843de

Greasing the bushings can prevent noise in the long run, the factory bushings can creak and groan in cold weather. The sway bar moves side to side in normal use anyway, its not much deflection(maybe 1/4 -1/2"), but its not clamped perfectly solid in the factory bushings either.

jay loukakis

Take a look at the stock bushings, you would not know it is rubber, hard as bakalite, the front sway bar rotates in the bushings, I had the black grafite with zirc fittings.

donbrew

My sway bar moves an inch or 2 side to side, enough to bang on the control arm. Hard rubber sounds right to me. I just cannot think of any reason to grease this particular joint, ok they wear out in 100K or so... but, how many car owners care about "after 100K"?

843de

Not only rotates, but defects a bit laterally, if it were solidly mounted you'd have some interesting handling traits.

Also, I'm old fashioned, I like grease fittings on things....it makes my brain happy knowing that the parts will last longer.

843de

Gee donbrew, if you're getting enough deflection and slop in the suspension that its fouling the control arms, I think its more than time for new bushings and end links.

donbrew

Before I ever decided to mess with the "sway bar & bushings" question, I solicited opinions from this forum about the "performance" characteristics of the various parts. The ONLY reason I heard for one length of end link over the other was "that's what I want" NOT "this is what the engineers say, and why....".

Now, there is a performance issue with the mounting bushings? How about some reasoning? I do not worry so much about noises from machines, because the definition of a machine is "something that makes noises". Give me a reason to worry about a noise, and I will! Like squealing bearings, that's a problem.

I did not say there is any slop in the suspension or fouling of parts. The "sway bar" moves side to side and occasionally causes the right side end-link to contact the control arm.

If you put the front of car up on stands, pop the hood, watch the action of the entire "sway bar system" while your assistant turns the steering wheel you will see what I am talking about. When the struts rotate they transfer the rotation to a lateral motion via the end links to the sway bar. Did I finally get that out there?

843de

OK, didn't mean this to turn into an argument of sorts, sorry about that.

Now that I know you are experiencing some fouling of the control arm with the vehicle on jack stands, it changes things. I can imagine that some fouling of the control arm might occur in that situation, the suspension is at full droop and that changes the geometry. I didn't mean to imply that your vehicle is defective in some horrible way, but not knowing how the occasional contact was happening, I did draw a conclusion of excessive "slop" in the front end.

Yes machines do make noise, sometimes very pleasant noises in fact. But the reason I went with grease-able bushings was to eliminate noise from the OEM bushings at certain temperatures, once the bushings were changed...no more "graunch" on cold days. There isn't a performance issue with the OEM bushings, but some of us have found them to be a source of noise, hence the change to aftermarket units.

You asked for opinions, and you got them, if mine offended you in any way....it was purely unintentional. I look forward to reading you posts and seeing your "take" on things.

donbrew

I intended the smileys to reflect "just sayin' " no offense meant nor taken.

The point being that you can "see" the noises happening if you look and listen at the same time. That is where my "clunks" come from! If you look at yours maybe you can hear it, too. hehehe


Could be; when cold, the bushing allows more lateral motion, thus clunk. I just still cannot rationalize greasing this particular fitting. For other reasons, like grease actually causes rubber to break down etc. Grease is good on metal to metal joints, but if you look at this instance it is more like putting grease on your brake linings to dampen the noise; yes the noise will go away.... but so will "performance".

843de

Yes you're right that grease and oil can cause certain types of rubber to break down, but grease-able bushings are made of Polyurethane or Poly-Graphite mixtures that aren't broken down by grease or oil. They need periodic lubrication or they'll fail from being dry and sticking to the sway bar, eventually they'll tear and break down into chunks.

The occasional noise issues with the OEM style bushings are more like the noise you'd get if you wrapped a piece of old inner tube around a length of pipe. Twist the pipe and you get a squeaking or groaning sound, that's the problem I had. Now if the bushings are totally shot you'll get a thumping/thudding clatter from the sway bar as it bounces in the bushing shells.

SS fan

Since the Short bus is going to Mr. Goodwrench wednesday I would like to give them something to do while they are under there. Which ones should I get for them to install ??