I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on:
I know many of you probably know about these but for those that don’t I can honestly say that these have been the best mod, bang for buck that I have ever bought.
I did need to sand one end down slightly for a perfect fit, but for just £14.99 they have made a huge difference to my MK1.
Never did i think that a simple set of door bushings would make such a big difference to the refinement of the car. Shakes and rattles have been greatly reduced and the car just feels ‘stiffer’.
I’m now thinking of getting some Jass chassis rails as well…
Are these the rubber things which sit in the door shut ?
If so then they are inter changeable between sides.
If you believe that they are worn, swap them between sides.
Interesting, thanks. Replacement door bushings seems to have been a big thing across a lot of facebook mx-5 groups this year and its surprised me all the fuss that’s been made about something that usually no one give any thought to at all. I believe some of the “chat” may have been about rival manufacturers as, if I’m not mistaken, some people have taken to producing them by 3D printing as they are presumably an ideal thing to make as such.
I fitted them to my mk1 and they did make a small difference, largely highlighting other rattles in the door window mechanism They started rattling after a while so I greased the cups they go into on the door and they were silent again.
I noticed my current mk3.5 has 3d printed ones but they were on it when I got the car so I can’t comment whether they made a difference.
I’ve started reading about door bushings and they seem to be a Marmite item - either “utter snake oil and a total waste of money” or “completely transformed the NVH and handling of my car”. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.
I guess that they are cheap enough that I’ll probably try them.
OK, nothing to lose so I 3D printed a pair of door bushings - design downloaded from Thingiverse (a repository of 3D / laser cutter designs) and fitted them to my NC, fully expecting them to be of the ‘snake oil’ variety.
We went for a longish drive today mainly on country roads and I must admit that over imperfect road surfaces the car did feel smoother. Roof down, enjoying the ride and chatting to the missus as well as mentally navigating around a couple of road closures due to flooding so not particularly fixated on the replacements, but the overall impression I got was there was a difference for the better.
Once I get the time I’ll test these a bit more, on and off, roof up and down over the same bit of road to see if there really is a difference, but for now I’m leaving them fitted.
There’s a very long thread (13 pages / 520 posts) over on the other forum specifically about these Door Bushings.
It’s split almost equally between people who have never actually tried them, but claim that they couldn’t possible work, and people who have tried them, who almost universally agreed that they do make a difference.
I guess I’ll go with the people who have some actual evidence, rather than those who are just speculating. Otherwise I’d just be standing alongside those who said that air-planes would never be able to get off the ground, and that if cars went at more than 10mph the occupants wouldn’t be able to breathe!
I have a 3D printer. You can download designs from Thingiverse into a 3D print processing app called Cura. This converts the design into a sequence of instructions for the printer. It also works out how much filament will be used. You can also tell the app the price of a reel of filament, so it can calculate the cost.
Bob is spot on for filament used. I printed mine in PETG at 6 solid layers top and bottom, 6 shells, 25% infill. Mine estimated at 44p and took an hour and a half or so each.
Once the weather improves I’ll see if I can try a blind A-B test by getting my wife to swap the bushes and driving over the same local roads.
They started rattling after a while so I greased the cups they go into on the door and they were silent again.