Say Chi Sin Lo

Dear all, I hope you can help me with this. I'm not a big fan of being surprised once I start working on the car.

My 138,000miles Year 2000 AP1 has developed quite the annoying squeak/hollow knocking sound from the rear. I suspect it's coming from the rear sway bar bushings. In order for access, do I need to drop the exhaust?

Thanks!

sillyboybmxer

If you are testing if it is the end links, you can just disconnect one side from the bar , ziptie the link up and out of the way and drive it. My experience is since the two sides are not connected the noise should go away but you might disconnect both sides to be sure. Only need to drop the exhaust to take the bar off.

Say Chi Sin Lo

No, I'm just going to replace them. They're like what... $5 each from Honda (already bought them).

Whether they're responsible for the noise, at $5 each and with having 138k miles on them, I'll just replace them.

Thanks! Good to know I don't need to drop the exhaust if I'm just replacing the bushings.

engifineer

Do you mean the bushings or the endlinks? When you said bushings I thought you meant the bushings in the brackets the bar mounts to. Sounds like you are talking more about the endlinks themselves? Endlinks I think you can change without touching the exhaust, you may have to drop the exhaust to do the brackets and rubber bushings though. The exhaust is not all that hard to drop though. Use a long prybar for the rubber hangers on the mufflers and it will make it easier than trying to reach up and pop them off by hand up above the muffler. Put a touch of white lithium grease on the holes before putting them back on and it will be a million times easier.

Say Chi Sin Lo

No... When I said rear sway bar bushings, I meant the rear sway bar bushings:

https://www.hondapartsnow.com/genuin...5-s2a-013.html

If this doesn't get rid of the noise, I'll move onto the endlinks. But at ~$5-6 dollars each, doesn't hurt to try and I'm sure the car could use a set of new bushings regardless.

But thanks! Endlinks will be replaced next (if necessary).

Car Analogy

No need to drop swaybar for bushings or for end links. Never seen these bushings go bad, but its easy and cheap to replace them and rule it out.

When I upgraded my swaybars, I lubed the bar to bushing contact areas with some silicone grease. They need to rotate in the bushing, and I wanted to avoid squeeks.

Don't use so much it attracts dirt.

engifineer

A trick to avoid that dirt problem is to not use grease at all. Wrap the bar with PTFE tape (use the thicker stuff made for gas lines, comes in the orange roll) where it sits in the bushings. No more squeaks, no more regreasing Someone mentioned that to me a number of years ago and the next time the car I had then needed the aftermarket sway bushings greased (typically started squeaking at least once per year) I cleaned off the grease and used the tape. Still have that car and have not touched the sway bushings since, and it sees salt since I DD it all winter here. That was about 7 years ago I did the same with the front bar on the S2k in 2014 and have never touched those since either. Works pretty well!

engifineer

Ok, was just checking. As mentioned, if the bar is making noise, it is normally the endlinks that cause them. But no harm in replacing cheap, 130,000 mile bushings either way!

Say Chi Sin Lo

Yeah and on paper, it looked liked the bushings are easier to tackle than the endlinks. If that doesn't work, endlinks are next!

B serious

The endlinks are only difficult because of the dumbassed way that Honda uses to hold the stud from spinning.

There's an easy work around if you have strong grip strength like a chimpanzee.

In either case...its probably the end links making the noise. I'd opt to buy new endlinks with your bushing order to save on shipping. OEM parts sites kill you on shipping. I always try to bundle.

Unless you're making the MASSIVE mistake of buying aftermarket parts for this order. In which case, you'll be bundling together OEM parts in a few months