Over time the rubber bushings in your car will deteriorate and wear out, they were also designed for better comfort rather than ultimate performance from the factory. Replacing these bushing with new polyurethane replacements will restore the handling and performance of your Supra to better than new levels. The subframe bushings are made by Super Pro the part number is SPF1447K. The rear control arm bushings I recommend are also made by Super Pro the part number for those is SPF1213K. There are also rear control arm bushings that are made by Energy Suspension part number 8.3112G and can be ordered through any of their dealers. If ordering online I recommend www.suspension.com for any Energy Suspension products.

Here is a picture of the subframe bushing kit. It is very expensive but well worth it in my opinion. In my case the factory bushings on my car had actually split, yours may be too if you drive the car hard!

Here is a picture of the Super Pro rear control arm bushing kit. This kit comes with all new sleeves and will be much less of a hassle to install compared to the Energy Suspension kit.

If you would like a full kit that replaces all of your bushings with polyurethane including the rear subframe and control arms there is a full kit offered by Super Pro the kit contains the bushings listed above as well as front control arm bushings with sleeves, front strut rod bushings, and rear lower shock mount bushings. Here is a photo of what the kit includes.

Replacing the bushings in the rear is a pretty easy job, the hard part is that the entire rear drivetrain has to be dropped. Support the rear of the car with jack stands. Get it up as high enough so you can work underneath the car easily. You will need to remove the exhaust after the catalytic converter. Unbolt the driveshaft in the middle of the car. Unhook the emergency brake cables from the load balancer above the driveshaft. Disconnect the hydraulic brake lines. Once you have all of this done you will need to support the rear subframe assembly with a floor jack. Now loosen the 4 large bolts holding the subframe to the car. Now let the whole thing down slowly just in case you have miss disconnecting something. Once it is lowered you can slide it backwards and behind the car to work on it.

To replace the subframe bushings you need to press out the original bushings and their shells. Remove the bolt and bracket that holds them in from the bottom side of the subframe. Now with a 3 arm puller position it over the bushing from the top like the picture shown below. Use a nose on the 3 arm puller that pushes on the center steel sleeve evenly. The bushings should press out without too much effort.

Once they both are pressed out you can clean out the holes and insert the new bushings. Grease up the new bushings well with the supplied grease. Press one half bushing in from each side by hand. Lastly press in the steel sleeve after greasing it up as well. If you try to press in the bushings with the center sleeve already in place there will be nowhere for the air to escape and you won't be able to press them together. Repeat on the other side and you are done. Here is what they look like installed.

Now unbolt the control arms from the subframe and using the 3 arm puller again press out the control arm bushings. There is less area here for the arms of the puller to grab onto so it helps if you have a helper to hold the arms tightly while you steady the puller and tighten it down. Press them out by putting the pressure on the steel sleeves just like we did on the old subframe bushings. Here is a picture to illustrate what's going on.

To install the new bushings grease them up well with the supplied grease and press them in by hand. Make sure you put in the one that matches the bushing you just pressed out since the inner and outer bushings are different. Now grease up the sleeve and slide it into the bushing also. The Super Pro bushings come in two pieces but install basically the same way, install the two halves by hand with plenty of grease and then slide in the metal sleeve. Repeat the process for the other 3 bushings and you are all done. Here is a new bushing installed and the sleeve is on its way in on the left, on the right you see a completed assembly ready to be bolted back on. On the center 2 bushings Energy Suspension does not supply you with new sleeves, you are supposed to cut the old sleeves out of those 2 inner bushings and reuse them. Several owners have said that the old sleves do not fit the Energy Suspension bushings properly, that is why I recomend spending the extra money for the Super Pro control arm bushings. I used some new sleeves that a member on the celicasupra.com messgeboard had made by a machinist as a one time group buy, so I was unable to verify wether my old sleeves would have worked or not. Again your best bet is to spend the extra money for the Super Pro kit that comes with all 4 sleeves.

Now just reassemble the control arms to the subframe and slide it all back under the car and bolt everything back in in the reverse order you took it off. In the pictures you can see that I unbolted the subframe from the differential but that was completely a waste of time and was just extra work not to mention the pain I had getting all the differential bolts lined back up again, so when you do yours just leave it attached. You should note before you unbolt the control arms as to what position the toe adjusters are in, when you put them back together put them in the same place and your alignment should be good enough to get you to the alignment shop.

Any questions or comments should be adressed to wjh@ufl.edu