AndyK

Hey-
I was thinking my clunk could be one or both of my front sway bar bushings. How hard is it to replace them??

samk

Easy DIU fix.

Sam

AndyK

Cool, I'll order a set!

Thanks.

perryinva

No way you have worn ARB bushings at 25k miles. Just grease them with some PTFE grease. Probably the tie rods if tat doesn't help. Did you ever replace them?

AndyK

Sway bar bushings don't wear after 12 years? I didn't do the tie rods, thinking at 25k how could they be worn?

Dharn55

It is not so much the miles as the years that can cause these problems on low mileage cars. I had to replace the upper strut mounts on my car as they had just dried out and failed.

AndyK

So, are you saying the sway bar bushings could be shot due to age?

perryinva

Well, anything is possible, of course, but my car is only 2 years older than yours, with almost 50k miles, and they were more than just fine. They WERE a little noisy, though, from a little binding, and I greased them with PTFE grease and now they are silent. Very little is needed, and they are easy access with a lift.
The upper strut mount bushings carry the full impact of the struts pulling and pushing, and are rubber formed around steel. No comparison. I saw the pics of Dougs and his were an extreme failure. I replaced all my strut bushings, like he did, when I put in my PSS9s in Feb of this year, and they were all fine, but I wanted to use the X71 versions which I had purchased before I did the job.

Sway (ARB) bushings carry no load at all, and are just really rubber for N & V isolation, but act as a simple radial bearing. They are cheap to replace, so go for it and see if it helps, but grease is cheap & easier. Not lithium or petroluem based grease, but PTFE based.

I replaced both sets of inner and outer TREs at 47k miles, and they were not shot or worn at all. That is not the issue with the noise from those suckers. The ***** on them BIND like a sonovabyatch from time/age/dried lube(?), I guess, and they creak and pop as they flex like no tomorrow. I suffered with my car sounding like that from 28k miles in 2008 until 47k miles this past Feb, for what turned out to be a super easy change out, that, with the parts and tools, cost me under $300 and an afternoon. Of course, then required an alignment, which is why I waited so long, until I put on my new PS2s,( which I love, BTW). If I had really KNOWN that it would cure the problem so easily I would gladly have done it much earlier, but I said the same thing you are, how could they be the cause, with such low miles. They were though. And the steering is now so silky smooth and effortless compared to the originals, that I know the binding was significant. I bought the set of TRW TREs from Vertex.

AndyK

Did you replace the whole tie rod assembly, or just the ends? I though the inner tie rods were usually the culprit for noises?

white out

I have my new front & rear sway bar bushings waiting to go in. Hopefully they shut up the front of my car. lol

perryinva

I did all 4, both inners and both outers for the simple reason that they both have ball joints, and for the extra $100 in parts, I was going to do it once, and get one alignment. Alignment is $200, and have to drop the car off hassle etc. That was more an issue to me, that an extra C note. FWIW, both the inner and outer ***** were both equally stiff/binding compared to the new ones, so it was a smart choice. The outers came off in minutes with the $15 ball joint tool from NAPA, and th einners almost as fast with the $60 tie rod tool kit from Amazon. Took longer to cut the ss bands holding the accordian in place than anything else. I have anothe rpost in here somewhere witht the exact models and hose clamp.size replacements.

jetskied

I doubt that swaybar bushing are causing the sound. It could be the tie rods or the ball joints. However you should check the swaybar links. One time I had my link ends loose and they made a clucking sound. Its easy to check just take off the wheels and shake the link.

AndyK

I replaced the drop links a few months back, but the noise persists!