powerflex CA bushings

#1

Hey guys, anybody buy the Powerflex 2-piece polyU offset CA bushings yet? Very interesting pieces, first they are labeled backwards (left-right), then they seem optimized maybe for E36, cuz they have a shoulder that makes them off by over 1/4", possibly more. Anyone use these, what did you do to get them to fit?

#2

I made the mistake of buying those things. I spent over an hour with a grinder trying to open them up to fit the beefy Meyle(sp?) control arms. Did Not Work. On the plus side, it looks like a great product if you have the same arms the manufacturer used to make the mold.:ermm:

End state: Cost me $20 extra time on the lift, three days waiting for the m3 bushings from bw and a set of useless $70 poly bushings. :angry:

I tried to post product comments on these on the bw website, explaining the thick control arm non-compatability. Apparently my 3star review was not accepted, as the only ones on there are 5star reviews. The only reason I gave it three stars is because if you indeed had the correct casting of control arm, they would be incredibly easy to install. Much easier than stock. bw needs to modify thier description to include a statement regarding the fact that in some cases THEY DON’T FIT, AND CANNOT BE MADE TO FIT! Great product, deserving 5 stars, YES! But only if it includes a caution on what control arms to use. Anyone need a spare driver side one? Find someone who still has the passenger side from a failed attempt, and we can make a matched set. :blink:

#3

I concur 100%. Not advised for E30s, but I don’t know that it’s just beefier arms - I bought mine with a set of stock replacement arms from BW - all in the same shipment and they do not fit. I assume these are just regular replacement arms, I didn’t check the name. It looks like the cutout for the arm is wide enough, but not deep enough. After I modified mine, I thought they might work if the shoulder on the CA piece was probably 1/4" thinner - that’s about how much mine was off at it’s closest point.

I used those ratings on BW’s site as a guide - Recommended for use on their own cars, but perhaps on E36s or with arms BW doesn’t have listed. I agree they were slick as hell, easy to put on, the fit between the pieces was tight and the contact area was very wide. If there is an e30 owner that has got them to fit, it might help others to post up something on how it was done.

Post edited by: goldfish, at: 2006/07/13 16:34

#4

The original control arms I removed from my car were not as thick as the new ones, and the little ‘skid rib’ was MUCH thinner. It looked like the casting of the bushings exactly. I do not know what brand they were, and I tossed them in the recycling. They would have fit perfectly w/ the bushings, I believe.

Therefore I say the bushings are E30. It’s the aftermarket control arms that are non-stock in dimensions causing the incompatability. These bushings are intolerant of dimensional diferences in castings, and will only work with certain as yet unknown brands of CAs.

#5

I hear ya, it looked like they should fit but they don’t. In my case, my repl arms looked to be about the same as the old ones, including the rib you mention - it looks like they should fit, but the bushing just wouldn’t go far enough down the arm to align properly. I bought the arms and the bushings from BW in the same order, the products are even linked on their site and they do not fit together enough to bolt up in the car. Just sharing my experience - I bought replacement PolyU offset bushings from Bavarian and had them on in no time. Would have bought them from BW, but I didn’t see another set of PolyU offsets.

Post edited by: goldfish, at: 2006/07/13 16:28

Post edited by: goldfish, at: 2006/07/13 16:43

#6

Jamie, FWIW I tried to contact you on many occasions to run our offset nylon bushings.

That or The GC Solid front bushing would really be the ideal part to use. Leave poly to the autox and street guys.

#7

I sell alot of PFlex bushings, BW is my distributor. The right left issue is funny if you know what you’re doing, annoying if you don’t. I have them on my track car and my street car and I love them. The track car currently runs E30 M3 control arms, the bushing spread over the tab on the arm with a little coaxing, the rib is bigger on the alu arms. As far as not being able to fit them on the Meyle arms, IMHO it is a Meyle issue not PFlex’s.

godlfish: What shoulder are you referring to? When installed the inner piece should fit flush into the carrier part of the bushing. The step on the carrier bushing should face front.

Post edited by: vmwerks, at: 2006/07/21 10:32

#8

I am bringing this thread back from the dead because I just spent the best part of today fighting with my wonderful “Powerflex” front control arm bushings and Mehle control arms that BIMMERWORLD SOLD ME AS A PACKAGE.

These bushings are SHIT. They don’t fit the control arms - they need to press on at least another 1/4 inch to have any chance - I’ve spent two hours trying to cut away little bits of the bushing to make them fit the ribs in the control arm - NO F’ING LUCK.

BIMMERWORLD SHOULD KNOW BETTER - THERE HAVE BEEN POSTS ON THIS BOARD FOR 2 YEARS ABOUT THIS PROBLEM!!! FIX THIS !!!

Now - what bushings do I need to buy that WILL ACTUALLY FREAKING FIT ???

#9

Here is a link with pics of EXACTLY what happened to me… These are POS…

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68899&highlight=powerflex

#10

I’m on my 2nd or 3rd set of Powerflex bushings never had a problem.

#11

I have BW Powerflex control arm bushings in both my SpecE30 and my E36. But I bought them with the lollypops and had BW press them into the lollypops before sending. It was cheaper to do it that way then to have my shop press them in.

