CenterIsl

I had my car in for some service at the dealership, and I complained about a squeek coming from what I thought was the rear suspension (as my sig says, I have Tein CS, Daizen sway bars, TOMs STB and link brace). The mechanic wrote:
The good news is they didn't charge me for this! But I'm curious...do these sway bars really require periodic maintenance?

Pearlpower

iTrader: (2)

I use marine grease in mine, not one sound ever and it holds up well to the elements.

da-bizket

I can hear a little squeak squeak at low speeds (5-10 mph). More in cooler weather. It was there with my stock sways and still there with my Daizen.

NiteOwl

The Daizens are chronic squeekers - go over the the 2nd gen GS board if you want more info. The problem is when the grease gets wet it essentially dissapears. It seems to really manifest itself in cold weather. My problem was on the front, which I had regreased once already. I just took mine into my mechanic and had him install greaseable bushings up front. I got them from Jegs - Energy Suspension is the brand, and for my GS, the front's are 32 mm. Its only $16 for the pair. I also got a new grease gun and a tube of Prothane grease, which is high-end synthetic. I will now grease my front bushings everytime I get the oil changed.

I just had it done earlier this week, so I don't have longterm results for you, but from other members posts, that is the way to go.

Good luck.

CenterIsl

Well the squeek is greatly diminished, but still present (at low speeds - it's not audible once I get about 30mph or so). I guess I'll take a look at it...I assume they have zerk fittings?

CenterIsl

OK - I wondered if the dealer mechanic was just passing the buck, but it sounds like he's right.


Thanks for the pointer!

Keith

TXFM

You might want to check out this post - my greasable busings.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=224685

CenterIsl

OK, so the fronts at 32mm seem to be a direct fit. But it sounds like the rears at 19mm did _not_ fit and you had to fab something up. You said in that thread that the hole was too big...did you mean that the rears are actually _less_ than 19mm diameter?

Also, I'm not clear on how these get mounted. You undo the ends and bushings, slide the old bushings off, and the new ones on? Is there ever a problem sliding over the flattened ends or the bends?

One of the things the dealer technician mentioned to me today (when I took my car back for the top "creak" issue) is that they are very reluctant to undo sway bars on an SC that's up on a rack. He said that SCs flex so much that it's quite difficult to get the bars back in the original position. Does that make sense?

02Ku

I had a similar squeeking issue a couple of months ago, but after i took the bushings out, loaded both the bushings and sway bar with marine grease the squeeking went away. However, because of MN snow and salt, the marine grease has all but washed away. Time to do it again...this can get quite annoying.

This is not the only problem. Anytime I go over a bump, pot hole, uneven surface on the ground, i get a loud clunking noise from my front suspension. The sway bar is the only thing i have changed and does seem to be tied to the endlinks very well..anyone know what the problem could be?

mrblister

I am about to install a set of daizen anti sway bars to my 2005 sc430, I have done nothing else to suspension just 20 inch rims with new performance slotted rotors and toyo not runflat tires . Question in the kit there are 4 supplied plastic containers of bushing grease. Do you know if the supplied grease was used on yours when they were installed . Who did the original install and if you would not mind sharing what did you pay for the install as well as what did the kit cost you. It seems that daizen kits for this car are hard to find and in fact the company does not respond to emails . Did you find any degradation in how the car rode under normal driving and could feel any differance with them vs with out them. Of course you seem to have other mods that I dont but overall were you impressed with any changes that could be attributed to the anti sway bars .

Many thanks

Buddy [ mrblister@earthlink.net ]

TXFM

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For the fronts, the Energy Suspension 32mm Greasable Bushings work fine. They are a direct bolt on and I just had a service guy do it. The polyurethane bushings are split just like the OEM rubber oones, so they slip on and off without having to unbolt the end parts. Here's the link for the front bushings (http://www.energysuspension.com/pages/swaybbct.html) i

The reference to the rear hole being too large was a reference to the Energy Suspension mounting hole centers for their 19mm bushings. They are not a drop-in replacement, unfortunately, so that's why I had to modify the stock bushing hardware with the Daizen polyurethane bushings.

