manystyles

Again, I just replaced my 13 year old sway bar bushings, with new OEM ones.
Do they need to be lubed with silicon grease when installed?

Cheers,
Alex

B serious

No. You don't want to attract debris.

a VERY thin layer of shin ehtsu might be ok. But you'd want it so thin that its just a ghost layer.

Car Analogy

I replaced my bars with oem units from a different year (stiffer). I lubed the bushings with a thin layer of silicone grease. My thinking was the bar must rotate and slide inside the bushing, and lube would help. Agree that lube can attract grit, which can then grind its way into whatever you were trying to protect with lube. But in this situation its a pretty tight fit, so thinking it would be difficult for grit to make its way in there.

This bushing application is distinctly different from say, a control arm bushing, which you should never lube. There is no friction from metal rubbing rubber in a ca bushing.

Interested to hear your thoughts on this thinking B, and others thoughts, on whether I'm overlooking something.

B serious

No...you're not overlooking anything. And there is merit to the thought that the bar is constantly rubbing the bushing. The only issue with silicone grease/paste in this case is that it attracts junk.

I'd be interested to see what the manual recommends.

Shin Ehtsu is silicone grease that Honda designed for rubber seals. But any silicone paste...including silicone caliper grease and dielectric grease will do a similar job.

manystyles

I had to retorque the endlinks and noticed the front sway bushings had twisted... I really hope they settle back in their intended positions. It was a pain to get the bolts initially threaded onto those bushing brackets.

If they don't move back, I'll take them off, clean them and put a really light layer of silicon grease.

The helms manual doesn't mention anything about lubing the bushings.

noodels

I put plenty of white marine grease on mine to help bush binding and water getting in there corroding the wear area,
if it wears slightly faster,so be it, doubt it will though as I can wipe & re-grease when needed in situ.

B serious

Are you sure you have the right sized D brackets and bushings for your bar? These shouldn't bind. They should have relatively little "squeeze" on them.

manystyles

Yup, https://www.hondapartsnow.com/genuin...6-s2a-013.html

I remember putting the d brackets over the bushing and the bracket pinched them ever so slight for a nice fit.

Again, I'll monitor the fronts. If they don't settle back into position I'll remove and lightly lube.