Feeling The Energy!

How to choose the correct suspension bushings with the right hardness for your ride

- Jim Smart

Suspension and exhaust systems begin with all of the hard parts: hangers, pipes, control arms, struts, shocks, sway bars, and springs. Bushings and insulators are the flexible connections between the hard parts. They serve as shock absorbers and vibration isolators, providing a pivot point on which the hard parts articulate.

Energy Suspension tells us suspension bushings and the like are generally made of steel and rubber. Polyurethane is a form of rubber though we don’t think of it as rubber. Like rubber, this elastomer offers the same kind of flex that enables it to isolate noise, vibration, and harshness (NVR). Polyurethane is a synthetic rubber, as is the soft, black flexible stuff in your Chevy’s factory suspension parts, subframe, and engine mounts.

Black rubber is made from petroleum byproducts as opposed to natural rubber gum that comes from trees. Polyurethane is a reaction polymer created in a thermoset process. What’s more, polyurethane is virtually indestructible and outlasts rubber. Rubber is used to describe factory bushing material and polyurethane is used to describe Hyper-Flex—the proprietary material used by Energy Suspension.