hotchkis sway bar bushings=the mystery clunk!

[ylwnana]

this noise has caused me to $pend some serious cash and kept me from driving my ride! after bringing to dodge ( and having to pay just for them to tell me my suspension warranty is void ) stokes in santa monica and changing several pieces of suspension , i removed my front hotchkis bar. the noise was gone! i only have 16k miles on my 06 (didnt like driving a clunker) and 10k on the bars. the bar was bone dry @ the bushings and both the bar's paint and the bushings were pitted. i called hotchkis and they asked if i had washers on the mounting brackets. i did. 2 per bolt. they said those were the early bushings and they were too tight and crush out the lube. they have a rebuild kit that has the right size bushings where you dont use the washers. 15$ and in the mail. it kind of sucks ass but im thrilled to finally figured out my loud ass prob!

[richierevs]

this noise has caused me to $pend some serious cash and kept me from driving my ride! after bringing to dodge ( and having to pay just for them to tell me my suspension warranty is void ) stokes in santa monica and changing several pieces of suspension , i removed my front hotchkis bar. the noise was gone! i only have 16k miles on my 06 (didnt like driving a clunker) and 10k on the bars. the bar was bone dry @ the bushings and both the bar's paint and the bushings were pitted. i called hotchkis and they asked if i had washers on the mounting brackets. i did. 2 per bolt. they said those were the early bushings and they were too tight and crush out the lube. they have a rebuild kit that has the right size bushings where you dont use the washers. 15$ and in the mail. it kind of sucks ass but im thrilled to finally figured out my loud ass prob!

Part of the problem with their lube is not that it gets pushed out, but that the poly bushings actually absorb the lube--a typical problem with poly bushings. I'd have to check but there's a lube out there that doesn't get absorbed by poly bushings. I wrote about it in a thread earlier this year. I'll post the reference when I find it.

**edit**

It's called a Prelube from Energy Suspension: http://www.energysuspensionparts.com...prod=9%2E11104

Here's another competing product with similar properties: http://www.polybushings.com/pages/bushinglube.html