Suspension clunk and Sway Bar Bushings
 

Hi All -

So, it's been a little cold this winter, and I just got back from a great drive to Montreal, where it was around 9 degrees farenheit, and all was great with the exception of a loud clunk out of my front suspension. This winter my 8 seems to have picked up a clunk whenever I hit a pothole ot go over a speed bump at around ten miles per hour or better. Now, I don't remember this clunk from last year, and it seems to be worse in the cold.

It was worse on the left side than the right so I got under the car and checked the torque on the swaybar bushing as shown in my service manual. The left bushing was definitely loose. I got a full quarter turn out of one of the bolts on that side, and a little bit out of the other (to take it to minimum torque as shown by the manual. I ended up torqueing it a little higher than that.) I checked the right side and they did not turn at all. That fixed it up pretty well until, I went to Montreal and it was very cold. I found that the clunk was back, at least when I started driving. My feeling is that the rubber in the swaybar bushings is too susceptible to thermal shrinkage than is my liking, and I have been looking for urethane, which I have been unable to find.

First of all, do you guys think that I am on the right track in chasing the swaybar bushings? Do you think that it could be something else; does anyone have any other things that I can check? I did check the torque on the endlinks which was tight.

Does anyone know if anyone is making urethane bushings for the stock bar or is planning to? I checked racing beat, but they don't have a set for the rx 8. Along those lines, they do have universal sets, but I don't know what to get. Does anybody know what the stock sway bar's dimensions are?

Anything that you guys could tell me would be great. Thanks in advance for any help that you might be able to give - Haze