Be warned: not all polyurethane bushings are created equal. A looseness in my car's front end recently demanded my attention, and the most obvious culprit was crumbling, failed bushings.



I believe these were the Üro bushings from eEuroparts. Granted, they have endured my spirited driving for a few years, but they seem to have hardned and crumbled, unlike any other sway bar bushing I have ever seen. I seem to remember that the yellow bushings were/have been advertised as harder than SuperPro's blue poly. Maybe that's a false memory, but in any case, they certainly behaved that way. I have seen OE rubber and blue poly bushings squished into flat washers, but I've never seen any crumble like this. My advice is to avoid them.

The scrutiny of my sway bar endlinks showed me that the heim joint endlinks I made 5 years ago had developed a bit of slop, so I decided to replace them. I had a few sets of original endlinks, and a brand new set of polyurethane lower endlink bushings from IPD, so I decided to return to a more stock configuration. After burning out the rubber, the poly bushings pressed into the endlinks easily enough, but they would not fit into the fork which holds them to the control arm. The polyurethane bushings were nearly 1/2" wider than the original rubber! (wish I had taken a photo) I cannot even begin to imagine why IPD would not make their bushing exactly the same size as the originals.

I called IPD to ask about this, and the customer service agent who answered did not even seem to understand my problem; if he did, his answer was inscrutible. He simply refused to believe that it wouldn't fit, I just "had to get the angle right." Anyway, I greased them and pressed as hard as I could, but there was no chance of squeezing those in place, so I resorted to cutting them down. For reference, a belt sander does a great job on those poly bushings; even a brand new, greased razor blade left a jagged cut.

I really wish aftermarket parts companies would personally put their products to the test before throwing them out on the market. The hardened, crumbling bushings lasted a few years and can be forgiven, I suppose, but IPD continually amazes me with their total lack of consideration for the poor bastard who has to install their products.