lowrightor

I figured I would share my experience for my HT bretheren's future reference.

I had my Comptech rear sway bar and tie bar combo installed a few months ago. I work at a Honda dealership so I had one of the Techs that races a CRX put it on. [nb: It's a great piece designed for performance, it's adjustable to three stiffness settings, and it is designed to avoid the dreaded sub-frame tear-out which I read about.]

However, it has now began to squeak. Searching through HT, I know I'm not the only one. There were quite a number of solutions thrown out there so I decided to call Comptech directly and get the scoop. Here is the deal:

1. The bushings are made from a hard urethane compound. This is ideal for performance.
2. The urethane bushings squeak after a while but still perform well. "You need to sacrifice for performance" says the Comptech guy.
3. Due to the large number of complaints, Comptech is now shipping their sway bar/tie bar combo with rubber bushings. Although not ideal for performance, this will avoid future squeaking complaints. They are available for $10/pair (all you need) if you want to replace your squeaky urethane bushings.
4. If you want to keep the urethane bushings and eliminate the squeaks for at least a while: take the sway bar apart, wrap teflon tape (available at any hardware store) twice around under where the bushings will sit, use a silicone-based grease on everything, tighten it up and go.

I'm going to have the Tech at the Honda dealership do #4 on Thurs. I will report back the results and bring this thread back from the dead if the squeaks start up again. Keep in mind I do not track the car, but drive around "spiritedly" and have a 2-hour round-trip commute.

Hope this helps someone.

kommon_sense

That is just the nature of urethane. Have to lube it up every now and then. I get the occassional squeaks with my stock sway bars w/energy suspensions urethane sway bushings, but I'm not switching back to rubber

Here is a pic of one of my old rubber bushings when I took it out :

AutoXer

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kommon_sense &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That is just the nature of urethane. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, urethane is always a squeaking problem. When I installed my Comptech, I covered the bushings with marine grease. 6 months later, no problems at all. I'm sure I'll have to do it again after the winter, but no noise as of yet. Marine grease

dantastic

i've also heard of ppl wrapping the bar with teflon tape to reduce noise also

lowrightor

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dantastic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i've also heard of ppl wrapping the bar with teflon tape to reduce noise also</TD></TR></TABLE>

No, really?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by lowrightor &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">4. If you want to keep the urethane bushings and eliminate the squeaks for at least a while: take the sway bar apart, wrap teflon tape (available at any hardware store) twice around under where the bushings will sit, use a silicone-based grease on everything, tighten it up and go.</TD></TR></TABLE>

SkyeC

Eh, my bar came with teflon tape and lube. I used both.

It started to squeak a couple months after the initial install so I sprayed some WD40 in the general area and it went away. Repeat every couple months.

Problem solved.