How "noisy" are they for street driving? I picked up a set of Borg standard delrin bushings and don't know if the swap is worth it for a mostly street driven setup.

 

I hope to let you know in a month or two! LOL

From what I read they're not noticeable.

You could always go ahead and add some zerk fittings to your control arms so you can grease them easily and as often as you like. Lane has guidance on this included with the install sheet. May be worthwhile. I was tempted to do so even on the AF set, but decided I will wait and see.

 

I ran Del-A-Lum (Aluminum with Delrin strips) bushings for years in my Camaro, if anything they improved the ride. I give credit to forcing the suspension movement through the shocks and springs instead of squirming through the bushings

 

Ran them front and rear no noise

 

I have had the Van Steel kit in my car for a year now. Both street and track driving. I didnt notice a change in ride quality to be honest. There is zero noise from the bushings. There is a little more vibration that can be felt in the steering wheel and butt dyno going over bumps due to the lack of rubber, but its barely noticeable, not annoying and damps out quickly.

 

Same as everyone else - no noise but now I feel every little imperfection in the road. Made a very noticeable difference at the track. No regrets.

 

I didn't see a section for zerk fittings, just the one for a set screw if you have the offset mounts.

 

Got me wondering if it was his setup then. I know I've seen it somewhere for adding zerks to lube the center mass. Either way, it can be done and it's probably on the forum here somewhere.

 

I have the Borg bushings and there is Zero noise

 

I would echo Kubs with my Van Steel experience. Noise and vibration was not increased noticeably. (Keep in mind that new low profile sticky tires alone can have a significant increase in noise, vibration and harshness.) Increased harshness with frost heaves was noticeable with the delrin bushings. I did not add these bushings for their street ride. I would not recommend them if increased impact harshness is a concern for you. These are intended for the corner boys and they really deliver. As for lubrication, I used graphite grease when I assembled the bushings. Perhaps not immediately obvious was the elimination of all control arm bushing stiction. That is, the control arms will have no resistance to movement through their range of motion. This improves suspension compliance and tire adherence to the road. I do wonder if anyone has experience with street and track alignment using these bushings. It seems reasonable that the elimination of control arm deflection would make the alignment specs. for OEM bushings inappropriate. I am operating under the assumption the alignment specs. for pillow ball control arms is a better starting point. Good luck finding street alignment specs. for pillow ball setups While I have had these on my car for 2 years, I have driven less than 2K miles and have not participated in any competitive driving with the car. Therefore, I am presently running a somewhat aggressive street alignment.

 

me too

 

He may be referencing the set screws used on the offset bushing kits. The non-offset kits don’t use these. That said, we have had customers add zerk fittings because the want the absolute lowest friction and lowest maintenance if they are choosing to lubricate the bushings.

 

Everyone has a different tolerance for noise and ride limits. Generally, the Delrin shouldn’t add noise, but will add harshness as most people have noted here. The only place Delrin would likely add noticeable noise (again noting that everyone has different thresholds for “bad”) is on coarse roads like the chip and seal you get in Texas. The high frequency vibrations from that surface will increase vibrations in the cabin and result in higher noise levels, but those surfaces are pretty miserable for noise in any vehicle.

The real noise added in my experience is sphericals on the shock mounts. When I added those, the clunking and thunking over impacts because significantly worse than it was just with the bushings. Even keeping one mount rubber or poly (like the OEM upper shock mount) can keep the noise low over impacts.

 

What would you recommend for a lube while I assemble the control arms? And also, if I wanted to add zerks should I just follow the set screw instructions?

 

The standard recommendation has been some sort of synthetic suspension grease or white lithium grease, but Delrin is tolerant of a lot of chemicals and greases.

You can follow the instructions for the set screws roughly but you’ll have to do a couple things differently. You should mark outside the control arms where the split in the bushings is. Unlike the offset bushings, you DO want to hit this split so the grease goes in evenly and can get to the center sleeve. You shouldn’t have to drill into the Delrin like the offset instructions say if you do this. Then just substitute the appropriate drill and tap sizes for the zeros you get and you should be good to go.

 

Some additional vibration, not necessarily a bad thing, makes you feel very connected to the car. better steering as well. Not particularly noisy.

 

Should be able to give you an idea in the next week. I have sways, coilovers and delrin AF going in my stock suspension 02 Z06.

I’m expecting most of the noise to come from a combination of my sway bar endlinks and the spherical lower shock bushings I’m most likely going to have to go with.

 

I'm loving you guy's impressions of these bushings, my friend has some arms with Delrin bushings already installed I can get cheap in exchange for my arms with rubber bushings. He had heims put in some other arms and has the Delrins on the shelf with no use for them. I've had this mod on my radar for quite some time now.

 

Foe those without a press (or a friend with one) or not mechanically inclined, Rick @ RPM is now offering a service where if you send him your arms and knuckles he will remove the ball joints and bushings and then shot peen the parts clean as new before installing the delrins for you.

 

Good for Rick! That is something many people probably need.

Another option is Van Steel. They have rebuilding services available that include control arms. I had them do the delrin install on my arms when I bought their delrin kit. They left the OE ball joints on mine since they are low mileage.