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Looking inside the subframe bushing at the large gap between the threaded hole and the large inner diameter of the subframe bushing sleeve, the importance of installing Steeda’s Subframe Alignment Kit becomes obvious. Our subframe was not perfectly centered from the factory. Note the voids in the bushings are forward and aft, this allows the entire subframe to rock forward and back when on and off throttle, which is bad for road racing and causes wheel hop when launching. Thankfully the bushings are solid on the sides to restrict lateral movement of the subframe and suspension when cornering.
The Delrin Subframe Alignment inserts slide right into place and ensures the subframe is centered and bolts to the chassis the same place every time. Due to the large variance without this insert, an alignment is highly recommended after installing these inserts because the subframe was likely not perfectly centered from the factory when it was installed and aligned.
Steeda’s Billet Aluminum Subframe Isolators pop right in and fill in the gaps of the factory rubber bushing to limit movement and wheel hop with little to no increase in NVH since the stock bushing is retained.
With the subframe isolators installed, we bolted it back up. As you can see, the aluminum inserts sandwich the subframe and act almost like a solid mount in terms of rotational resistance, but the soft factory rubber bushing isolates the chassis from most of the unwanted vibrations and shocks that would be transmitted with a solid polyurethane, Delrin, or especially, a solid aluminum bushing.
