Meyle Bush hardness

A

Artful-Bodger

Member
 Pontypridd, S Wales
I've been ordering several bushes for testing to compare to the standard BMW offering.

I have one BMW RTAB here, the earlier E85 design with 2mm compression gaps and it comes in at 64A shore so this was my benchmark bush.

A pair of Meyle HD RTAB's arrived today, these are for Z4 and E46, newer design 5mm compression gap, alloy casing and comes in at 64A shore also!

I have a pair of M3/Z4M Meyle's on the way to compare but so far all the Meyle's I have here are 64A shore irrespective of their location (lower or upper transverse arms etc).

Bear in mind this does not tell the whole story as different blends of rubber can give the same hardness but different durabilities or flexibility but it's interesting to note the shore rating is identical to the BMW bush, so if nothing else you can buy BMW style bushes for a fair bit less than dealer prices, I was expecting to see a harder bush round the 70A shore mark as they are advertised as HD and have the same design as the BMW albeit with greater fitted compression as per later BMW bushes.

Will be interesting to see if the M3/Z4M is the same rubber as it has a different Meyle part no on the advertisment.
 
I believe all the meyle hd range are solid, so same hardness but without oil fill? unlike some of the oe bushings.
 
Artful-Bodger said:
I've been ordering several bushes for testing to compare to the standard BMW offering.

I have one BMW RTAB here, the earlier E85 design with 2mm compression gaps and it comes in at 64A shore so this was my benchmark bush.

A pair of Meyle HD RTAB's arrived today, these are for Z4 and E46, newer design 5mm compression gap, alloy casing and comes in at 64A shore also!

I have a pair of M3/Z4M Meyle's on the way to compare but so far all the Meyle's I have here are 64A shore irrespective of their location (lower or upper transverse arms etc).

Bear in mind this does not tell the whole story as different blends of rubber can give the same hardness but different durabilities or flexibility but it's interesting to note the shore rating is identical to the BMW bush, so if nothing else you can buy BMW style bushes for a fair bit less than dealer prices, I was expecting to see a harder bush round the 70A shore mark as they are advertised as HD and have the same design as the BMW albeit with greater fitted compression as per later BMW bushes.

Will be interesting to see if the M3/Z4M is the same rubber as it has a different Meyle part no on the advertisment.
Click to expand...

Will the harness not increase upon compression, ie fitting?

Mike
 
It does seem the durability is achieved by mechanical changes I found this on the Meyle site - http://www.meyle.com/en/service/downloads/meyle-hd-product-information.html?tx_meylehddownloads_pi1%5B__referrer%5D%5B@extension%5D=MeyleHddownloads&tx_meylehddownloads_pi1%5B__referrer%5D%5B@vendor%5D=Exinit&tx_meylehddownloads_pi1%5B__referrer%5D%5B@controller%5D=Entry&tx_meylehddownloads_pi1%5B__referrer%5D%5B@action%5D=list&tx_meylehddownloads_pi1%5B__referrer%5D%5Barguments%5D=YTowOnt9053b0b9cc279d8911ca84dfd4a5e04e82df948ef&tx_meylehddownloads_pi1%5B__referrer%5D%5B@request%5D=a%3A4%3A%7Bs%3A10%3A%22@extension%22%3Bs%3A16%3A%22MeyleHddownloads%22%3Bs%3A11%3A%22@controller%22%3Bs%3A5%3A%22Entry%22%3Bs%3A7%3A%22@action%22%3Bs%3A4%3A%22list%22%3Bs%3A7%3A%22@vendor%22%3Bs%3A6%3A%22Exinit%22%3B%7Db73a27223188da49d35883eae9a5e696eccca53e&tx_meylehddownloads_pi1%5B__trustedProperties%5D=a%3A1%3A%7Bs%3A8%3A%22category%22%3Bi%3A1%3B%7D0241574cc075f306282f17cead794ff4cdf027b3&no_cache=1&tx_meylehddownloads_pi1%5Bcategory%5D=2

Not a great deal of info but sheds some light, a solid bush will be stiffer than the oil filled but also add to the spring rate in torsion so it's relative to what your trying to achieve, there's no doubt the BMW bush will give better NVH, that's a lot of work they put into some of these bushes but the Meyle looks like a good option if you want to tighten up your car without too much compromise.
 
Ducklakeview said:
Artful-Bodger said:
I've been ordering several bushes for testing to compare to the standard BMW offering.

I have one BMW RTAB here, the earlier E85 design with 2mm compression gaps and it comes in at 64A shore so this was my benchmark bush.

A pair of Meyle HD RTAB's arrived today, these are for Z4 and E46, newer design 5mm compression gap, alloy casing and comes in at 64A shore also!

I have a pair of M3/Z4M Meyle's on the way to compare but so far all the Meyle's I have here are 64A shore irrespective of their location (lower or upper transverse arms etc).

Bear in mind this does not tell the whole story as different blends of rubber can give the same hardness but different durabilities or flexibility but it's interesting to note the shore rating is identical to the BMW bush, so if nothing else you can buy BMW style bushes for a fair bit less than dealer prices, I was expecting to see a harder bush round the 70A shore mark as they are advertised as HD and have the same design as the BMW albeit with greater fitted compression as per later BMW bushes.

