I'm all about the bush at the moment...bush this, bush that. I'm wanting to know opinion and feedback on bushes for the Mk3. Jamie has his view that Powerflex Black aren't that great and have a short life span but I'm speaking to other owners at the Ring who only use their cars there and have Powerflex lasting 6 years and counting. I've spoken to Kirfel Renault in Adenau and Raeder (who will be working on the car in August) and both tell me to stick with OEM, Kirfel sell an uprated lower arm and still say OEM! Raeder's view is that Powerflex will make an improvement but the lifespan is unknown, these parts cost money and therefore value is low. Kirfel's view is that Powerflex make the handling 'spongy'! So can anyone else wade in on this topic, especially those with experience. I don't need to do the bushes but I want to try and remove points of failure before spanking the car at the Ring later this year. I'm thinking at the very least doing the ARB bushes, rear beam and uprated wishbone ball joint and top swivel joints.
We're currently in the process of getting some full replacement arms with castor/camber adjustment built in and spherical bearings to get over this issue as at the moment there isn't an optimised solution for bushes or arms. They'll be light, stiff and super adjustable so will be perfect for what you're after! I'll shoot you over an e-mail with some more details
Please do Charlie! Need/want something quick really as time is running out before Germany. Will your arms come with ball joint?
I’ve just had to replace the Powerflex wishbone bushes on my 250 after 2yrs and around 30k Miles. They were pretty beat up with splits and masses of movement. Powerflex have redesigned them and sent me new ones so can’t complain on that side of things. I put some new oem bushes (had spare from a new set of wishbones I’d bought) that I put on 3 weeks ago and the steering felt dead in comparison to the Powerflex. Steering felt vague and nowhere near as direct with the flex from the standard bushes. I’m going to stick the .2 version of he bush from Powerflex back in tomorrow and see how I get on. These arms from CGR will be unreal but I’m guessing big money! In excess of £350 each?
Am running PF front and rear and loving the tightness and sharp turn in compared to wobble factory fit stuff, two years in and no issues yet
See that's not bad...what sort of use, what tyres, suspension setup etc? I'm really liking your review of them though!
As above Bobsan, what sort of use, suspension etc...are they that good then? I did think they must be good compared to rubber but I've even got KTec telling me the Powerflex stuff doesn't suit the car and that they had a mk3 on track rip out the fronts under cornering on track rubber! I heard they have revised the fronts due to issues on the 15th of June.
I run kw club spots with -2 camber, Michelin PS4, mainly road driving ( trips to the Alps, Scotland, Wales etc) and a couple of trackdays. I was hoping the steering wouldn’t feel too different as you gain a lot more comfort with the oem bush but it’s massively noticeable. I run the suspension pretty much full soft for the road which I get some compliancy from so for the slight loss of comfort of oem bushes, I will take the Powerflex all day. Plus, if they do fail they will send new for free as they have a lifetime warranty.
I'll see what Charlie can do for me, although it's not ideal running in a brand new part at the Ring where I want to go for lower lap times from the off. My concern with the Powerflex is pushing them hard on the Ring on R888R or similar and them failing completely...would be a disaster.
I believe the Megane N4 rally car runs different bushes? From the manual, it looks like the rear lower arm bush was different. I'm sure I've heard that the swivel bearings were uprated too. Not sure what their life expectancy was but, given that they were designed to be abused on tarmac rallies, I think you would probably get some decent use out of them on track days, which would be a lot less tough on them.
I have the lower swivel joint from the N4 already (you can buy it from Renault direct), does anyone have part numbers for the wishbone ball joint and upper swivel? Also anyone have any info on the N4 bushes?
Ian that is amazing! It's like a porn mag. 77 11 167 062 Silentbloc Pt B "racerubber" front rear bush 77 03 034 281 nut FIH RDL M12 fixation rotule wishbone ball joint 77 11 160 423 Rotule Pt F upper swivel? 77 11 160 423 Rotule Pt F Rear wheel well delete? 77 11 160 886 Drivers footrest 77 11 160 887 Repose pied copilote That's everything that got me excited...especially the rear wheel well delete! I'll ring Renault tomorrow for a laugh and see what they say to me.
You won't get them from Renault UK. All the parts have lead times with no actual dates. You'll need to go through a proper Renaultsport place like R-Sport down south or Jade developments and see if they can get them. I struggled to get an N4 stuff
AP can piss off...they have no stock of their own from what I can see and just act as middle men to others.
77 11 167 195 Obturateur bac roue secours is wheel well delete looks like 77 11 163 918 Triangle AVG modifié 1 - wishbone 77 11 163 919 Triangle AVD modifié 1 - wishbone 77 11 167 317 Triangle AVG origine 1 - wishbone 77 11 167 318 Triangle AVD origine - wishbone 77 11 160 423 Rotule Pt F - top swivel mount 77 11 167 062 Silentbloc Pt B "racerubber" - front rear bush You can't buy the wishbone ball joint or front front bush without the full wishbone it seems.
Yeah none of the above apart from the top swivel mount are available from Renault (who got me the N4 lower swivel before).
I have the handling pack from Powerflex for 20000km now with 2 or 3 track days. They look like new. You have to be very careful with fitting them though. A lot of the micro-cracks occur when installing them and later cracks develop further. I find the Powerflex bushes combined with coilovers overkill. Car jumps a lot and I feel less adventurous with it. I think bushes are the last place to modify since there are a lot softer parts in the RS. My 2, subjective, cents. Edit: I had powerflex black for the engine and removed it since there was too much vibration in the steering. I drive a lot and started to get wrist pain from it.
Thank you for the very informative post! Not many people these days speak purely from personal experience haha. So fitting them is key, is there a technique to ensure 100% installation? Kirfel said something similar about the bushes with suspension, that it bounces and I didn't quite understand. I also have the Powerflex black engine support/surround mount and haven't really noticed anything! I'm still trying to get prices on some of the N4 stuff where there is stock.
Listen to Kirfel and Raeder, They know better than anyone what works and what doesnt on them from years or working with the MK3 Megane and working on hundreds of them. They daily due to the way the arms move, They dont just move straight up and down vertically and thats why the polybushes fairy because they are not designed or allow the movement like a spherical does.
At some point (unless I have bushes that are shagged) I'll go spherical. Waiting to hear from CGR on theirs.
Well, for one they need to be properly greased up when you insert them into place. A lot of them bushes are hard to fit and some pressure needs to be used. Applying pressure with no grease and patience = scratches or micro cracks. Regarding the engine mount, do you also have a gearbox stabilizer mount? I had them both (engine mount plus gearbox stabiliser mount)and i chose to live with the gearbox mount since it makes the car better to shift. Just to make sure are you talking about the same things, I had Powerflex PFF60-720 Upper Right Engine Mount Insert. That's the one is rubbish imo
That's the one I have (lower gearbox mount and the upper powerflex you have but the black series version). I'll see what my garage says about the bushes etc next week.
Hi, has anyone experienced spherical (uniball) bearing on a Megane? I would like to knowthe difference between PF black serie.
