- My model of MX-5 is: NC
- I’m based near: Essex
- I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Poly bushes
Hi all,
My rubber bushes all look pretty tired so I want to replace them all with poly bushes. It’s a track day car.
Some of the sets out there are over £700 which seems a lot!
Was looking at this:
Energy Suspension Complete Poly Bush Kit for Mazda MX-5 NC (bofiracing.co.uk)
Still seems pricy for what they are 
Wondering if anyone here has fitted these and what they think of them?
Thanks,
Glenn
You going to fit them yourself, that’s a big undertaking, respect if so
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That’s the plan!
I bent my steering rack on the last track day. So figured if I’m changing that, I may as well do all the bushes at the same time - save getting the tracking done twice.
Hi
If you use the car on the road then stick to Rubber as poly squeaks.
If you want to fit poly bushes, then here are a couple of videos
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I’ve used energy bushings and they were good, however as stated they can generate more noise and be less forgiving - if you like the way the car currently feels the difference can be night and day in a good or bad way depending on what you want. I’d never poly bush a car I use daily as it just won’t be as nice in the road.
If you go for the energy kit go for the black bushings, they’re supposedly infused with graphite (from memory) and this is supposed to help with squeaking as a ‘dry lubricant’. Think twice before doing hard polybushings on things like diff carrier as this will transmit any whines, vibrations and backlash noises through to the car body, if the prospect of any of that doesn’t bother you then fill your boots and enjoy a sharper, tighter car that’s not without it’s negatives. 
You can get that exact set cheaper elsewhere btw (I love Bofi but always worth checking others). Also worth noting that it comes with a rack kit, which a lot of kits don’t- it’s probably the least important one as the OE rack bushings are probably the most long lasting bushings on teh car, they don’t have to deal with the forces others do. They were pretty much the only ones on the whole car that I thought I could have happily left alone.
Gotta be honest I find the lack of info about Energy’s kits really offputting, some sources suggest teh black is different (like Dean mentioned), others say it’s the exact same as the red, some quote 70A which is pretty soft, barely harder than typical OEM rubber, others 95A which is pretty stiff. I want to know what I’m getting, transparency is basic stuff.
(worth mentioning that even if it’s 70A it will still be a good bit stiffer in practice, it’s not just about the hardness but also the construction, lots of the OEM bushings have air gaps. Plus chances are most or all of the OEM ones are absolutely wrecked)
I went similiarly cheap with Strongflex’s yellow kit. Everything fits well etc, no defects I could see in the parts, haven’t actually driven it yet! Chose the 90A kit just because I figured if you’re going to go noisy and crashy you might as well go all in, probably I should have got the softer kit, ah well.
But also, I figure that a whole kit from a higher end manufacturer was massively more expensive, and the OE ones were in really bad shape, I was very glad to do a 100% job. This way everything’s at least servicable, and if I want to replace individual parts then it’s dead easy (fitting poly the first time is effort, replacing them is easy)
I’d definitely rather have gone with Powerflex or Superpro, those are companies I trust more but, more than twice the price.
Thanks all! Some useful vids and suggestions there!
Northwind, it would be good to know how your car feels with the Strongflex. I would love to go with Superpro but just too pricey.
More research needed me thinks 
None of this was budgeted for so it’s all coming out of my BBR Supercharger savings. But figured if I’m changing my steering rack which is going to screw my geometry up, I may as well do the bushes at the same time…
I got mine from energysuspensionparts.com for my nissan and they shipped to UK, this was in 2014 though. Cheapest place I could find and the site is still active.
https://www.energysuspensionparts.com/products/mazda_mx5_miata_2009
I can highly recommend superpro, cheaper bushes will make noise after a year or so and will need stripping down and regressing. 2 years my superpro bushes have been on and no a peep.
You can see how I fitted mine on my thread on here.
I’ve got the Superpro ARBs and droplinks and very happy with the build quality of them. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy the Superpro. I’ve not scrimped on any other parts and this is a long term project.
My moto for this track-day car project has always been do it once and do it right. Hearing the pros for spending the extra is certainly food for thought!
I’ll mull it over, watch some vids on this and then decide.
Will let you know.
Thanks all!
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I found this in the US:
Front and Rear Enhancement Bushing Kit NC MX-5 Miata (superprousa.com)
Doesn’t include the ARB bushes but I’ve already replaced them.
Seems like it should do the job?
Should do, but importing from the us, add 20% vat and handling fees
