Lower stress bars on, mystery noise gone
 

I took my car to my indie mechanic today for an oil change and to have him install the stress bars I bought from Kirk several months ago. I have had a gronchy noise from the rear over low speed bumps that I figured came from the control arm bushings. When he was installing the bars he found that the 2 bolts at the front of the stress plate were buggered up-one was cross threaded and the other barely in. I'm betting the stealership did that when they were changing my RMS at the 15k service. He managed to get them unbuggered and voila, the mystery noise is gone. I'm beside myself with joy-not only annoying but embarrassing to have a car that looks so good make a noise like that in a parking lot. I'm also glad it's not the bushings, one less thing to have to spend money on. I can't wait to take it up to the mountains and wring it out.

I had toyed with the idea of raising the front ride height a little bit from its aggressively lowered stance while it was in the shop, but 1) I didn't want to spring for another alignment, and 2) it handles so sweetly the way it is I can live with the occasional scrape.