#12

Also have run these on 4 seperate cars without any problems.
-Vic

#13

Ranger - pressing them into the lollipops wasn’t the issue. My 20 ton China freight press could handle that.

The issue is the inner bushing half that slides? onto the control arm. It doesn’t go onto the arm far enough - trimming the edges and inside of the bushing doesn’t do it. When I trimmed the bushing, I was able to get the end of the arm just even with the end of bushing. Fitting the arm and bushing to the car at that point put the lollipop about 1/4 inch too far to the rear to line up the mounting bolts. See E30tech post linked above - mine are exactly like that.

There wasn’t enough bushing material to cut anymore away - so I took my angle grinder after the arm and ground away the step on the arm and basically tried to lengthen the flat pin length on the arm - doing this allowed the arm to stick thru the end of the lollipop bushing by about 1/4 inch. With this done - the lollipop bolts just lined up. Of course now I’ve modified the arms - so ya’ll can all protest me if I ever show up on the East or West coasts.

These black powerflex bushings will not work with the Mehle replacement arms that Bimmerworld sold me, nor will they work with two other new “Hungarian” arms that I ordered from RM European. Maybe you guys have some original BMW arms with different profiles - but I could not see a way to make either set of my new replacement arms work with these bushings. Still not very happy with the “arm/bushing package” that I was sold…

Jim

#14

Ah so. That helped me understand, thx.

#15

I bought the same package, twice. No issues.

Did you try contacting them or did you go straight to the rip everybody on the forums answer.

I’ve never known James not try to make something right if there was a true problem.

#16

I’m guessing James and his Posse weren’t around at 3:30 on Saturday when I discovered the bushings were CRAP. I talked to a real live salesperson at BW when I ordered all my suspension parts - absolutely no mention of any front bushing mods. This type of issue is exactly why I ordered EVERYTHING from BW - I wanted their advice about what to replace and how. Since I only have time to spend about 8 hours on the car every other weekend, screw ups like this one really delay the project. In an ideal world, I would stopped, packed up the bushings and arms - and shipped them back to BW, but then I would have gotten nothing else done on the car this weekend. The issues isn’t a $75 pair of bushings - the issue is an entire weekend shot. Time > Money.

To be 100% accurate, here is the note posted on their webpage listing for the Powerflex bushings:

Slight modification needs to be made to the offset version when being used with either the Meyle HD or BMW E30 M3 aluminum arms. The “ear” that aligns the inner bushing is larger than standard steel arms and will not fit properly without slightly enlarging the bushings. This is a very easy modification.<<

I’d sure like to know what those “easy Mods” are - I don’t think there’s enough bushing material there to modify them - you have to grind away on the arms to make the bushings slide on far enough so that the lollipop bolts line up. The “ear” on the arm isn’t the issue - the molded relief in the bushing just isn’t deep enough.

As I said, there are 2 year old postings (see this thread) about the problem - and they are still being sold. Based on the e30tech guys - I would buy these instead:

http://akgmotorsport.com/e30products.html

I suppose I could have kept me mouth shut - but hopefully the next sucker will see my “rip everyone on the forums” post - and know what to do with his powerflex bushings. And for what it’s worth, I think I was ripping Bimmerworld, not “everyone on the forums”

Jim

#17

I bought the AKG bushings, had a local shop press into the lollipops, but in order to get them far enough onto one of the new arms to bolt the lollipop to the frame, I had to slightly work the hole/shoulder area with a small round file. It was a PITA, but not a major deal. By the way, this was only one of the arms, not both. Driver’s side was a breeze.

#18

L8Apex wrote:

L8 -

I understand your frustration, but in my experience there are a lot of in-the-field mods you will have to make building any race car. Have you ordered the spec exhaust yet? :laugh:

Seriously, though. Bimmerworld is a strong supporter of this class and this site. As such, they deserve a chance to make the situation right, IMHO. It is unfortunate you had this issue at a time when they weren’t available, but that goes with the backyard builder territory.

I’m not knowledgable enough to opine on the bushings, but I can tell you that IndyJim NEVER misses an opportunity to bitch given even the slightest opportunity. :wink:

Steve D.

#19

Funny you should mention the Spec Exhaust, because that’s NEXT ON THE LIST !!!

CAN’T WAIT !!!

I’ve read some of the warnings about it - sounds like my welder and my friend’s pipe bender will be getting some use?

Can’t wait to see how many studs/bolts snap off when I try to unbolt the front pipes from the manifold… Sounds like more fun than powerflex front suspension bushings !!!

BTW - I talked to “Spec Exhaust Paul” today - he’s about to order more parts - so if you were going to order a spec system - now would be the time…

Jim

#20

Sorry for the hassle. These are a little funky, but when installed properly they do work very well. The problem is that Powerflex took it on themselves to extend the bushing core over the L-shaped part of the control arms, which differs per brand. This makes their design very stable, bus also annoying. We are working on them to do a redesign that universally makes this job easier. However, they can be made to work very nicely and I am surprised when digging this 2 year old thread up there wasn’t another that tells you how to make them fit.

Also, FWIW, spec E30 cars really should be using a delrin front control arm, not urethane. Of course this board may have some more general E30 interest than spec E30, but conversely, items like urethane bushings that are a little mroe street/track oriented are also covered more fully on more generalist boards.