anyone have luck with Energy Suspension bushings?
 

i was thinking bout getting the red ones but under the description it says that the black ones are graphite impregnated and self lubricating. does the mean that the red ones will squek after awhile?

Go w/ the black ones.

A buddy of mine said the reds started squeaking in his car.

Just smother the bushings in the grease that comes w/ them.

what if i put alot of grease on the red ones?

you'll okay if you but hella grease on the red one...but i would go with black one....
itz a bitch to install it though if you dont have tool....itz a big project....remember that

I went with the black ones. No squeaks so far, after about 3k miles. I had access to the right tools for installing them and they were still a bitch. I did the dtss eliminators at the same time, and after working with the delrin the dtss eliminators were made from I defiantly prefer working with it as opposed to the polyurethane. Much easier to press in. Of course the delrin will be a lot harsher than the poly bushings, but the easier install would probably make it worth it at least in my opinion. Don't know if squeaks would be an issue with dehlrin though.

i have the ES bushings installed on both my cars, my dads truck, and my moms car. they are simple to install if you have your hands on a press, table vice, or whatever else you might find useful. i would suggest to go to harbor freight, pick up a 100$ bottle press jig they have, and use that.
its actually quite easy.
and as far as the red vs black, i used the red ones, but appearently i didnt use enough grease, so it squeeks in the front, oh well, i can live with that.
the reinstallation is a bitch, so, be prepared for a few cuss words and alot of frustration, use a floor jack to get the control arms back on. as far as the rear subframe bushings, just leave those alone, they dont have alot of movement and dont really wear out, unless you want to drop the subframe, then dissassemble the damned thing.
and the DTSS eliminators, easy to install, if you have pnumatic tools.

peace

The red ones are purely for looks.

Get the black ones, unless you absolutely must have a pretty suspension...

I found a small hole saw set useful for some of them, such as the sway bar end links and the control arms. I already had all the suspension bits off of the car, so that wasn't an issue for me, and reinstallation was a breeze.

you would just have to lubricate every once in a while

lubricate them by removing them and regreasing?

Lubricate them by removing them and regreasing. Unless you have a bushing bracket kit that has grease nipples, though there's no getting around removing the forward control arm bushings to grease the sides.

i just installed the black kit this summer. it comes with a bunch of lube. I didn't have much difficulty with it. haha i didnt even use the right tools. but i did have to wire brush and clean all the car parts before installing the kit because everything was rusted and chewed holes in the orignal rubber peices. and after driving it for 5 months no noise and it handles tighter around corners. i definately recommend. i also redid the toe eliminators too. they do not come with the kit but i beleive it was an extra $50 for both the right and left rears. :icon_tup:

I've had my black ES ones in the front for a couple years, no squeaks. Installed them with the bench vice and some sockets. A press would have been easier, but it's not necessary.

I'm getting a set for Christmas...

Can you install them without a press? Like, with a socket and a mallet? Or are they really, really tight?

Ideally I don't want to have to take my arms off...

Can you use a bench vice with them still on the car?

:scratch:

He didn't specify whether it was on the car or not.

I didn't need a vice, just a c-clamp for the end link bushings. The control arm bushings slid right in for me.

Taking off the old rubber bushings are the only hard part. You're not going to be able to remove them without taking them off the car completely and trying one of several methods from seperating them from the control arm. I wanted to keep them on the car too the first time around, but it's really just not going to happen.

Presses and bench vices are all overkill for installing the new polys. You can put the new ones on with just two or three whacks from a rubber mallet. Be sure not to put the rear bushing on backwards though, it'll go on easy but won't come off.

I did all the ones myself, without a press, except the front control arms and DTSS bushings (I was having trouble, but didn't realize there was a metal sleeve in there). I used a propane torch to remove the old ones. Lots of grease, everything pressed in pretty easy.

I removed the control arms and rear hubs, and brought those to a shop to have the olds pressed out and the news pressed in. I knew if I bought a press, I'd never use it again, and it would take up space needed for other things.

I also replaced my rear diff with an LSD unit at the same time, and replaced my front diff mount, so I ended up dropping the entire rear subframe. I got it back up by myself (no lift), which once I figured out how, it wasn't difficult at all.

Go to the energy suspension website and read EXACTLY what they say about the black bushings.

They are saying that SOME of the sets MAY contain graphite.

With that said, I have the black ones installed in the front and I don't hear any sqeaks but if you do jack the car, you will hear creaking from the bushings as the wheel assembly starts to move down. The assembly does not move as freely as it did with the OE bushings. The A-arm bushings you may have to install washers between the bracket and the cars frame holding the bushing so you don't pinch the bushing.

So if you buy the black ones, how do you ensure you're getting the ones with the graphite?

I don't know. The only store I got mine from said they had graphite. If they did, I should be able to leave marks on paper right? Well, they left no marks.

I was thinking of drilling some grease holes and installing grease fittings to lubricate the a-arm bushings.

so everyone using black here?
also for DTSS u redid or used the mazdatrix DTSS eliminators?

I think I used the mazdatrix DTSS bushings on mine

Mazdatrix for the DTSS, they sent me racing beat ones though.