Squeaky bushes

[GTSBoy]

OK, well, in that case, the suspension specialist is either a moron, or you aren't understanding what he was trying to tell you.

Nismo arms are not really different than stock arms. Both are fixed geometry. I don't know if the Nismo ones are a little shorter than the stockers (or perhaps even a little longer) or the same length, but....if you swap from stock to Nismo, whatever happens to one side will happen to the other side. It will not cause it to steer left or right.

That is unless you have adjustable bushes in your stockers, and they happen to be adjusted to dial out some bent chassis shenanigans. But, if that were the case, you'd just put adjustables in the Nismo arms anyway, because Nismo arms are essentially just expensive stock arms.

And doing a wheel alignment is just a weekly thing in my world. I have had the suspension apart so many times this year that I've lost count and just about worn out a torque wrench. I'm out in the shed right now cutting up some alloy section and making bases for my new stringline setup. Got to make new swivel plates next, then I'm good to do toe properly, as well as camber and bump steer.

[silviaz]

21 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

OK, well, in that case, the suspension specialist is either a moron, or you aren't understanding what he was trying to tell you.

Nismo arms are not really different than stock arms. Both are fixed geometry. I don't know if the Nismo ones are a little shorter than the stockers (or perhaps even a little longer) or the same length, but....if you swap from stock to Nismo, whatever happens to one side will happen to the other side. It will not cause it to steer left or right.

That is unless you have adjustable bushes in your stockers, and they happen to be adjusted to dial out some bent chassis shenanigans. But, if that were the case, you'd just put adjustables in the Nismo arms anyway, because Nismo arms are essentially just expensive stock arms.

And doing a wheel alignment is just a weekly thing in my world. I have had the suspension apart so many times this year that I've lost count and just about worn out a torque wrench. I'm out in the shed right now cutting up some alloy section and making bases for my new stringline setup. Got to make new swivel plates next, then I'm good to do toe properly, as well as camber and bump steer.

To clarify, I meant nismo bushes, not control arms (don't even think that's a thing for my car). So the suspension specialist said, if I buy those nismo bushes which are perfectly centered it will cause my car to veer in one direction. Whereas he said the current offset bushes that I have were put in on purpose to fix that issue.

This will be my third wheel alignment if I put these bushes in lol. My chassis is straight, all my rails are clean.

[GTSBoy]

Yeah, you don't need camber bushes on stock arms to make a car drive straight unless it's got another problem. F'rigsample, slide the thing into a kerb, bend the front subframe mounts a little....subframe is now twisted, shifted or otherwise in the wrong spot...and you need to do funky stuff with the wheel alignment to get it to drive straight. Maybe a little more caster on one side, or a little more camber.

FWIW, I can have my camber off side to side by a half a degree or more, and either way, so more one side, or more on the other, and the car doesn't really want to pull to one side. It will definitely ride road camber differently, and want to track uphill (ie, towards the centreline when on the LHS of a normal crowned piece of road, like it should) or want to roll downhill (which it really shouldn't). But on fairly flat road surfaces, like the middle of a 3 or 4 lane motorway, a half a degree either way doesn't make a lot of difference. I sometimes do quite a few miles with my wheel alignment messed up, because I don't always get a chance to set it right again after a serious dismantling, before I have to drive it to work again. Like, a whole week's worth of daily shuffle.

[silviaz]

22 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

Yeah, you don't need camber bushes on stock arms to make a car drive straight unless it's got another problem. F'rigsample, slide the thing into a kerb, bend the front subframe mounts a little....subframe is now twisted, shifted or otherwise in the wrong spot...and you need to do funky stuff with the wheel alignment to get it to drive straight. Maybe a little more caster on one side, or a little more camber.

FWIW, I can have my camber off side to side by a half a degree or more, and either way, so more one side, or more on the other, and the car doesn't really want to pull to one side. It will definitely ride road camber differently, and want to track uphill (ie, towards the centreline when on the LHS of a normal crowned piece of road, like it should) or want to roll downhill (which it really shouldn't). But on fairly flat road surfaces, like the middle of a 3 or 4 lane motorway, a half a degree either way doesn't make a lot of difference. I sometimes do quite a few miles with my wheel alignment messed up, because I don't always get a chance to set it right again after a serious dismantling, before I have to drive it to work again. Like, a whole week's worth of daily shuffle.

Ok sounds good, thanks for your help. Hopefully if I end up changing it to the nismo bushes I don't get that veering issue. I don't think there's a point in lubing up these bushes again. Weird that it it makes just as much noise with all the grease inside it versus without grease prior to removal. Bizarre.

Edited December 17, 2024 by silviaz

[GTSBoy]

1 hour ago, silviaz said:

Weird that it it makes just as much noise with all the grease inside it versus without grease prior to removal

Could be the other bushes. The inners.

[silviaz]

10 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

Could be the other bushes. The inners.

Maybe but doubt it, when I jacked it up it was creaking in the j arm again. The inners are all good, I inspected them. Remember that also it did fix the problem but temporarily.

Edited December 17, 2024 by silviaz

[silviaz]

@GTSBoy I found the issue (sort of) when I took apart the bushing again, it was completely dry inside! When I experimented with it, all the grease would push out when I would compress the bushings. I wonder if this has anything to do with me putting in the poly bush first on both sides and then pushing in the metal barrel. Maybe I should have put in the metal barrel first then the rubber bushings so the spread pattern is different.

 

It's fixed (for now).

Edited December 22, 2024 by silviaz

[GTSBoy]

Just install a grease nipple into the centre of the outer steel of the FUCA. Make sure the bushes aren't long enough to touch each other underneath that nipple. Cut a few mm off each if need be. Then you can push grease in there while it is all assembled.

That was the very first thing I did (to all 4 ends) of the FUCAs on my 32 when I put Whiteline adjustable bushes into them. They would squeeze the grease out real fast, and I could squeeze it back in faster.

[silviaz]

42 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

Just install a grease nipple into the centre of the outer steel of the FUCA. Make sure the bushes aren't long enough to touch each other underneath that nipple. Cut a few mm off each if need be. Then you can push grease in there while it is all assembled.

That was the very first thing I did (to all 4 ends) of the FUCAs on my 32 when I put Whiteline adjustable bushes into them. They would squeeze the grease out real fast, and I could squeeze it back in faster.

Don't think that can fit in physically. Are you referring to this? 

 

If it happens again, I'm going to get the nismo ones.

[GTSBoy]

Yes, those exactly, either angled, or straight ones.

I just dug one of my f**ked up old stock arms out of the crap box. 2 views, showing nipples added in places where they were accessible while installed at both ends of the arm, without clashing with anything else on the car (ie the upright, the inner guard, etc). Circled in red.

Edited December 22, 2024 by GTSBoy

[silviaz]

1 hour ago, GTSBoy said:

Yes, those exactly, either angled, or straight ones.

I just dug one of my f**ked up old stock arms out of the crap box. 2 views, showing nipples added in places where they were accessible while installed at both ends of the arm, without clashing with anything else on the car (ie the upright, the inner guard, etc). Circled in red.

Ah ok, thanks for that.