Aside from the cold weather squeeks (which really isn't that bad for me) I am really pleased with my ES busings. I have the front lower control arm and compression rod bushings which greatly improved my steering feel. Since you live in a warm climate, I doubt you will have noise issues as long as you grease them good.

 

Some of you guys recall I ordered and received a set of front end ES bushings for installation during my car's current downtime. In consulting with my shop and the hesitation I'd had originally I'm going to sell mine and go the SPL / Whiteline route instead.

In the words of my shop:

With most of the uprated suspention bushings I have seen some squeeking and noise. You are basically tightening up the front end, whenever you tighten anything up like that you will run the risk of more noise. I personally think that you will prefer the tighter suspention over a few parking lot creeks. Also I really like the SPL over the white line/ energy suspension style.

They later added:

Honestly I would do a combo between whiteline and spl to get the best of both worlds.
Compression rods - SPL
Lower control arm bushings - Whiteline
but it still may have some noise.


So anyway- for those of you who may have been waiting for my review I'll be unable to give it.

 

Ok, time for me to give some input on this thread...


Recently I had an ANNOYING squeaking noise coming from the front end. So I decided to install new bushings as my lower compression arms (LCA) were toast and the noise alone was horrible.

I removed the LCA's and installed Whiteline's bushings, Also Since I have the Kinetix Racing Upper Camber Arms and their original setup was without the collet like that of the OEM setup. The newer versions have an aluminum collet and it works great.... (Costed 10.00 plus shipping)

Also, I added the Front and rear OEM Sway bar bushings. Originally I added the front bushings and the LCA bushings and the squeak was still there. So.... I decided to lube the entire suspension assembly.


I grabbed a can of white lithium grease and went to work on the moving parts and bushings, the upper shock mount and the bushings where the upper control arms are.... everything was covered.

Also, I decided to beef up the transmission mount. I removed the mount and filled it with 60A Polyurethane from http://www.mcmaster.com/ It's definitively a bit stiffer you can feel about 15% more vibration but without a doubt this is a mod that I should have done the moment I purchased the car. Car feels much more planted because the transmission doesn't sway as much... (.5 - 1.0 inches is a lot of play imho)


Best mod I've done to date for suspension work!

 

vinco thanks for the great write up. It convinced me to do my front end. I'm in the middle of that right now. Did you ever get around to doing the rear?

 

I have a front set from vinco that I bought but never used for sale.

 

I did end up doing the rear while I was laid off in January. It was nothing short of a pain in the rear Whereas the front probably only took me 5 or 6 hours of actual work, the rear took me easily 40 more hours, working with the car on my lift, using a transmission jack, and using my HF 20-ton press.

I dropped the complete rear subframe out of the car and did all the disassembly / reassembly with the whole thing out of the car. The front differential mount bushings were the most difficult/worrisome. The shells extend out over the diff housing casting, so it's really hard to get a bite on the bushings with the press. Then when you do, you're worried about putting that much pressure on those ears - worried you'll break them off of the housing. I lubricated the bushings with silver anti-seize, just like the front. I put about 15K more miles on it with the ES rear kit installed, before I traded off the car on April 15th.

Overall, once installed, the car felt GREAT driving - very much planted and controllable. The bushing kit lowered the car about 1/2", which was a nice bonus.

I did install the Borla True Dual system on the car while I was putting the rear back together. That was one SWEET addition to the car. If you have both an exhaust system and a rear bushing kit slated for installation on your car, then definitely do them both in the same session.

I made the stealership do the labor to swap the exhaust out and return the Borlas to me when I traded in the G on a brand new 6MT Versa. I advertised them on here but sold them locally yesterday. I hope the new owner of the G Coupe realizes that they've got something special with those ES bushings under there! After having done it myself, I'd say that if a shop quotes $1000-$1200 labor to do the complete ES install, then that's absolutely not too much. I wouldn't do it for any less.