mx5cartalk.com

Ok, I'm new here and I know there are a lot of posts on these. I bought mine from here http://atperformance.com.au/product-category/mazda/.
Australian made, look very similar to another product from another country.
This would have to be the best $60-70 you could spend in terms of making your old car feel new(er) again!
I live in an area with terrible roads ( concrete, tar, pot holes, other holes..) and these made quite a difference.
I have no affiliation with the vendor- in fact I was going to buy the other ones but these came up on an ebay search.
Awesome.

I too fitted these to my SE. The difference is noticeable and beneficial, similar to the effect that fitting fender braces made to my NA8. A cheap but effective upgrade.
I like it a lot.

Great timing. I was about to order a set from Garage Star after seeing this video in YouTube.



But I'll give these guys a go. Prefer to buy local products so long as the quality is as good or better.

Fitment is a higher tolerance than others on the market, there's local support and they come with a chupa-chup

I might be a little biased though ;)

http://atperformance.com.au/fitting-gui ... or-bushes/

I think mine were the Garage Star, can't remember, but whichever you get you will be happy with the result! Ridiculous improvement for such a small, cheap mod!!

I originally installed the Garage Star bushes.
They take reasonably force to shut the doors properly.
The driver-side door no longer was flush with the rear panel when closed, the passenger side was fine.
The driver side door opened with a distinct popping noise, the passenger side doesn't.
The driver-side door took a lot of door slamming to get as good as what I settled on, the passenger door only took a couple of slams.

I bought the AT Performance ones for comparison.
I can lightly flick the doors and they close properly.
It feels like I need to pull the door handle firmer to open the door.
The driver-side door sits flusher.
No popping noise when I open the driver-side door.
Only took a couple of firm door slams to sit them right and the slams weren't that hard.

The shape is very similar as you'd expect but you can see the differences.
They both weigh about the same (same material, similar dimensions)
The Garage Star bushings are finished better (ie. smooth surface) but it's something you'd only notice seeing them side by side.

My advice: Buy the AT Performance bushes (or my Garage Star bushes when I want to sell them - maybe I should have sold them before posting this?).

Yeah they do take more force to close the doors. I still often forget and have to close the door twice. My door to panel also didn't sit flush but I'd read elsewhere about this and adjusted the bolt holes slightly on the driver's side bush. Sounds like the AT ones fit a bit better. For any minor negatives though, they are still well worth fitting.

Have not tried this - my car is pretty tight anyway but my impression is that essentially a rubber product is being replaced by a hard piece of plastic i.e. delrin. On many cars the doors either need realignment or the hinge pins are worn. If the door can be lifted at the extremity due to a worn hinge then the root cause is the hinge. I suppose if it works .... Incidentally many older cars had a number of door hanging adjustments available from the door striker/ latch to the front hinges which can be moved in and out and up and down.

The thing is that the original Mazda door bushes only last about 10 years then they start to crack and perish. When that happens the doors rattle more and the whole car feels a bit loose. When you replace the bushes with new genuine ones, as I did, then the whole car seems magically transformed. You can buy genuine Mazda bushes for around $10 each from Amayama and the like.

Likewise there are a few other really simple OEM fixes for rattles and leaks that keep the whole car feeling young, like the sealing rubber above the firewall, the two little plastic tabs on the front of the soft top latches, window channels and soft top tensioner cables that don't need overpriced, over-engineered solutions.

Manga makes sense- if the OEM part is available so cheap why bother with a piece of machined hard plastic .

The delrin door bushes, by nature of their material and construction, help to stiffen the chassis/frame by using the door assembly to brace the door aperture which the original flexible rubber bushes will not do, even when new.With respect ,the solutions proposed by Manga, although worthwhile and beneficial, won't. I cannot deny they make an improvement though.
Although the door hinges may now cop a flogging due to the extra loads being transferred through them.
Small price for a subjective improvement.

Whatever. All I'm saying is that in my own experience you can throw on a pair of $10 Mazda bushes and sense that you've made a major improvement.

Imos wrote:The delrin door bushes, by nature of their material and construction, help to stiffen the chassis/frame by using the door assembly to brace the door aperture which the original flexible rubber bushes will not do, even when new.

I'm sure the manufacturer is glad you're convinced.

Dann

My comments from the last time this came up (viewtopic.php?style=3&f=28&t=71555)

Most noticeable difference was in sharp secondary ride vertical movements, suspect the stronger mount allows the chassis to recruit the doors more effectively as a brace to better resist bending. There is section of elevated freeway not far from home that provokes a lot of vertical movement as the surface has developed dips between the various sections and the little fella was considerably more pleasant to be in through there.

I think, much like the shock tower and the seat belt post braces it is a mechanical refinement gain with essentially no performance gain. I'm more than happy with the refinement gain.

Earplugs give an even better nvh improvement.