My 93 200Tdi has been rebuilt with polly bushes (I'm told they are a softer type of polly, don't remember what they are called) and standard weight springs with a small lift, along with Oldman Emu shocks.

The ride is harsh and jaring. So If I fit adjustable shocks. Will this soften things up, or are the polly bushes the real problem?

If I go the adjustable shock route. Can I just fit them to the rear only. Or will this screw up the front end?


Val.

I’m looking at changing mine to Pro Sport adjustable shocks. They give you Comfort, Standard, Firm & Sport. I’ve been advised you can just fit to rear but the front end being firm will seem even firmer and you’ll bounce all over the place.

Are you sure the springs are standard?

Try the Terrafirma 4 way adjustable dampers, they are only around £60 each, had them on my 110 for a couple of years and the ride is noticeably better on the softest setting, if that’s what you want.

Val, the issue is with the poly bushes which due to their design will automatically increase NVH...and I'd imagine this would be quite an NVH/.jarring increase in a Landy. I've poly bushed many cars over the years knowing what they can do to ride quality et al, and often do not install them where I think max' NVH will be transferred into the cabin and/or cause "crashiness" within the car's body/chassis. This means some bushes are poly, some are left std OEM and for road use this is the best way of suspension upgrade. I'm in the process of upgrading my suspension on the D90. I've thought long and hard about poly or rubber bushes. I'm going with OEM rubber bushes except for the panhard rod. My reasons are 1. Defenders are not designed to be circuit racers, and 2. studying the LR axles, the greatest improvement is +Ve axle location to allow the panhard rod to do what it was designed to...providing the correct poly bush grade [shore rating] is used, 3. with suspension joints now new, the coils springs and dampers can be spec'd correctly spec'd [matched] to give the ride you want. {possibly progressive springs and adjustable dampers...or go std set up - there's nothing wrong in the way a Landy drives providing the suspension is looked after, regularly greased and set up properly.

Adjustable dampers may improve the 'softness' of your ride but will not remove the excess NVH from your Landy and will reduce the road holding too. Why not replace the poly bushes with good grade OEM bushes, then set up the suspension damping to your preferred driving style...

When l was in the Triumph Club years ago, many Spitfires were ruined by “polybushing” the suspension
Gone was the compliant and forgiving ride quality, replaced by a hard, jarring ride with rattles and scuttle shake.
I’m sure it did nothing for the car’s reputation.
As standard they were a great little car, another thing was the practise of fitting “uprated” dampers from the heavier GT6 version to “improve the handling”
After that the suspension barely moved at all and the car was just awful to drive.

I would double check they are definitely standard springs. Also what are you comparing it to saying it is a harsh ride, the vehicle before the rebuild, other defenders, or a normal car? If being compared to a normal car it will always feel like this and may not be a problem. If being compared to other defenders and the spring rates are definitely standard i would then consider looking at the shocks and bushes. I have a mixture of oem and poly bushes on mine. as a general rule anything attached the chassis uses oem bushes and anything attached to the axle uses poly the only exception to this is the panrod.

As a quick test does the vehicle settle down and become less jarring if you put 1/2 ton in the back? If so it is more likely to be springs and shocks than bushes.