Will be interesting to see if the M3/Z4M is the same rubber as it has a different Meyle part no on the advertisment.
Click to expand...

Will the harness not increase upon compression, ie fitting?

Mike
Click to expand...

That seems to be the purpose of the redesign from the 2mm to 5mm gaps as the OD of the bush is larger before fitting, it's more the stiffness than hardness that will increase if you get my drift.
 
Been testing the RTAB's and the arm bushes to see what's what.

Basically the Meyle RTAB is the same part for all E46 C arm type applications be it M/Z or saloon, they are numbered as 300 330 2104/HD.

They are identical in hardness to the standard BMW bush at 64 shore A, and have the later 5mm compression gaps, as compared to the earlier BMW 2mm gap.

I made up a jig and tested them in deflection and torsion with 10kg at 25cm and compared them to the BMW bushes,

torsion compressed to 60mm was 62 degrees at 10kg (BMW bush 68deg)
And in deflection compressed to 60mm 31deg (BMW 33deg)

So the Meyle is directly comparable to the current 5mm gap BMW one but slightly stiffer than the earlier 2mm gap, but as it's marketed as H/D the difference could well be the service life with a different rubber blend.

It's plain to see by the design which is similar to a trapped rubber ball how much movement is built into this part, to put that into context the inner arm bushes are quite tightly controlled with the inner upper bush being extremely stiff!

Upper inner
Torsion - 14deg
Deflection - 6deg

lower inner
Torsion - 32deg
deflection - 20deg

So if you wish to keep rubber bushing but tighten things up a bit a suggested set could comprise of -
Meyle/BMW RTAB, decide if limiters are the way to go, I've not tested the movement on this part yet so I'm not prepared to fit them until I do.
Balljoints top and bottom on outer arm joints

Meyle upper inner arm (no point putting anything else here, the standard bush is extremely stiff as it has to handle the spring loads).

Meyle Lower inner, the lower arm is a designed failure point, so if you hit a curb for instance the arm will bend rather than sending the huge shock into the subframe/shell, there are replacement adjustable arms available at the expense of losing this protection, but fitting a stiff bush here will probably flex the arm as it's quite a flimsy affair.

Alternatively you could try these - http://www.bimmerworld.com/Suspension-Steering/E46-E36-3-Series-and-Z4-Rear-Trailing-Arm-Bearing-Kit.html
Bimmerworld recon they are quiet enough for road use whilst giving a properly controlled movement, so I'm going to order a set for my Z4 and see how they compare.

So to sum up, despite the meyle's being claimed to be stiffer than standard bushes the tests show pretty much the same properties as regular BMW parts.

In the meantime, if anyone needs Meyle RTAB's in the Glamorgan area I have a few spares lol :)
 
Artful-Bodger said:
Been testing the RTAB's and the arm bushes to see what's what.

Basically the Meyle RTAB is the same part for all E46 C arm type applications be it M/Z or saloon, they are numbered as 300 330 2104/HD.

They are identical in hardness to the standard BMW bush at 64 shore A, and have the later 5mm compression gaps, as compared to the earlier BMW 2mm gap.

I made up a jig and tested them in deflection and torsion with 10kg at 25cm and compared them to the BMW bushes,

torsion compressed to 60mm was 62 degrees at 20kg (BMW bush 68deg)
And in deflection compressed to 60mm 31deg (BMW 33deg)

So the Meyle is directly comparable to the current 5mm gap BMW one but slightly stiffer than the earlier 2mm gap, but as it's marketed as H/D the difference could well be the service life with a different rubber blend.

It's plain to see by the design which is similar to a trapped rubber ball how much movement is built into this part, to put that into context the inner arm bushes are quite tightly controlled with the inner upper bush being extremely stiff!

Upper inner
Torsion - 14deg
Deflection - 6deg

lower inner
Torsion - 32deg
deflection - 20deg

So if you wish to keep rubber bushing but tighten things up a bit a suggested set could comprise of -
Meyle/BMW RTAB, decide if limiters are the way to go, I've not tested the movement on this part yet so I'm not prepared to fit them until I do.
Balljoints top and bottom on outer arm joints

Meyle upper inner arm (no point putting anything else here, the standard bush is extremely stiff as it has to handle the spring loads).

Meyle Lower inner, the lower arm is a designed failure point, so if you hit a curb for instance the arm will bend rather than sending the huge shock into the subframe/shell, there are replacement adjustable arms available at the expense of losing this protection, but fitting a stiff bush here will probably flex the arm as it's quite a flimsy affair.

Alternatively you could try these - http://www.bimmerworld.com/Suspension-Steering/E46-E36-3-Series-and-Z4-Rear-Trailing-Arm-Bearing-Kit.html
Bimmerworld recon they are quiet enough for road use whilst giving a properly controlled movement, so I'm going to order a set for my Z4 and see how they compare.

In the meantime, if anyone needs Meyle RTAB's in the Glamorgan area I have a few spares lol :)
Click to expand...

Liking your work A-B, it all seems to make sense with the bimmerworld RTABearing kit :thumbsup:
 
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