MJHSC400

What's up--

I have been going through the entire suspension save struts-- as they're fine-- and my upper ca bushings are fine too--

I have replaced --

LCA Bushings -- Daizen installed
End links -- Supra TT's from rockauto.com
Swaybar Bushings-- $12.99 for Energy Suspension 1 1/8" poly from autozone
Steering Rack Bushings-- daizens

(did the motor mounts too which is a nice [mod])


About The bushings--

All these upgrades have made a HUGE difference in the way this car drives and handles-- it's now quiet, no clunks, pops, cla-dunks's, or duddadudda's -

When I found out that I could just install the energy suspension universals WITH the supplied brackets with integrated grease points-- A nice upgrade in itself-- What's more? $12.99 -- nuff said -- perfect fit--

All you have to do-- the brackets need to be ground (a little) to the length of the oem brackets, and round the edges-- The oem brackets WONT fit the energy bushings-- sorry.. Who cares, the new one has a grease port-- way better.

The install is easy-- and you get grease points with it-- I couldn't believe how cheap this is to do-- you just need a grinder or a friend with a grinder. Either will work, even if your friend doesn't...

-------------------------


Results of the front suspension rebuild --

The SC I'm driving is old for sure, but has lots of life left for running the roads a good few more years until I can get that blue 996 -- (more on that later)

The tightness and handling have been not only restored but improved on-- Between the daizen rack and lca bushings, and the super stiff swaybar bushings combined with new supra links, the car stays FAR more flat and controlled in a hard (hard!) turn--

Tramlining!!!

I got none-- It's gone after replacing both the end links and the sway bushings-- Imagine that-- soft swaybar bushings causing tramlining--

The Ugly

The factory bushings are SOFT!! All of em--
I'll be doing all the rears next year, but will try to use a universal for the rear swaybar bushings too in the next week or so--

The soft factory bushings suck anyway, and we bought these cars as they LOOKED like sports cars-- Well-- you can get them that way with a little bit (alot) of work--

--Summarized--
DAMM My car feels a hell of a lot better than the day I drove it home-- Now I want to keep it--

MJHSC400

I thought surely someone would appreciate saving nearly $20 and getting a superior bushing with a grease point!

The reason they're better is that the Energy suspension bushing material is thinner than the daizen material, inherently being stiffer-- This is also why you can't use the oem mounts for them-- as they arent near tight enough --

The thinner material will have much less flex than the thicker daizen or the softer [much softer] and thicker factory sway bushings---

Slow_go_400

What are "End links" is that for the LCA or Sway bar. How much do they cost? The reason why i'm asking because I'm rebuilding my entire suspension and I dont want to miss something while the car is getting worked on.

Thanks

MJHSC400

Universal Swaybar Bushings -- Energy Suspension-


The end links are for the swaybars-- they connect the swaybar to each independent side of the suspension at the lower shock mount -- which is bolted to the top of the lca--

I have pretty much named all the components you would want to change for the front suspension-- minus the struts if they're still good-- and the upper lca bushings wear much slower than the lca bushings, so chances are they are fine, and the oem uppers will help retain some of the vibration resistance when you install daizens in the LCA's as they will stiffen up the ride a little over stock bushings- Some may say it's much harsher-- I don't mind the ride as long as there aren't any clunks or rattles--

Mine is almost noise free-- I'll replace the rear swaybar bushings with a 7/8" universal set from energy and get rid of those noisy rear oem bushings and it should be rattle free 100%.

RaynArt

good info, thanks

MJHSC400

No problem--

Just as a side note--

Both the front and rear universals are in SAE units-- so they're 1.5 mm smaller than our swaybars-- this combined with being much thinner than factory or daizen poly's makes them fit the bar much tighter, and their stiffness is further enhanced--

I just can't say enough about this mod-- My alignment shop had so much trouble getting this car to drive and track straight without tramlining--

After installing these bushings up front plus endlinks, the driveability is the differency between driving with one hand or two-- and it's no longer tiresome to drive this car at all-- Now I absolutely like it.

CleanCL

i used the greaseable energy suspension sway bar bushings on my acura, it's a great modification. i installed these on an aftermarket rear sway bar and utilized them w/ my stock front sway bar. the bushing is way thicker than stock AND aftermarket, also they have grease points. the difference was awesome. here are some pictures on my acura cl-s for reference.

MJHSC400

The 1 1/8" bushing is actually much thinner than the stock lexus bushing, which makes the material stiffer-- less to flex-- AND-- they're actually for a 28.5mm swaybar, making them fit pretty tight--
The bracket ears where the bolt holes are are really long and need to be cut down a bit to fit the front mounts on an SC- A quick look at the rears makes me think they won't need to be cut down to fit.

breed

Thank You Soo much MJHSC400 for this info, this helps more then you know.

~B~

CleanCL

yea, keep in mind the above picture is on my acura. i actually had to file down the slots for the bolt to get it to fit, but the material wasn't too hard to file down. it was fairly easy and cheap mod to do. and like he said, the bushing and bracket are WAY stronger and are extremely tight on the bar. i loved the new stiffness. this also helped with my wheel hop a bit on the FWD acura, and also there was less "bouncing" over dips. car felt very solid after this mod.

MJHSC400

No problem Breed--

Yeah- it's hard to describe what stiff poly sway bushings and new endlinks will do--

My car was wrecked previously and they left the pass. side end link sitting in there loose with the nuts seized about 1/4" from even being tightened snug--

There was so much body lean just from that one side being basically non-operational, and tramlining, driveability issues, etc. -- This heavy car with nearly 10" wide tires/wheels was a BEAR to drive on these ******y roads around here--

After doing this mod I decided to keep the car a little longer-- I still want an IS300 though

RedPhoenix

iTrader: (10)

so you just picked these up from autozone? did you ask the guy for them or were they in an isle?

seems like a no brainer!

CleanCL

i picked up a set at pepboys, i also ordered a set from summitracing, you just need to know the sway bar diameter.

MJHSC400

Yup -- For my SC400, the front is the 1 1/8" bushing set, and the rear is the 7/8" bushing set-- universal-- no brainer-- on an aisle at most parts houses--

boobstar

can you show pics of them installed on your sc?