Just have a quick question for anyone who has fitted the ES compression rod bushes. I did mine a few weeks ago after a suspension shop told me the factory bushes were gone (they had some minor cracks, but otherwise were in fairly good shape), anyway, I have taken the car back to get a wheel alignment done and they told me the new bushes have a gap at the top and bottom of the rod which can allow the rod to move up and down on the bush.

I have attached some pics, and wil probably email ES for their opinion, but just wanted to check if anyone else has had the same issue? I am guessing I could just pull them out and trim down the crush rod a bit, but I think they should just fit correctly out of the box.

Any input welcome!.

 

I don't personally have ES compression rod bushings, but I've repeatedly heard others say the gap is normal

 

i have energy suspension ones. they look and have similar gap. the gap change from side to side depending on the arm position. it's normal.


if the gap is all around, try tightening them again.

if it's on one side of the bushing only, and shift with up and down suspension movement, then it's normal.

 

Thanks for the input. The suspension shop refused to do a wheel alignment as they claimed this gap will allow the rod to move up and down on the bush and change the wheel alignment. I don't see how this small vertical movement can change the wheel alignment, I would think only a lateral movement could do that.
I might see if there is anything I can do to take up some of this space.. maybe some large washers on the bottom. I am sure the bushes fitted neatly against the rod when inserted them before fitting to the car, so I don't think it is a case of the 2 bush halves touching in the middle.

 

go to a different place for your alignment

 

Yes, I might do that, especially if everyone has confirmed the gap is normal.
I usually go to this particular suspension shop as they are very particular and have a good reputation, but perhaps they are just being a bit too excessive in this case.

 

You really should be asking alignment techs this question, not random car enthusiasts.

Think about how much change a very slight suspension tweak makes in alignment... it is logical that the shifting of the rod could lead to a shifting alignment.

 

more like you should be asking knowledgeable G35 enthusiasts than Joe Blow the teenage alignment tech

 

Think I might have solved this..
The factory compression bar stay bracket / brace has a washer spot welded to it, this washer is almost exactly the same size as the crush rod in the ES bushings, so it allowed the bushing to slide down over the washer. Hopefully the pics will help explain.
Anyway, I fixed it by installing some larger M16 washers between the stay bracket and the bushing.

 

i dont understand what you did. can you use arrows in your pics?

 

Sorry, I didn't post pics of the solution, just the problem.

The 2nd picture in my previous post shows the position of the bushes when I removed the lower brace, you can see the bush is sitting below the bottom of the crush tube/rod because it had slid down over the washer (which is shown in the first picture).

I have attached a picture of the fix I have done. Unfortunately I couldn't find a large round washer, only a square washer, but it still achieves the same result.

 

Hey did you get any clunks or did your suspensions feel loose when you had the gap

 

No noises or any other issues. If the suspension shop didn't point it out, I wouldn't have known about it.
It only allowed the arm to move up and down, not sideways, most of the force on the compression rod is sideways.

 

ThAnks

 

Sorry to bump an old thread I just put my ES bushings in a week ago and the gap looks worse than that of the OP. Is this a problem?