my experience with nolathane bushes.

[brett_celicacoupe]

about 8months ago i installed some nolathane bushes. installed with copius amount of moly grease and normal grease between the bolt and bush.

a few weeks ago i was wondering why the car was pulling one way under load and pulling the other way under engine decel. kind of felt like there was no panhard rod .

put the car on the hoist yesterday to find the problem and then pulled the LH lower trailing arm out this morning.

i got the bushes for nothing so i can safely say i got my moneys worth

results:



i will be putting all the OEM ones back in when i get time.

[MWP]

I would be complaining to the manufacturer.
See what they have to say about it.

[blakeg]

i have them in my celica no probs.. and it was getting thrashed

[brett_celicacoupe]

I would be complaining to the manufacturer.
See what they have to say about it.

yeh CBF. ill just throw them in the bin.

brand new OEM bushes are too dear

[The Real Roadrunner]

yeh CBF. ill just throw them in the bin.

brand new OEM bushes are too dear

use superpro bushes, ive been using them for years and havnt had a single one fail yet.
the customers cars come back on occasion for more mods and none of them seem to be streched or fatigued in any way.
cheers
linden

[mrshin]

I use super-pro and noltec, and have always been happy, but I can't say the same of nolathane... Although you mention using 'normal' grease - probably a contributor to your problem! Use only the grease supplied...

[brett_celicacoupe]

Although you mention using 'normal' grease - probably a contributor to your problem! Use only the grease supplied...

typed it in a rush:

installed with copius amount of moly grease and normal grease between the bolt and bush.

...meaning i used lots of moly grease between the trailing arm and nolathane bush. also lots of moly grease between the nolathane bush and the metal bush. the 'normal' grease was used between the bolt and metal bush

[Steve M]

Man, that just shouldn't happen, no matter who made them.
Check the rest of the rear axle attachements and stuff to see if anything placed unusual stress on them.

[DeftAnesthetik]

Man, that just shouldn't happen, no matter who made them.
Check the rest of the rear axle attachements and stuff to see if anything placed unusual stress on them.

im gonna go ahead and agree here, tearing apart like that just should not happen. i would be looking to see if its all together properly cuz even if you do replace with something else it could be happening again.

good luck

[rob]

that looks like a stock panhard rod, if the car is lowered there might(just a theory) be extra stress on one side of the bush.

[MR22ZZ]

I use super-pro and noltec, and have always been happy, but I can't say the same of nolathane... Although you mention using 'normal' grease - probably a contributor to your problem! Use only the grease supplied...

agreed, the grease you used may have dissolved/swelled/deteriorated the bushes resulting in ^^^^top post.

[RobertoX]

Its funny you should put this up as I had exactly the same happen to me the other day. I noticed a bit of clunking from the back end and pulled the arms out and the bush was wrecked. Mine was a Noltec bush though.
This was after about 10 months of use but I don't drive my car very often. I had noticed after 2 months that the bushes were creaking quite badly so I re-greased them and that seemed to help a bit.





Anyway the thing that I noticed was that the bush was the one that was the one that had the greatest angle on it after lowering. The trailing arms look like they diverge slightly as they go to the diff (never measured though so I can't be sure) so when lowering the axle swings to the left slightly and the LH lower arm gets more of an angle and the RH lower gets 'straighter' (again by eye). It was the LH lower that failed and the bush failed on the edges that would have had the most stress due to misalignment.
This is just a guess though, it might be wrong...

[MRMOPARMAN]

did you tighten the bolts with the car at ride height? they can chew out if tightened in the wrong spot

[RobertoX]

I know I did (I jacked up the diff into the correct position) but IMO its not so crucial with these bushes because they slide on the insert. So if you don't and then put it on the ground the bush doesn't twist like an OEM rubber one does.

[DeftAnesthetik]

... i dunno there's obviously something going on, car should be on the ground before torquing up the suspension.