Suzuki Alto Works – Swaybar Bushes

Whilst the car was in the air for its brake upgrade, I wanted to chase a knock I’ve had in the front suspension.

After spending a lot of money and redoing everything in the front end, I was a little annoyed when there was still a noise when going over bumps.

The only thing I hadn’t touched was the front swaybar D bushes. I had done the end links, arms, shocks, mounts, everything. Thankfully in one of my previous orders from RHDJapan I added a pair of the Cusco D bushes for my upgraded front swaybar.

So while the brakes were off, and the car was in the air, I removed the clamp brackets and bushes.

I started on the LH side, which I haven’t touched before. Access is a bit limited, so ratcheting spanners are a lifesaver here.

I didn’t notice at the time, but what I believe is the cause of the noise is visible in that photo.

With the two bolts removed, I removed the clamp, spacer under the bar and the bush

The bush was visibly deformed compared to the new one

The reason for this was obvious once I inspected everything. There was this weird mark on the spacer plate and bush

Ah, that’s why.

The spacer plate wasn’t fitted correctly, was twisted, held in by one bolt and not supporting half the bush. You can see the hole the bolt should be through here

Instead of twisting as it should, the bar was moving around within the unsupported bush. I don’t know how long it’s been like this, definitely before it came to NZ though.

Thankfully with the new bushes in hand, I was able to reassemble it correctly.

The old bushes were also very dry with no signs of any grease in them. I used some Superpro polybush grease I had kicking about to lube the bushes first

It’s a bit of a fiddle to get everything lined up, and the bush clamps the bar quite tightly, but reassembly wasn’t too bad once the bolts were lined up. Using a bar to push down on the clamp helped a lot as the bush wanted to push it up and off. I tightened the clamp at ride height, not that it probably matters since the bar rotates in the bush.

I’ve had the other side apart before, when I did the rear engine mount, so that was just a simple repeat of the other side

A test drive whilst bedding the brakes in shows the knocking is completely gone now, and the car feels more planted in the front. I suspect the bar was significantly less effective than it should’ve been. Hopefully I can get a couple of good fast runs in it this week and see how it’s affected the handling.

With that done, the last thing while the car was in the air was to remove the front lip and reaffix it, since it was sagging on one side

With a bunch of improvised fixings removed, the lip fell off. Apparently none of the tape was actually holding it up

Looks weird without it now

Removing the old tape sucked. It wasn’t stuck to the car at all, but it wouldn’t let go of the lip easily. I used a heat gun and my thumbs to roll the tape off

New tape was applied

And the lip was put back into place, using some old and new fixings to secure it a bit better. To give it the best chance of sticking, I supported each end with a jack and block and gently heated the tape.