Silicone hoses and polyurethane bushings.

[OldEuroCarLover]

The other day I watched the last of the "Ultimate Factories" DVDs I took out from the library. They were all tours--with an extremely obnoxious narrator--of automotive factories. I was surprised, most of all, to see that Bentley, Rolls Royce, and Lamborghini are actually expensive to produce and are made with a lot of human labor. Perviously, I'd seen them as mostly Veblen offerings from their parent companies.

One thing I noticed is that, for all the intricate labor and machining and parts selection, I didn't see a single silicone hose or polyurethane bushing in any of them. I can sort of understand the reason for using rubber bushings, even though there are softer urethane compounds that should perform similarly, but I can't wrap my head around the use of a rubber radiator hose in a Rolls Royce when they just as easily could have used silicone.

If this solely due to cost cutting, or is there an engineering reason for using these parts?

 

[RooflessVW]

I'm not entirely sure silicone is any better. If you only have to replace a hose every 10 years or so (failure), or when the component is serviced (water pump, etc) what is the point of silicone?

 

[Olas]

Rolls is BMW, Bemtley and Lamborghini are VW. They use their parts bin to save development time and cost.

For proper bespoke stuff look at small low volume manufacturers like Noble, Bowler, Bristol, Koenigsegg etc..they use unconventional materials and designs unlike the Audi R8 for example, which uses VW Polo 1.2 litre ignition coils and also uses the Polo front wishbone bolt to secure the R8 rear diff.

Ultimately, businesses are there to profit.

 

[redbone3]

Polyurethane bushings have a tendency to squeak and generally are associated with a harsher ride. Not what RR is looking for.

 

[OldEuroCarLover]

Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
I'm not entirely sure silicone is any better. If you only have to replace a hose every 10 years or so (failure), or when the component is serviced (water pump, etc) what is the point of silicone?


Longevity. Silicone should last 25+ years.

Originally Posted By: Olas
Rolls is BMW, Bemtley and Lamborghini are VW. They use their parts bin to save development time and cost.

For proper bespoke stuff look at small low volume manufacturers like Noble, Bowler, Bristol, Koenigsegg etc..they use unconventional materials and designs unlike the Audi R8 for example, which uses VW Polo 1.2 litre ignition coils and also uses the Polo front wishbone bolt to secure the R8 rear diff.

Ultimately, businesses are there to profit.


This is what I thought, but I'm sort of surprised by these choices after seeing the manufacturing practices in their factories.

Originally Posted By: redbone3
Polyurethane bushings have a tendency to squeak and generally are associated with a harsher ride. Not what RR is looking for.


Aren't there some urethane compounds that will provide an equal ride compared to rubber? I would think that they'd be able to get rid of the squeaking with PTFE or something. I have polyurethane front control arm bushing that don't make any noise. (That doesn't necessarily mean anything at all, of course. There are many different kinds of bushings.)

 

[Olas]

How many Rolls Royce owners will pop the bonnet and inspect the material construction of their coolant hoses?
Versus how many of those same owners will take a long hard look at paint finish, leather condition, interior fit&finish etc?

They're special where they need to be special (where the customer looks) and they're cost-cutting wherever it won't be noticed.
Businesses exist only to profit.

 

[DoubleWasp]

You must remember that those cars are engineered to discourage drivers from operating them on a regular basis.

Maintenance is frequent, and expensive. No need for high-durability components, since so many are inspected or changed frequently.