squeaky torsion bushings.

Those red urethane bushings should come with a clear sticky grease , despite that grease they will "creek and squeak "  You can try to use another lube but it will return.  Stock bushing are the way to go.

I didn't get any grease with my bushings. I used some white lithium grease and that kept them from squeaking for several months. It would be nice if that area had a grease fitting and we could just pump it full of grease as needed. Maybe I will install grease fittings in my big CB performance end caps. I will let the group know how that works.

Specific grease for urethane ...https://www.suspension.com/blog/the-best-grease-for-polyurethane-bushings/

I’ve had surprisingly good luck with CV Joint grease on Urethane.  Rubber, too.

I used lithium wheel bearing/CV in a grease gun on black urethane on my custom swaybar. No noise at all.

I have that too, it sure would be nice to eliminate the noise.  Let us know how it goes.

You can also drill through the torsion tube and urethane to make a passage for the grease to follow, then insert a grease fitting into the torsion tube. The fitting holds the urethane bushing in place AND you can now squirt grease through the fitting, through the drilled passage and into the urethane bushing, just like original!!

Yes, naysayers.....This works.   And pretty much any grease will work, some needed more often than others, but all must be delivered by a pressure grease gun.  Arm pressure is good enough.

Any videos of it being done?

what happens with the filings?

I wonder why this is not done as a matter of course

Grand Idea. That is what I am going to do. I have the skillset to drill and tap and couple of holes. More info. on this to come.

Super Lube makes a silicone waterproof grease specifically for these types of bushings, aka the stick white/clear area mentioned above.  The Urethane manufactures say to never use petroleum base products on urethane

Gordon Nichols posted:

I’ve had surprisingly good luck with CV Joint grease on Urethane.  Rubber, too.

I tried cv joint grease with stock torsion bar/spring plate bushings last fall when I had the spring plates on and off 4 times and each time on disassembly I found the grease seemed to have dried out. I went back to talc powder.

So it looks like this is a common issue.

I swabbed dielectric silicone grease for water intrusion antenna's on them and had no problems......Bruce

chines1 posted:

Super Lube makes a silicone waterproof grease specifically for these types of bushings, aka the stick white/clear area mentioned above.  The Urethane manufactures say to never use petroleum base products on urethane

Thanks Carey,  Seems like something to use even for non urethane or regular bushings @chines1

https://www.super-lube.com/faqs  

“Great White Ray” wrote (with embedded answers):

Any videos of it being done?

Not from me.  All of my videos are either biking or Carlisle, neither one especially informative for car repairs/upgrades.

what happens with the filings?

Ummmm....they all stay on the outside of the steel torsion tube?  Once you get through the steel tube and start drilling through the Urethane, the outgoing Urethane schmutz pushes out any remaining metal filings (that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it).

I wonder why this is not done as a matter of course

Me, too, because it works.

Cheers to that Gordon.

FYI, Greg Leach drills a hole and taps it on all his front beams for a bolt that keeps the bushing right where it's supposed to be. There are 4 grease fittings on each beam as well.

A glob of grease on the end of the drill bit to catch any debris  =  piece of mind

Lol Gordon, GooWhyLow ,  big white monster for those from China

Funny things that you would think would be done if the builder has been building for a long time to prevent issues.

Just saying 

Well, the right silicone grease, properly installed should last 3 - 5 years, but then it dries and begins to squeek.  Shooting some CV joint grease (or ANY grease, actually) up in there between the trailing arm sleeve and Urethane bushing every other year seems to keep them quiet.  At least for me.  YMMV.....

P.S.:  I do the same thing to the rear torsion bar rubber bushings, but you have to run the drill through them a few times to clear the hole.  Once clear, the grease has no where to go but down to the torsion bar sleeve and lubricate it because the grease fitting is captive to the bushing retainer.

I went the easy route for now. I re-greased all the torsion bushings with a silicone based waterproof grease I bought at NAPA. It is called SIL-GLIDE. It has eliminated all the squeaking for now. I also replaced the urethane bushings with new stock black rubber bushings per Alan's advice. I hope the silicone based grease keeps the dreaded squeaking at bay for a long while. Thanks for all the good advice.

I have the same squeek and thinking of  getting new bushings but I only have like 15K miles on the car so are they really worn?  I know you guys suggested drilling them @Alan Merklin @Gordon Nichols I wonder if we should simply drill out the plate 5 below and into rubber #4 and put a grease nipple on #5 to give them grease. 

It is more than annoying at times to squeak away down the road. 

Does any one of the wise guys know if bushing #2 is needed to be greased or changed often ?  IRS is what I have BTW. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP... Ray

If they're squeaking, they are probably dry, not worn.  

Sil-Glide is good stuff.  I've used it, too.

I swapped out all my bushings a number of years ago.  They were the original donor car bushings so they were probably due, as those things hardly ever got replaced by the dealers unless they were looking for out-of-warranty revenue, because it was a guaranteed 4+ hours of labor on a lift and mine probably had over 200K miles on them!  The front beam had bearings, not bushings and when they got dry (about every 5 - 10 years) you just shot a bunch of grease into each one and went for a drive to let the grease work in.

VW used pure talcum powder on those rear bushings and that usually lasted years (do you remember hearing Beetle Sedans squeaking away on the street?  I didn't think so.)   My guess is that they last well beyond 100,000 miles but might get noisy if the car isn't used enough.  The VW designers also realized how much of a PITA it might be to provide for greasing the rear bushings and only provided grease for those in the front beam.

Anyway, I only added grease fittings to the Urethane bushings on the Beam torsion tubes using the original VW fitting locations.  Drilling through the hard Urethane leaves a nice hole from the drill.  They can be drilled after assembly IF you use a relatively flat-pointed (sounds like an Oxymoron, doesn't it?) drill to let you drill very slightly into the trailing arm (just kiss it) to clear the urethane with the drill.  Drilling through the rear rubber bushings and actually getting a hole/passage that doesn't close up after the drill is removed is beyond my scope. 

Obviously, this is a bit of work on the front, and I have often wondered if there might be some way of getting a good penetrating oil down in there from the ends, like automatic transmission fluid thinned 50-50 with Acetone, but I haven't tried it.  

What I have used with good luck on Urethane is Sil-Glide or CV joint grease, which, for me, has worked well for 6 or 7 years so far.