E86 bushes ? ( again )

[Dune19670]

Sorry for bringing the subject again,
but im working my way through my E86, doing all the jobs previous owners hadn’t -
New diff bearings and new oil
New gearbox oil
Cdv removed
Oil change and all filters oil/air/pollen
New spark plugs
New wheels and New Uniroyal rainsport tyres
Now for the bushes ??
I would say the car drives ok but its a little vague and i find myself not being able to hold a steady line when at speed, ( hope that makes sense )
Ive read about lollipop bushes etc but im non the wiser really, so im looking for advice on whether to go for oem bushes or powerflex and which bushes are the essential must change etc

 

[Jakg]

"Tramlining" is the words your looking for - the car is following the camber / ruts of the road excessively.

Any play in the suspension obviously needs to go - the two main common areas are the front wishbone bushes ("lollipops") and rear trailing arm bushes ("RTAB").

Powerflex bushes (IMO) are an upgrade, everything is "amplified". That means you can feel what the cars doing much better - but if it's not doing the right thing you'll just feel it even worse.
When I got my Z4 it was pretty terrible for it - I fitted Powerflex wishbone & RTAB bushes and despite the car feeling better to drive, it was worse for it afterwards.
I had similar on my RenaultSport Megane - with powerflex bushes it would pull quite a bit more over cambered roads, but as there wasn't any other problems it wasn't an issue.

I found that tyres were the biggest thing - moving from runflats to regular tyres - but you've already done that.

You can also adjust the steering, or more precisely how strong the assistance of the electric power steering is - out of the box it seemed too strong to me and it was almost like the car would move over the road and the power steering was helping push it further.

And of course wheel alignment will make a big difference.
I replaced the suspension on my E91 recently, and due to fitting some longer wishbones ended up with several degrees of toe at the front - I have never had a car drive so badly (while limping to get it aligned) and it was completely different afterwards.

Personally I would (and did) change the bushes first - it's likely after 10+ years they are worn (but maybe not worn badly enough to be a problem), and at the same time give everything else a onceover - especially around the rear trailing arms, as there's a lot of joints that could wear, but normally don't, and the wishbones themselves (i.e. the front balljoint).
And then get a wheel alignment afterwards and take it from there.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=47&t=1755842&i=13

 

[Dune19670]

Thankyou Jakg for the in-depth explanation very helpful