Thanks for all the good info. For whatever it's worth, I've had Energy Suspension bushings on my sway bars for over a year. I lubed them up good when I installed them, and haven't touched them since. No squeaks. My Z is daily driven plus about 15 autocross events in the last year.

 

Rebuilt some arms with black ENERGY SUSPENSION bushings today.
Gonna try these bushings out on my daily driven 350z and give you guys some feed back.

Alot of people are concerned that these bushings are going to squeak, so we came up with an idea to experiment. Made slits on the faces of the bushings. The idea is to lube the faces as well, and the slits will allow the faces to retain some lube. If you look closely, its the same thing that Energy did on the inner hole for the metal sleeve. We'll see if the idea works. If not, nothing lost...

 

From my own personal experience:

Sway Bar bushings arent going to be as prone to squeeking as something like LCA bushings due to the fact that they dont move around nearly as much...

I personally have never had my ES Sway bar bushings squeek on any car that i installed them on. However ES LCA bushings do usually start to squeek after a while. I had them installed on my 95 maxima, i was lowered on some pretty stiff suspension and drove my car pretty hard on the street with some track time. After about a year or so is when just one side started squeeking a little bit durring low speed driving, taking off the arms and just relubing them solves the problem. For some reason the driver side of my car never sqeeked though...maybe i lubed that side better? im not sure...but thats my own personal experience with ES bushings.



Hope this helps

 

Installed the Energy Suspension Bushings today [LCA inner + outer, RA compression rod bushing]
Will get you guys some first impression feedback soon

 

So far the bushings haven't made any noise [creeking/squeaking]
Car handles perfectly.
Steering is tight and VERY RESPONSIVE.
Haven't noticed an increase in road noise in the car.

I like em!

Looking forward to see how they react after they have broken in

 

If they are going to squeek it will be in a year or two.

From my personal experiance the sway bar moves just as much as an LCA, considering it is typically attached to the LCA.

 

bi-annual lubing?....i can deal with that

 

My car is apparently taller in the front now.

I had set my ride height to zero wheel well gap about a year ago.
Now with the new energy suspension bushings, I have about a 1/8"-1/4" wheel well gap on both front wheel wells.

Only thing I could think of is maybe the whiteline shock mount bushing was sagging a little bit.

 

Its probably the strenght of the compression arm bushings adding spring to the front end. For the suspension to flex it needs to overcome the strenght of the bushing. Also it will be more noticable on a car like your that is slammed vs a stock or slightly lowered car.

This is one of the reason i prefure the SPL bushings for my car, and dislike Nissans design.

 

That is what I was going to say.

On my G35 sedan equipped with new Z springs and Z-specific aftermarket dampers, whereas other people with stock compression bushings only get 1" of lowering, my car is lowered by approximately 1.3" because there is no resistence at the compression bushings to spring my car up. That is a pleasant bonus of the SPL compression bushings on top of crisp steering and brake responsiveness.



Anyway, regarding the topic, I installed my SPL compression bushings along with Whiteline LCA outer and inner bushings when my car was still riding at stock height. As soon as I lowered the car with Z springs and dampers, the squeaking started coming. For months, I thought the noise came from the Whiteline LCA bushings, but I was wrong. I finally pinpointed that the sounds actually came from the SPL compression bushings. It was a metal creaking sound, instead of a friction or rubbing sound. There is no play at my SPL bushings, but the sound is there. This sound was originally on the driver's side. Gradually, the driver's side became quiet and the passenger side started making that sound. Funny, but there is nothing I can do about it.

 

SPL recently started adding a o-ring with their Compression Rod Bushing Set.
Looks like it would get rid of most knocking noises coming from their spacers hitting the bushing's race.

We are currently working on machining the SPL spacers and experimenting with rubber washers to help further reduce road noise and allow a greater amount of articulation

 

Any idea how often replacement bushings will need to be replaced?
Since 350z's have a very real possibility of blowing the oem bushing when lowered would aftermarket bushing also need to be replaced over time?

 

most aftermarket bushings are designed in a way that they can't blow. SPL bushings are a solid bearing so they can never blow, Energy and white line bushings are also designed in a way that prevents them from blowing. White line bushings have been known to get a little softer after being used for a prolonged period of time.

 

As mentioned above, but there has been no long term testing of the Whiteline and Energy bushings that are set up in this location. The Compression arm puts a lot of strain in the bushing because of the factory design.

The two bushings on the LCA should out live the car.

 

Any updates on those Energy Suspension bushings? Do they still feel good? How about squeaks?

I am considering going with those as I know my bushings are done.

 

No complaints from me, got about 5k miles on them.

Recently drove a coworker's bone stock 06 Z. Major difference in the driving experience than my car, his car felt very loose and unresponsive.

 

^ Nice, thanks! I think I am going to jump on them. I am nervous about the squeaks, but I dont like the idea of more $$ and more softness from the whiteline bushings.

 

Ill post these pics to show my recommendation:

Sorry I dont have much PC time right now to give my full explanation, but its about free articulation....notice that all the mounting to the car chassis points I recommend SPL.!!!

That paired with an SPL front upper control arm...you would have fully articulating "FRICTION FREE" suspension components up front.

IN OTHER WORDS, if you had the car on a lift with all wheels hanging, and pulled the coilover out ONLY and reassembled everything else back on, then all you were left with is all the MECHANICAL assembly of the front suspension, you would have a free moving front dynamic member all working together not fighting you. the only resistance you would have is the resistance inputed from the steering rack.....if you disconnected the tie rod from the knuckle, you can then see what im saying, completely free moving mechanical front suspension, all articulating and moving with no friction from any bushings as the SPL "MOUNT TO CHASSIS" bushings are all friction free designs with bearings, etc..


TRANSLINK:
1. Inner translink bushing location - mount to chassis via K member. SPL here for sure, hands down! friction free movement of suspension via spl's design.

2. Outter bushing - mount to shock lug - I recommend Whiteline W52992 - why, this point is minute articulation (barely moves up and down with minimal arc). no need for spl at this point, the difference is minimal...

COMPRESSION ROD:
3. Compression ROD in my technical opinion should HANDS DOWN be SPL!!

the amount of FRICTION created with energy suspension bushing mounted at the compression rod location is ridiculous...the compression rod bushing location needs to freely articulate.....heck, once installed, getting the ball joint end of the compression rod back into the front knuckle is hard to do...

in the end, it fights your steering inputs - it also blows your steering rack seal, check for leaks guys...on your passenger side...i bet tons of you have a leaking passenger side steering rack at the boot due to energy suspension bushings at the compression rod location and its friction.

if you had to go with NON SPL at the compression rod bushing, i would stay at stock height and get an OEM or use the whiteline W83389 bushing at the compression rod as its taper design isn't like the energy suspension lends to not be so stiff.

also, oem isnt sold separtely to my knowledge, only complete arm.

WHITELINE COMPRESSION ROD BUSHING: W83389:

Notice its not full solid and has taper section to lend to bending/twisting easier.





ill post more later...
-J

 

The modified SPL compression rod bushing I mentioned before in other threads, kudos for doing it....

the pic you have looks god, did you machine a full up completely new part, or machine down the existing cone to that shape?? it appears you machined down the cone it comes with.

From there i would just monitor it for cracks...

oh, the rubber washers is a nice idea!! between chassis and cone, and underbrace and cone.

-J

 

This is the exact setup I went with. Still have to install it all, but I am excited for the results.

Side note, thanks a lot Jason. Suspension 101 has helped me understand, even if slightly, how it works and how to improve upon what Nissan designed.