After taking a look at Part 1, you should have a good understanding as to why your car may feel like a floppy bag of wet lettuce past the 150k mile mark. It’s important to decide which bushings to replace and which brands to buy when you decide to get involved in one of these jobs. Part 2 of the bushing guide is made to help decide what bushings might be best for your application, after you know what bushings you might need.
Of course some are easier than others, especially depending on what car you are working on. Control arms and engine mounts are generally good tasks to do as DIY on a day off. Things like subframe bushings are often skipped because of the involvement of the job, dropping a subframe isn’t always a straight forward job.
Here at eEuroparts, we are happy to provide several options to allow our customers to shop and decide what best fits their demands. I’ll organize these based on brand and quality level, and let you decide what you want when it comes to bushing time.
PowerFlex – Performance Aftermarket
PowerFlex bushings are a fairly recent addition to the catalog, and the result of customers asking for the brand by name for a long time. Featuring a polyurethane bushing material instead of conventional rubber, PowerFlex bushings have a lifetime warranty. They come with a proprietary grease aiding in this superior longevity, and are easy to install, usually coming in two halves so you don’t need to press them in.
Available in two product lines, Street and Race, you have an option of a stiff race oriented Black Series or a compliant but rugged Street series. Don’t be afraid of your car being too stiff or noisy with polyurethane bushings, the street bushings are designed for OEM+ applications. Read more about PowerFlex bushings [here].
UUC – Performance Aftermarket
UUC is a world renowned brand focused on designing and making parts that solve common problems afflicting BMW owners. Their bushings are a durable polyurethane material made to suffer the abuse of race and rally applications. UUC bushings are made in the USA, so you know the quality is great. Read more about UUC [here].
Genuine – OEM
eEuroparts has a huge selection of Genuine parts for Audi, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Saab, Volkswagen, and Volvo cars. Genuine parts are the same exact ones that are sold at the dealer to put your mind at ease. Generally these parts carry a premium, so expect to pay 15-30% more for a Genuine part over other competitors. For more obscure parts, it is common for these to only be available in Genuine. For maintenance parts like bushings, read on…
OE Supplier – OEM
Any bushing labeled OE Supplier is simply a whiteboxed version of the Genuine part. Expect a significant savings over Genuine, just without the genuine dealer packaging.
Lemfoerder – OEM
With the highest demands placed for design, production, and assembly, Lemfoerder rubber-to-metal components are ideal for damping and low noise emission. As part of parent company and OEM supplier ZF, Lemfoerder supplies several car manufacturers with their bushings and mounts as their OEM. Almost all Lemfoerder parts are made in Germany, with a few factories building parts in Taiwan and France as well.
Hutchinson – OEM
Similar to Lemfoerder, Hutchinson is another well known OE supplier for a variety of companies. Volvo in particular uses a lot of Hutchinson mounts in their cars from the factory. It is common for Hutchinson parts to be exactly the same part as genuine, just with the carmaker’s logos and part numbers ground off at the end of the assembly line in order to sell on the aftermarket as their own brand. The result of this is an outstanding German made part at a substantially lower price.
eEuro Preferred – Aftermarket
eEuro Preferred is our house brand, and represents what we feel is the best value for people specifically looking for aftermarket parts. The brand you get will vary, but whatever comes we are sure is a great choice for your vehicle. that’s why we double our standard 1 year warranty that we have on all the parts we sell. All eEuro Preferred parts come with a 2 year warranty, so you can be confident while you save money.
Febi – OEM/Aftermarket
Based in Germany (with many parts made in Germany and surrounding European countries), Febi can be considered the best balance in quality and value, which is why I labeled them as OEM/Aftermarket. They are both. Febi bushings are made to exacting OEM specs for the aftermarket, and have excellent longevity as well as low prices. We carry several Febi parts that are also OEM, so you know they aren’t messing around. Febi has a huge catalog and offers over 30,000 part numbers to the aftermarket, which is extremely impressive.
Rein – Aftermarket
Rein is a standard aftermarket part that helps fill gaps in the catalog left by the OE suppliers above. Expect good longevity and low price.
Vaico – Aftermarket
I say Vaico is aftermarket, because many of their products are your standard Chinese fare. However, there are numerous occasions when whitebox OEM parts show up in Vaico boxes, as they are a notorious re-boxer. When shopping for Vaico parts, pay close attention to the photo. There’s a possibility that you may end up with an OEM for bottom of the barrel prices. Good availability makes Vaico a good choice.
ProParts – Aftermarket
Proparts originated in Stockholm, Sweden, but now has offices in the United States and Taipei, Taiwan. They manufacture good quality aftermarket parts and are a great value. Consider them if you can’t justify the added price of an OEM quality bushing. For a few applications, Proparts actually carries performance aftermarket Polyurethane bushings for better handling, enhanced longevity, and ease of installation.
URO – Aftermarket
URO is a standard aftermarket manufacturer, with factories mostly centralized in China except for a few instances. The price reflects the quality, and should be taken into consideration when deciding how long you plan on keeping your car.
MTC – Aftermarket
Similar to Proparts, MTC can be considered a standard Asian aftermarket parts manufacturer with a few polyurethane options to fill gaps in the performance area on some cars
