Check out this video where you can see the shocking amount of movement that the OEM bushings allow and how much drastic improvement the the FIGs Engineering parts have!
When we drove the car after the installation we were amazed, the car’s straight-line stability and braking stability were vastly improved, and any tendency to wander with zero toe was totally gone. Turn-in and steering response was greatly improved. Our car now feels like a sports car rather than a soft sports sedan. Frankly, we were surprised at how much the difference was and how much more fun the car now was to drive. Before it was not bad but the amount of improvement was amazing, a night and day difference.
Surprisingly the changes in NVH were very minimal to the point of being hard to feel, even on broken pavement the ride hardly got any harsher nor was any more noise transmitted to the interior. The major difference is that the steering feel was much improved and you could feel the texture of the road through the steering wheel better. The stability over broken pavement was improved as well, probably due to the reduction in toe change. After feeling the huge improvement in the car handling with minimal degradation in ride comfort, you wonder what the engineers at Lexus were thinking when they speced out that marshmallow of a rear control arm bushing.
Time will tell if the tire wear issues are fixed but we are very confident that it will be improved greatly. So impressed we are of these bushings that we recommend them even if you have a totally stock IS and don’t care about performance. The tire wear improvements alone will be worth it!
4 comments
Do they have one that adds positive caster too for the XE30?
I have a JCE10 and have the Figs press in bushings that also add some caster. Not much, but every bit helps.
I think so but I didnt feel that the car needed it.
This is a must do for anyone with this chassis. Seems this is a common problem for a lot of cars however. I’ve replaced these across many unrelated cars eg MINI, Alfa, IS-F etc. I am not sure why OEMs opt for such a soft rear LCA bushing that never lasts. PS Its the first time I’ve seen “Lexas”.
That video speaks volumes, showing the deflection an d movement of the factory bushing. Yuck.
Even Subaru’s and Ford’s Focus line benefit from those bushings from various vendors like whiteline or powerflex. I’m sure many other platforms also use a similar style bushing.