What Did You Do With Your Kizashi Today?

Fri May 08, 2015 1:10 am

Lubed the RRM poly sway bar bushings with some silicone spray. Hopefully that reduces the squeaking.

Here's how they looked after 1.5 years and about 8000km. I don't think there is any of the original grease left

Fri May 08, 2015 3:56 pm

So you had squeaking too, huh? I'm going to lube them this weekend, but take off the bushings and use Super Lube. From what I've read, polyurethane bushings need more constant lubing than rubber ones. Sounds like RRM uses the polys and maybe I just confused them for rubber because they were black.

Fri May 08, 2015 7:15 pm

Yup, it sounded like worn bed springs ("eee-err"). Thought it was the rear shocks but they're fine. Then I saw the state of the sway bar bushings! I don't think the supplied grease is any good because it wasn't very thick or tacky. The Mobil 1 synthetic grease I used on my GTI's poly bushings lasted much longer and that's not the even ideal grease for this application.

Did you order the Super Lube yet? I've read that Green Grease works well too, but I can't find any technical data to support it. Non-lithium based marine greases have excellent water resistance so they're also another candidate.

Here are some test results for water washout (ASTM D1264):
- Mobil 1 synthetic grease (lithium): 6% lost
- Lucas Red n Tacky: 5%
- Super Lube: 3%
- Amsoil synthetic offroad: 1%
- Marine grease (calcium): 1%
- Green Grease: not stated yet claimed to be waterproof...

Edit: Update on the bushings. The silicone spray actually made them squeak more. I guess the carrier dissolved whatever grease was left. Will be doing a proper greasing because it's driving me crazy. I'm going to use marine grease

DesRado · Sat May 09, 2015 5:38 pm

Took my car in for the 30k service Thursday. Fresh oil and had them put in a K&N oil filter I had bought earlier. Tires rotated too. I installed a K&N air filter once I got back home and also replaced the cabin air filter in a couple minutes. Wow, what a difference the cabin air filter was, and the funky smell that occasionally plagued my a/c when turned on stopped immediately.

The mechanics told me that that engine coolant and transmission flush weren't needed until the next service. Also they said the spark plugs would be due at the same time. I think I'm gonna do the plugs myself since it seems a simple enough task.

Mon May 11, 2015 1:39 am

I ended up taking the rear sway bar bushings out for greasing. Pretty easy to do but a bit messy. Undo four 12mm nuts and swing the sway bar down for cleaning and greasing. I wrapped the sway bar with Teflon tape and used marine grease.

Make sure you grease the side of the bushing that is in contact with the stop plate thing on the sway bar. I think that was the specific source of my squeaking. None of the original grease was left after 19 months and approximately 8000km.

Mon May 11, 2015 4:37 am

bootymac wrote:I ended up taking the rear sway bar bushings out for greasing. Pretty easy to do but a bit messy. Undo four 12mm nuts and swing the sway bar down for cleaning and greasing. I wrapped the sway bar with Teflon tape and used marine grease.

Make sure you grease the side of the bushing that is in contact with the stop plate thing on the sway bar. I think that was the specific source of my squeaking. None of the original grease was left after 19 months and approximately 8000km.

Coincidentally, I did the same thing today. The bushings were bone dry. I actually couldn't find Super Lube despite going to Home Depot, Advance Auto, Autozone, and Harbor Freight Tools looking for it. HD only sells it online and Super Lube's website shows they only have certain retailers, the main one being Ace Hardware. I don't live close to one and I wanted something I could buy and use the same day. I ended up searching a bit more on forums to best remedy the issue and also read about the teflon tape. However, someone mentioned Sil-Glyde which is something I already had. It's a silicone-based brake lube that's safe to use with rubber. I've used for lubing caliper parts and liked it. I used that on the bushings and the creaking ceased completely. We'll see how long it lasts, but I think a silicone grease intended for brake components should be promising.

I agree that these polyurethane bushings lose their lubrication rather fast. It makes sense why OEMs use rubber as it requires far less maintenance though it's less rigid. I noticed some minor wear on the bushings and also that they were grooved. The grooves made marks on the bar from wear. I didn't opt for the teflon tape. People who used it for a while said the tape shredded and disintegrated after a period of time. I guess given we both lubed the same thing at the same time, we can compare how your product and technique (teflon tape + marine grease) holds up vs. mine (just silicone brake lube).

This is what I used:

Mon May 11, 2015 8:54 pm

Silglyde should work great! Anything that isn't lithium based should resist water well.

And yeah, I can't see Teflon tape lasting too long. I've never tried the tape or marine grease before so I'm experimenting to see how well they work. My GTI has poly sway bar bushings (front and rear) and strut mounts so I'm curious to see what lasts the longest.

What's interesting is that the marine grease isn't as thick as Mobil 1 synthetic grease, but it resists water washout better (1% vs 6%).

I'll update when the bushings start squeaking again

Mon May 11, 2015 9:45 pm

I think as long as the bushings aren't blasted with water, they should hold the grease for a decent amount of time. Of course, the type of grease would matter quite a bit and I agree that the original grease was probably less than ideal. However, my bushings didn't start making noise until I rinsed off the underbody with a hose. My guess is that water got into the bushings that way given the grease was mostly gone by that point.
I'm hoping the Sil-Glyde will last a while given its water and heat resistance but it may also be that these polyurethane bushings simply need a re-greasing every 1 to 2 years to maintain optimal lubrication. Time will tell.

WESHOOT2 · Mon May 11, 2015 9:47 pm

Today (actually, around 2:45 AM; yes I was out driving around) I drove my 2011 Kizashi past 159,000 miles.

It was cool; I looked down and noticed I was 159,000 exactly.
Now I have more

Mon May 11, 2015 10:03 pm

DesRado wrote:Took my car in for the 30k service Thursday. Fresh oil and had them put in a K&N oil filter I had bought earlier. Tires rotated too. I installed a K&N air filter once I got back home and also replaced the cabin air filter in a couple minutes. Wow, what a difference the cabin air filter was, and the funky smell that occasionally plagued my a/c when turned on stopped immediately.

The mechanics told me that that engine coolant and transmission flush weren't needed until the next service. Also they said the spark plugs would be due at the same time. I think I'm gonna do the plugs myself since it seems a simple enough task.

Yeah, the cabin air filter gets shockingly nasty even in a short amount of time. I'm going to check it every year and replace if it's nasty.

The Kizashi uses the Super-Long Life coolant (the blue coolant) which I think has an initial service interval of 70,000 miles or so. The engine also has OE iridium spark plugs so changing them then would make sense. Given the engine is an inline four, it can't get any easier to change out the plugs. Having learned how to change spark plugs on a boxer 4 banger in a Subaru, any inline looks easy to me.
As for the transmission, you have a manual, correct? I'd definitely change the fluid before 70K if I were you. It's not too hard and doing it yourself will allow you to use fully synthetic fluids if you're interested. I did a write-up here when I switched from the factory fill to Red Line MT-90.
http://kizashiclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2623