powerflex bushings

[gmu525i]

I was all ready to do full Powerflex on my E34, I even bought all the parts. But now I am starting to have doubts about whether it's really the right thing to do.

My worry is that it's going to completely change the personality of the car, and not in a positive way. I know the general argument for putting them in is that they make handling tighter. On the other hand, this chassis is almost 25 years old and the roads around here are terrible, and I am worried that it's just going to rattle the car to bits. The Billy Boat exhaust has already made things rattle that didn't before.

Have any of you guys done the upgrade? Had second thoughts? Loved them? Put them in and then ripped them out?

Stephen

[John in VA]

Where are you using these?

[gmu525i]

The original plan was, everywhere:

Upper/Lower control arms
Front/Rear Sway bars
Rear subframe
Rear trailing arms

I talked to Gary at Martin Motorsports today, and he strongly advised against this. His take was, "don't try to make the car be something it isn't". He agreed there are benefits to the urethane bushings, but in the right situation. Then I started to worry that I was going down the road of the people I warned wormser about, that do all sorts of silly things to E36s.

An additional detail is that the regular purple Powerflex doesn't seem to be available for the upper control arms, so I have Black. Nobody seems to sell the purple ones for the E34. This another thing that got me started doubting.

I am much less worried about the sway bar bushings than everything else though.

Stephen

[John in VA]

I think you're making the right choice to stick with stock rubber. Heed Gary's experience.