Ok so yesterday I was driving and couldn't take the rattle of my worn out sway bar bushings any more! I thought I could stand it but the roads around here are rough and all I could think about was how it was tearing up my new end links. I decided I would go ahead and get the poly sway bar bushings from the UK, budget or not. They were actually a pretty good deal, but it was the last set. They came out to $80 with shipping for both the front and rears. I figured I better get the deal while it was available, or I'd end up paying more later. I've spent so much on struts, springs, end links, tie rod ends, and even new control arms, that it just really irked me that a pair of $30 sway bar bushings was what was really causing the clunking noise (bought the control arms thinking that was the problem!). Then bought the end links hoping that would fix it, only to find out the real source of the looseness was in the sway bar bushings themselves.

So anyways I hope to be installing these soon and will post my results. Really looking forward to a quieter more responsive ride. Installing them looks fun, especially in the front...

 

I repair bushings and motor mounts using side wall of old tires or old radiator hose. Cut off piece and stick it in.

 

Ah that's a good idea. I was wondering if there was a "fix" to my loose sway bar bushings. I thought about putting some rtv sealant in there to fill the gap, but I decided against it because I didn't want to make the bushings any harder to remove when I changed them. I wanted the poly bushings anyway, it's just I've spent soo much on my car in the last few months that I could barely justify getting them. Happy that I did though. Besides the work to install them I am looking forward to seeing how my car drives with the new bushings.

I feel like I am entering into a new zone with poly bushings... There's regular cars that have regular bushings, then there's sports cars that have poly bushings. Haha. Well it should improve the handling. My front has been clunking really bad since I put in the lowering springs. Probably stretched out the sway bar bushings during the strut install, I'm guessing.

 

If you are having bad clunking since you put the springs in, I would bet that the springs are not sitting in the strut perches correctly. As you know, the strut has a landing for the bottom/last coil, and, the top of the spring also has to fit into the strut mount correctly.

I relieved clunking in my front strut today by pulling the wheel and taking everything apart. Dropped the lower ctrl arm, brake calipers removed, etc. All this bc a 'mobile mechanic', who I paid to R&R my struts, did it wrong. He put a spacer on one side, but not on the other. I ended up pulling this one side apart and removing the spacer.

In any case, all my bushings are toast, they look original. But, since it's all back together and running good, I'll prob let that go for now. A suspension rebuild is in my future.

Good luck 04X! All I'm saying is check your work. Make sure everything is seated correctly, this might quiet the clunking. You've been working hard on that beauty and you want to get to a point where it's all set.