Toyota Powered VL Calais

[vc81]

Awesome ride vl400 Just curious what brand are those strut tops as I've never seen them before? Also what spring rates do you run on the coilovers in the front?

[VL400]

may i suggest using superpro bushes. They will shit all over those in durability and functionality.
I have had my mine since 09 with over 150k of rough as guts terrain and they are still going good.

Since '09? Should still be like new! Decided to stick with the Nolathane brand as I was pretty happy with the last lot, they are over 11 years old (I bought the car in '02 so dont know exactly how old they are). The only ones that really failed were the Noltec strut tops which lasted about 7 years, they just crumbled to nothing which was pretty poor (and dangerous as the strut fell out of the mounting when jacked up). The upper control arm bushes were starting to go the same way and replaced them a couple of years ago. The rest either had the crush tube slightly loose in the bushing or showed a small crack starting. Still had a fair few factory rubber bushes installed which were well and truly stuffed!

This is the worst of them..

600_5458.jpg

The rest look like this..

600_5456.jpg

..the superpro aka Fulcrum bushes are a superior material, have knurling for grease retention which works great...

Nolathane have knurling also.

[VL400]

Awesome ride vl400 Just curious what brand are those strut tops as I've never seen them before? Also what spring rates do you run on the coilovers in the front?

They are cheapies, XYZ brand. There are not many off the shelf solid strut tops. KMAC also make some but other than that could not find much.

Current spring rate is 400lb/in but will be dropping that to 300ish for street use.

[vc81]

Yea I had trouble finding some solid ones too. These are what I am using.

[Holden202T]

I had a similar result with Torana crossmember to chassis bushes, literally crumbled away!! I can't remember what brand they were though!

[trikky73]

I know a few people that have had the same thing happen with the Nolathane bushes, they just crumbled
I have been using the Whiteline ones(look like they are make from cola - semitransparent) for a few years now and they still look like new

[vlad01]

may i suggest using superpro bushes. They will shit all over those in durability and functionality.
I have had my mine since 09 with over 150k of rough as guts terrain and they are still going good.

Since '09? Should still be like new! Decided to stick with the Nolathane brand as I was pretty happy with the last lot, they are over 11 years old (I bought the car in '02 so dont know exactly how old they are). The only ones that really failed were the Noltec strut tops which lasted about 7 years, they just crumbled to nothing which was pretty poor (and dangerous as the strut fell out of the mounting when jacked up). The upper control arm bushes were starting to go the same way and replaced them a couple of years ago. The rest either had the crush tube slightly loose in the bushing or showed a small crack starting. Still had a fair few factory rubber bushes installed which were well and truly stuffed!

This is the worst of them..

600_5458.jpg

The rest look like this..

600_5456.jpg

..the superpro aka Fulcrum bushes are a superior material, have knurling for grease retention which works great...

Nolathane have knurling also.

none of my nolthane did, they were smooth bored, had problems will all my nolthanes except the link pin bushes. cracking after 6 months, shells out of tolerance (too small when measured against stock) resulting in the bushes coming out of the control arms few time until I replaced them with super pro. strut tops cracked after 3 months although its still intact now, crush tube ID too big and worked loose all the time on the rear arms even with loctite and at least 1/3rd tighter than spec torque on the bolts.


I don't know what it is, environment? extreme harsh roads? but the nolthanes aren't up to the job on my cars lol

my shockers even died now and they were brand new in 08. they are noisy as and just don't work anymore.

[vlad01]

Awesome ride vl400 Just curious what brand are those strut tops as I've never seen them before? Also what spring rates do you run on the coilovers in the front?

They are cheapies, XYZ brand. There are not many off the shelf solid strut tops. KMAC also make some but other than that could not find much.

Current spring rate is 400lb/in but will be dropping that to 300ish for street use.

yeah I am looking at getting K mac for my VP, stage 2.

they seem much more durable than the sage 1. few people had the stage 1 crack the poly. stage 2 I have heard nothing but good from them.

stage 3 is solid but bit noisy and harsh for road use and I would imagine spot welds breaking with those and interior of the car falling to bits

[VL400]

Not so much empty space now...

600_5491_sm.jpg

600_5493_sm.jpg

[delcowizzid]

nice is that the control centre box LOL