safer / more stable. It's hard to put your finger on isn't it.

As for the smoother ride.... Whilst the poly bushes are stiffer they still allow the suspension to move in its intended direction just as smoothly as normal bushes (and probably a bit smoother than old bushes). I believe the theory is that now when you hit a bump the suspension system itself flexes less so more of the impact is taken by the shock absorber directly and less through the chassis. The same theory applies to cars with chassis stiffening riding better.

As you're daily driving Miss January now I've been keep an eye out for you around Bromsgrove & Redditch, not seen you yet though!

[Johnnyboy]

Good stuff John As you're daily driving Miss January now I've been keep an eye out for you around Bromsgrove & Redditch, not seen you yet though!

That will be because my daily drive is to either Cambridge, Oxford or Birmingham International.....

I see what you mean about the suspension. Everything will now be transmitting forces directly into shocks and springs rather than at angles, and as you say each pivot probably moving far more smoothly with no lockups. There certainly isn't the "vibration" downside that I was fearing.

[ian65]

I've had my front poly bushes for about a year now and still haven't drummed up the enthusiasm to fit them.

[A7RXY]

I've had my front poly bushes for about a year now and still haven't drummed up the enthusiasm to fit them.

So have I along with numerous other items..............

[Johnnyboy]

Hi Guys.

You may have noticed that I was asking questions about S2 oil coolers a couple of weeks ago,

Well, despite your advice I decided to risk £100 to buy one from "Melbourne Australia"
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/aluminum-oil- ... 415b0ea3f7

Thus I was confused when the tracking number showed it coming from Zibo in China, via Peking.
(Have you ever heard of Zibo? Neither had I. It turns out to be a city the size of Birmingham with a history going back 3,000 years....)
However.

It arrived this week. It looked good - apart from the fact that an elephant had sat on it during the journey:


No signs of any cracks hoever, so a couple of emails to "Lucy" got it agreed that rather than wait for another one I would try to fit it and see what happened (with an agreement that if it leaked they wouldn't try to blame it on the fitting....).

Short pause while bending a couple of bits of steel to make up brackets to suspend it from the radiator (the original metal/rubber ones fell part a decade ago. The cooler has thus been lying on the plastic undertray since the late 1990's, but it couldn't go far because of the pipes...)

It didn't leak, so see result:



I think it looks quite stylish. It might start a trend. Who needs straight lines anyway?

(and you can see some proof that I have actually done the polybushes. Dave: I think red bushes would go well with a red stripe - don't you?

So all told, I now have a car that looks very interesting to anyone being run over by it.

Cheers.