Sway Bar Popping Sounds?
 

I've recently installed a 22 front and the 18/19 rear whiteline sways both with their whiteline endlinks and I am getting popping sounds from all around.

Never really heard of a popping sound from sway bars, but more of a clunk. Make sure everything is tight, and double check the end links, they like to spin the ball joint inside of them resulting in not being tight. With the car on the ground, see if you can grab the links and push/pull them and if you feel it popping/clunking something is loose.

Hopefully that helps

I had a couple issues with my Whiteline bar as well. Make sure that the end link joints on the front aren't binding. This can happen if the end links are set too short and the pivot joint can't move far enough for the sway bar's motion. The other issue I had was interference with the LCA. The Whiteline fsb isn't the same shape as stock and will impact the LCA if the end links are set too long.

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yeah thats what i noticed and was wondering if i should switch bars or endlinks because it comes really close to the LCA even at the shortest setting

Did you leave the mounts loose and tighten after you put the car on the ground?

Your factory links may be too long--mine are & it comes into contact with the body @ full lock.

Disclaimer: I'm still learning all this stuff myself, so if I say something that's not right, please call me out on it. (Not that anyone on the Internet has reservations about doing that in the first place :D)

Hmm, the shortest setting should give sufficient clearance, at the cost of other problems (endlink joint binding). I'm assuming here that you're on stock struts. Aftermarket coilovers may not have the swaybar mounts in exactly the same place.

Here are the guidelines I learned after messing around a lot with my Whiteline swaybar:
1. With the car off the ground and wheels off, set the endlinks as long as possible without the end of the swaybar hitting the lower control arm. Make sure both endlinks are the same length. Do not tighten the endlinks at this time.

2. With the car fully resting on the ground (i.e. suspension is at normal ride height), check to see if the endlink bolts are both roughly parallel to the ground. If one or both of the joints are too close to their maximum range of motion at normal ride height, then the endlinks could bind in either compression or droop. This is bad because it causes noise, inconsistent handling behavior and potentially, endlink failure. This is a bit challenging on stock struts, since their endlink mounting bracket is angled ~45°, and it took me some trial and error to figure out what was "close enough" to parallel to not cause any noise.

3. Tighten the endlinks and go for a drive! I found a long-handled wrench was helpful in getting the nuts tight enough, but I'm not exactly built like Thor. :)

4. Repeat as necessary. I don't understand why some folks on the Internet say that aftermarket bars "just make noise" and you have to accept it. I have yet to met someone IRL who thinks it is okay. Noise usually means that something is behaving badly.

I'm having the same issues. I re-tightened everything and the noise went away.

In the past couple of days, the noise is back. Anybody have thoughts?

:mad0259:

Just installed my 22mm whiteline today and I've been fighting for 8 hours trying to get the clunk to go away. It clunks easy to much to live with. How are you people tightening the endinks with the car on the ground? I can't get anywhere near them.

My sway was making noise, but it turns out one of the nuts on the endlink was loose. I tightened it back up and everything is silent now.

Ok, my endlinks (and sway bar) are definitely NOT hitting anything and they aren't lose. So I'm almost positive the endlinks are binding. So... how do you adjust them with the car on the ground?

Well, havent looked at the sway bar for the FR-S yet, but I had an issue with my tC and the 'pop'

There should be some rubber bushings where the sway is connected to the car, put a little while lithium grease in there.

Other than that, it should be your endlinks.

It is possible to have a completely silent aftermarket bar, just gotta work at it a little more!

I ended up running 3/8 washers on both sides of the sway bar where the end links connect. My car was also making clunking noises. No noises at all now. Also make sure everything is tight (i.e. endlink bolts, lock nuts for adjustment on end links if you have them).