car's bushings...lubrication?

[digitaldrifter91]

i have a 1991 honda accord. and i been looking at my bushings and they are good...once in a while when i go on a bump i hear a squeek or something. mostly all my bushings are changed but there are some that hasnt.

i was wondering if you can put silicone on the bushings to extend the life of them.

thanks!

 

[digitaldrifter91]

most polyeurothane reconmends coating their bushings with something. so would rubber get a great benifit from coating it with something?

 

[TC]

From the Monroe (shock absorber) people: "Excessive heat tends to harden the (suspension bushing) rubber. As the rubber bushing hardens, it tends to crack, break, and then disintegrate. Its temperature determines the life of a rubber bushing. Rough road conditions and/or defective shock absorbers or struts will allow excessive suspension movement creating more heat, which shortens the life of the bushings. Rubber bushings must not be lubricated with petroleum-based oil. A petroleum-based product will destroy the bushings. Instead, use a special tire rubber lubricant or a silicone based lubricant."

There are silicone lubes out there, but if you have trouble finding one, you might try a hardware store which sells silicone lube used to slide PVC pipes together.
http://www.monroe.com/tech_support/tec_suspsystemfund.asp

 

[digitaldrifter91]

humm ill keep an eye out for those, cant i just use silicone spray? i have some for lubrication

 

[moribundman]

I would not use silicone as it may or may not alter plastics and rubber. I'd use white lithium grease. It's also water resistant.

 

[tom slick]

white lithium grease is what i have always been recommended to assemble rubber bushings. i don't think silicone spray will work well for more than a day. to get any real lubrication you'll need to disassemble and grease.

 

[smeltjr]

drifter, i used shaeffers 221 #2 moly ultra grease at Bobs recommendation when i replaced all of my bushings with energy suspension urethane. no squeaks in a year. in my research, the "squeakers" are the upper control arm bushings if you have a double wishbone setup in front. and the trailing arm bushings in the rear. i can say with certainty that whoever the honda engineer who designed the bushings is suspensions was a genius. they were an absolute BIT-- to get out. even with my neighbors 20 ton press. trailing arm was a special pain as this one just gets sawed/burned out. bushings were definitely hardest operation i ever did on a car. made huge difference though. anyway that grease was the ticket. if you do a search on schaeffer 221, you will see some old posts-GOOD STUFF.

 

[Greaser]

I spray graphite in the can on all my bushings...works great

 

[digitaldrifter91]

how long would lithium and graphite last on teh bushings?

 

[TC]

From my experience with polyurethane bushings in an old race-prepped Mercury Capri, any type of spray lubricant will have only temporary effects, whether lasting days or weeks. And rain water will quickly wash it out, of course. If you don't want to remove the bushings to lube them with grease, and who would, you might try a manual grease gun with a needle attachment -- you might be able to insert that into the bushing gaps, ensuring a more permanent solution to spray lubes.

 

[newtoncd8]

A buddy of mine is a Toyota Master Tech...for the Toyota's, he recommends "John Deere Cornhead Grease". I put it on our 88 Camry and it really quieted down the front bushings. And, it seems to last quite a long time.

 

[Gary Allan]

As I think was stated, sort of, bushings should not squeak. Neither the exterior or interior of the bushing should move. If they squeak they are either shot or not tightened enough (or shrank = shot).

Many have replaced and tightened their bushings with the use of a lift. If you tighten the bushings without the vehicle sitting in its normal ride height position ...and you tighten the bushings down ..you put a preload on them that makes them want to "lift" the vehicle. On heavier cars it only wears them out sooner, but on my Fiesta, for example, it caused camber wear on a vehicle without camber adjustment. I had to take it to an alignment shop and have them loosen the bushings and cycle the suspension and then retighten them to fix the situation that the inexperienced mechanic had created.

Neither shop, btw, had a clue as to what I was talking about ..but the alignment shop acknowleged that the front end of my car hadn't lost any weight and there was no other plausable reason for the camber wear.

It fixed the problem.