I desperately need to improve the ride quality as I can feel every little bump in my zed. It got worse when I put 18" wheels on. So what can I do to improve it? I've already bought z1 FUCA's as the ones I currently have look homemade. I also plan to buy 4 new tyres & have the wheels aligned early next year when she's back on the road. What suspension bushes should I buy to replace the solid ones? I need to make it a comfortable car to drive again as it's a bit of an effort at the moment.

Ditch anything that has solid joints and revert back to OEM or NISMO bushings. Polyurethane bushings can also create a crashy ride so be wary of those too, especially on the back end.

buy meisterr's... job done

Thanks Joel I'll go back to oem bushings then. The ride is crashy like u say so must have polyurethane bushes fitted.

Thanks Joel I'll go back to oem bushings then. The ride is crashy like u say so must have polyurethane bushes fitted.

 

That plan does have its downfalls! New OEM bushings can not be purchased individually and can only be purchased with the entire assembly of the control arm/component of which the bush is installed. Most do seem to be still available but would cost a fortune![emoji383][emoji389][emoji388]

 

NISMO bushings have been discontinued for some time now and stock levels are depleting rapidly. Most U.S. companies are NLA but places like RHDJapan do still have stock. Price up the cost of importing all of those bushes and include the cost of pressing out/in and you could quite easily be looking at a 4 figure bill. Ideally, you would only replace the key bushes, but knowing the other will soon become impossible to obtain, it may be a good move to get a ship set and sit on them! For reference, this pdf shows you a list of all the part numbers of the bushes you need:

 

http://www.nismo.co.jp/en/products/competition/lb/pdf/z32.pdf

I've recently completed a full programme of replacing all my suspension bushings with NISMO bushes and removed all the solid joints which I loath. I replaced the damper bushings, the lower arm bushings, the tension rod bushings, control arm bushings, the lower hub carrier bushings, inner and outer HICAS joints, the front, I ditched the Powertrix upper control arms with Z1 FUCAs, new tension rods, new anti roll bar drop links, new anti roll bar bushings, strut top bushings and various other odds and sods. It has made the ride so much more supple, yet feels every bit as precise as it did with solid bushings.

 

I can comfortably say that solid bushings on the Midori style suspension components that we see for the Z32 are awful and utterly pointless on a road car. When I bought mine all those years ago, I was rather neive and because there wasn't much on the market, I went with it.

 

TBH, good stock suspension is far better. I am pretty happy with my quality of ride now and would recommend everyone with old or solid bushings to do the same before the NISMO bushes are no longer available (as JP has suggested), they're depleting. Replacing all the bushings is quite an involving job as there are so many of them and they're not cheap (I had all my suspension components powdercoated too), but well worth the upgrade over nasty solid joints which are only worthwhile on a Z that you track.

 

You couldn't pay me enough to fit solid bushings and Midori style components to my Z. One of the best things I did was to rip all that out.

Edited September 15, 201510 yr by Funkysi

My suspension is completely oem (18"wheels with thin profile tyres) and can feel every bump lol so fitting anything more solid is heading for track use.