Comptech Sway/Tie Bar

[imhonda]

Anyone here have the non-adjustable Comptech Sway/Tie Bar on their Si?
Mine is making clunking noises and I wanted to know if anyone else was having this problem.

[lewjay]

Just installed mine today. Where does the clunking occur? Passenger or driver side? When does it occur? Driving straight, turning left, right going over bumps? There's not enough info to go on.

[todaCspec]

It's probably happening when you go over bumps or while you're cornering on bumps. It's the muffler pipe hitting the rear sway bar. Try mounting the sway bar bracket to the lowest possible setting on the subframe or have a muffler shop cut and weld the pipping to make clearance for the rear sway bar.

[imhonda]

I spoke with Comptech about the situation. Theyre sending me new sway bar bushings.
According to them, the old ones had too much play between the sway bar and the bushing (they didnt fit snug enough around the bar).
Im hoping the rattling noise, which sounds just like the muffler hitting, was coming from there.
By the way, it wasnt the muffler hitting because I removed the rear section and the noise still persisted.
The noise occurs over sharp bumps at low to medium speeds and not when Im loading the suspension.

[lewjay]

Interesting... if you used the teflon tape, how many times did you wrap the bar? I used grease myself.

[imhonda]

I used 3 to 4 times around with the tape the first time.
I took it apart about a month later to reinstall it
because of the noise problem.
Most of the tape was becoming transparent at this point,
but there was still a film of it.
Im guessing it deteriorated so much because of the tolerance issue with the bushing and the bar itself.
Im going to use a few more wraps when I get my new bushings.
My thought is that its a maintenance item, meaning you have to rewrap it, or regrease it, every so often as soon as it becomes noisy. An issue youre going to have with most urethane bushings,
so I dont really mind it.

[lewjay]

Yeah, just feeling the grooves inside the bushings I knew they'll chew up the teflon tape easily. I've read people wrap their bars up over a dozen times. That's too much for me, so I went with grease. Hopefully I won't have to relube for a year or two.

[Suk02Si]

the clunking sound when steering can also be caused by the shock hat assembly. If it's not aligned and seated properly it will clunk every time you tun your wheel.

[lewjay]

Hey, I'm starting to get those kla-klunk noises....:(

How long was the bar on before you started getting the noise?

Let me know if the new bushings fix your problem.:( I'm going to retorque the whole mofo this weekend and see if that'll do anything.

[imhonda]

Im thinking is was pretty much right away.
Looks like youre going to have to call Comptech
for some new bushings too.
Torquing them down didnt help me at all, but if
its easy for you to do, go for it.
Im still waiting for the bushings, going to call today
to see if they were sent out yet. Ill keep you updated.
By the way, I got my ECU back from Hondata today.
At least I have my revs back, havent seen 8000 rpm
since someone permanently borrowed my
2000 EBP EM1 . :'(
It doesnt rev like a B16, but feels strong
as hell now. :)

[imhonda]

Just put in the new bushings.
Looks like that was it, no more noises.
Feels like new again.
Now off to do some drifting :D