I just jacked up the rear end a little and loosened the bolts holding the rear bushing metal fitting. I only changed out one bushing at a time. If I had an issu with the position of the bar, I simply either raised or lowered the car a little. I modified the original rear bushing metal fitting (keeper?) as noted in the other post. I had ordered an extra set of the Daizen polyurethane bushings and those are the ones I modified with the hole.

I think that in some areas such as Calif, the special grease works fine, but for areas where you have a lot of temp cycling and humidy changes, the squeaks will happen.

CenterIsl

I purchased the car with all the suspension mods already installed. They were done by the previous owner at "Motorsports shop in Hayward" (I don't know the price). Based on the fact that the rears were set a wildly different values (I forget, it was something like 1 click and 8 clicks) I don't have a lot of confidence in their work.

The previous owner bought everything from Carson, a forum sponsor. I'm not sure, but I think that Sewell would also sell these parts. My local Lexus dealer - of course - doesn't even want to admit that this stuff exists. <grin>

Since I purchased the car with the Tein CS, TOM's STB and lower braces, Daizen swaybars, and Daizen steering bushings already installed, I can't give you an accurate before and after. I did drive a stock 2004 model without runflats - before buying this one, and I'd have to say that the difference in ride and handling is profound - and I was not happy with the ride or road noise. It's on another thread, but in addition to the CS's being mal-adjusted, the previous owner had remounted the original wheels & non-run-flat tires - which he had at 37 psi front and 20 psi rear - to the side instead, so I was running on 37psi driver and 20psi passenger. What a mess. After resetting the Tein's to a middle position - and correcting the tire pressure - I'm much happier with the car. It doesn't ride "on a cloud" like my stock GX470, but it's acceptable. And the handling is hugely improved.

CenterIsl

Aha! Now I understand. If I don't have to unbolt the ends, this is starting to look like an easy job.

So the Energy Suspension mounting holes are too large? I see that the nut on the car's mounting bracket looks welded on, so enlarging that would be a little more involved. I'm wonderin if an O-ring slipped over the bolt might have taken up the extra room? And if they were bolted tight...would the sway bar bushing bracket really move anyway?

Sounds reasonable - I think I'm going to do this with the Energy Suspension bushings at both ends. Since I'm in the PNW, changing weather - and wetness - is a continual problem. I'll use marine trailer grease.

TXFM

Let's see if I can confuse this anymore.

This picture of the ES greasable bushings shows the center-to-center mounting hole distance with the red arrow. The blue arrow shows the width of the bracket/bushing.

For the rear ES bushings, the mounting holes in the frame are too close for the ES bushing bracket to work. The bracket has oblong holes, for adjustment, but the holes in the SC430 frame that they mate up with the bracket holes are still inside the adjustment area. And if you try to drill out the bracket closer to the blue arrow area, that won't work, because the width of the bracket bushing is too wide. Confusing? Well, trust me, you can't modify the ES bushings for the rear. But, if you want to spend time in the garage - go for it and try.

CenterIsl

Thanks TXFM! Now I get it! I also see that there's another issue - the bar would be offset downwards a couple of centimenters because the entire bushing is in the ES bracket, whereas the stock has two half circles. Probably not a big deal. I'll probably call ES and see if they have a different bracket assembly.

BTW, did you cut the channels in the polyethlene that I can see on the inside of the red ES bushing? I assume that's to disperse the grease around.

But another idea I just had was to bolt a flat strip in the place of the stock mount lower half, and then bolt the ES bracket to that. Do you think that the _outermost_ adjustment position on the ES bracket would clear the ends of the stock mount on the car? It looks like there's even room to Dremel those slots out a bit futher.