Can anyone recommend a bush kit?

Hi everyone, I’m looking to replace all the bushes on my NC MX5 and was hoping to get some recommendations on kits from your good selves. I have been told that the SuperPro bushes are great but the full kit is around £900, I was hoping for something closer to £500 but I don’t want to buy cheap for the sake of it so I will listen to reason.

Thanks in advance,

Rich

If you want a Superpro kit Bofi do this one at £667

I spoke to Superpro directly for a complete kit price.

As with all bearing poly bushes you will need to keep them greased.
Consider Powerflex as well if you want a firm bush or if your car is for road only Polybush bushes do not need greasing and while more compliant than Superpro and Powerflex will be a big improvement over old rubber and last longer.

Thank you that’s really useful advice. My car will be predominantly road use to start off with but I will track it more and more as time goes on, it’s not a daily driver.

Also, that kit at £667 seems pretty reasonable. I may well go ahead and get the SuperPros.

Budget for new alignment bolts as these rust in place.
I found these good and can be torqued up more than standard to keep your alignment in place.
https://skidnation.co.uk/shop/mazda-mx5-nc-mk3-alignment-bolts-set/

If I replace the ARBs with the yellow dot RX8 ones, will the ARB bushes included in this kit work do you know? Sorry if that’s a stupid question!

Some scriblings here that might help: http://www.duratecnc.co.uk/?p=439

Thank you :slight_smile:

The yellow dot are 26mm front / 16 mm rear. If you have a soft top NC you will have 22mm front / 12mm rear.
So no, you will have to buy RX8 bushes or speak to a supplier who may be able to swap them in the kit.
There are a number of posts about the pros and cons of adding larger ARBs to standard/lowered and aftermarket coilovers. if you use yellow dot front and rear you will have the RX8 factory understeer balance but magnified on the lighter NC. However many people find they like the feel and they can work well on the track. For road use you may find the higher rate reduces grip as one wheel hits a bump it can unload the opposing wheel making the car feel a little nervous.

Interesting, I’ve also heard from someone that had the yellow dots and MeisterRs which I plan to get, that the car was far too stiff and they had to revert to factory ARBs. I may try the car with standard ARBs for now and just upgrade the bushes and suspension.

Thanks for all your help, now I just need to find some wheels and I’m all set!

If you are going with Meister R and you are looking for a setup that can perform on road and track then the clubrace with higher spring rates maybe the way to go. ARBs do increase roll resistance in a turn but should function to tune the f/r limit bias rather than compensate for other issues. To maintain grip on the road it is better to have more independance cross axel. If you contact Meister R they have been very good at advising. The bonus of using a engineered unit is it contains spring, damper and bumpstop so you know those are matched to work well togther and with the standard ARBs.

Thinking I might go for the PowerFlex purples, as I don’t want to compromise my car on road for the sake of a few trackdays. Besides I’m sure a full set of new road biased bushes will be better on track than perished original ones!

My experience is with an NA not an NC (used to own an NC but it was brand new way back when) MX5 specialists and racers AK automotive used to get very exercised about putting poly bushes on a MX5 that was going to be predominantly a road car. On their own cars they ran IL motorsport uprated rubber bushes that apparently perform like the Mazda sport ones. After having polybushes on an Alfa transaxle I’ve gone with the il bushes. I don’t know if there is an uprated rubber kit for the NC but I’m fairly wary of poly bushes - I’d consider them for the sway bars with a stronger mounting.

Right, I’ve ordered a full set of PowerFlex purples all round. Cost me about £600. I’m convinced I’ll notice a huge difference from the current perished rubber, and hopefully the fact these are road focused as opposed to their track (black) range means the car won’t be too compromised.

Coilovers are next on the stocklist - will be going for ZetaCRDs, although it may have to wait until pay day haha.

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This weekend I shall be fitting the powerflex bushes and also a set of MeisterR ZetaCRDs, changing brake pads and discs all round, and front calipers… As I write it down it does seem like quite a lot of work haha.

Luckily I will have some help which is good as it’s the first time I’m doing literally every one of those jobs…

Once it’s gone for an alignment and I can put some miles on it I’ll let you know how it all feels!

Update: The suspension arms and bushes defeated me. The father-in-law and I spent 6 hours on the car (on one corner!) and all we managed to do was get the spring/damper out (that bit was easy) and the upper arm out. The lower arm would not budge for love nor money, nor could we get the bushes out of the upper arm.

So I’ve admitted defeat and will be taking it to a professional…

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