I finally got around to installing my front sway bar about 2 weeks ago and everything went smooth. Fast forward to day before yesterday and I have developed a nasty squeak from the sway bar. Its almost constant when I'm driving and its driving me crazy.

Where should these things be lubed to quiet them down...and what kind of lube? I did a search and didn't find anyone who had the same problem but "squeak" brings up a lot of threads, so I may have missed something.

On a better note, during an oil change today I found out that 3 out of my 4 header stubs were loose and one was completely missing a nut! I was getting a lot of popping and rough running lately and now I know why...4 hours later, much better

What kind of sway bar?? My guess is the squeek is comming from the bushings that go thru the inner fender well. At least that is where I had a problem on my first 914. As for lube, I went with moly grease, Swepco to be exact. But then you must remember I am good at taking things apart...

jonathan
hwgunner

Stock 15mm sway bar...I'll try the moly grease, I got some laying around.

thanks

If they are the stock rubber bushing you might mot want to use grease, some rubbers swell up and get soft from prolonged contact with greases and oils.
Talcom powder on the rubber bushing works for awhile but you need to clean the bushings and get the talcom inside between the bushings and bar.
I used to get a Teflon grease that worked well on plastic bushings, may still have some.

Jim

They are not the rubber bushings, they are a hard plastic (delrin?)

I'm assuming its the bushings around the bar, not the ones on the droplinks

my 914 owners manual mentioned glycerine should be applied to the rubber parts to keep them in good shape. Just a thought.

Silicone grease worked well for me on Delrin bushings.

Andys

Are you sure it was installed without any binding? Once you had everything through the firewall and tight could you spin the bar using your figures? The bars I have worked on for people were not installed properly as there was a lot of bind. This will always cause a squeak.

Not exactly sure what you mean "binding". When it was just the bar in, I was able to push and pull it with little effort to get lined up for the drop link bracket, but I didn't try and spin it.

Have a pool or have a neighbor who does? Use the clear waterproof teflon grease used to lubricate the filter valves and such. It works great, comes in a tube, is waterproof (good under the car) doesn't dry out like the petroleum based products, and doesn't affect rubber or plastic parts.

I use silicon but the teflon sounds better and I hadn't heard of it. But any time you use a grease it will collect dirt and dust and wear your bushings faster. So I always make sure to fabricate a rubber boot to keep that stuff out if the original design doesn't have one.

had the same issue after the install of my elephant front sway. it had new everything and was well lubed. happened to be metal on metal, and with a little grinding for clearance resolved the issue. check all possible locations for metal on metal contact and check for scoring.

Is that the squeeky swaybar I sold you? I couldn't stand that thing!