Sway Bar Popping Sounds?

[qoncept]

The bushings were greased as generously as I could without making a huge mess. There is one washer between the bar and the endlink on each side, but I'd like to add them between everything. Maybe even nylon washers if I can find something that seems tough enough to last. But I'm guessing the issue is probably binding endlinks.

But.. I'm also not convinced now that the noise is from the swaybar at all. It's a pretty frequent clunk, and happens most when I hit a bump across the road as opposed to with just one wheel, which doesn't seem like a sway bar thing. If I'm driving down a concrete street it'll clunk over every cut in the road. I ordered some poly exhaust hangers but I'm not overly optimistic.

[GTB/ZR-1]

Originally Posted by YDNA

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...4&postcount=25

Think I need to do this...

[qoncept]

FWIW, I finally got my clunk figured out over the weekend. I made probably 10 different adjustments to the endlinks and confirmed everything was tight over and over again prior to that. Half the adjustments were made with the front off the ground, half on the ground with the wheels turned so I could actually get at them. Each adjustment would very slightly change exactly what kind of bumps caused the clunk.

Saturday morning I jacked up the car and pulled off the passenger side wheel. Then I put a second jack under the control arm and slowly lowered it until the center of the hub was at the same level as the driver's side.

The plan was to disconnect the sway bar and reconnect ensuring there was absolutely no preload, but while I was inspecting I finally found that the endlink stud on the sway bar end was interfering with the frame. This was impossible to see with the wheels off the ground and the suspension unloaded, and because of how the endlink mounts to the strut, also impossible to see with the wheels turned. There was really no way I could have found this without the wheel off and the control arm supported by a jack at normal ride height. I added a couple washers between the endlink and the sway bar and finally, no clunk.

There is absolutely no noise from the sway bar now. The adjustments to get to this point (if I had noticed the interference and only had to do it once) aren't at all difficult. There is no reason at all you should have to live with a clunking sway bar.

[qoncept]

And, if anyone is still reading this thread, my clunking has come back and gotten worse over the last few days. Pretty sure it's the same endlink stud->inner fender/frame interference issue. I'm guessing the bar walked a bit. I'll add another washer to each side, try to get it recentered and adjust the collars when I get a chance.

[FastLane1000]

Here's my fix on the Hotchkis kit. It looked like it was gonna hit and I didn't want to take it apart a second time. I cut off the second adjustment point. I wasn't ever gonna use it anyways.

[protpibe]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm at my wits end

I have the Hotchkis bars with HKS Hipermax coils and the popping is driving me insane. I've adjusted everything and tightened everything down a dozen times. I've even gone as far as spending a few hundred on Race Ramps so that I could adjust them under load. I'm currently using the Hotchkis rear end links and Whiteline front end links. Am I missing something simple that's causing them to bind or knock?

I'm seriously thinking about ditching the sways and going back to OEM. I would sacrifice some handling for a quiet ride.

[supramkivtt2jz]

Originally Posted by protpibe

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm at my wits end

I have the Hotchkis bars with HKS Hipermax coils and the popping is driving me insane. I've adjusted everything and tightened everything down a dozen times. I've even gone as far as spending a few hundred on Race Ramps so that I could adjust them under load. I'm currently using the Hotchkis rear end links and Whiteline front end links. Am I missing something simple that's causing them to bind or knock?

I'm seriously thinking about ditching the sways and going back to OEM. I would sacrifice some handling for a quiet ride.

Probably a basic question, but did you center the bars before installing the collars? Which end is popping?

[qoncept]

This is still driving me crazy. I had my Whiteline front bar quiet at the end of last year. When I took the car out of storage this spring it was clunking again. I had a short list of potential problems and was sure it would be one of them, but after inspecting tonight it is not:

- The endlink stud hitting the frame (the issue I had last year)
- The endlink jamb nuts not jambing and the endlink flopping around
- The sway bar is centered

I'm going to try greasing the bushings when I get a chance. That's really the only thing that makes sense since mechanically nothing has moved since it was quiet.

But the real reason I'm posting again is to show the picture of what really did work last summer:



#3 are the marks made by the endlink stud hitting the frame/whatever
#2 is the stud hanging out that made those marks
#1 are the washers I used to space it out so the stud wasn't hanging out so far

[skyloran]

when you install, did you put alot of the grease paste on ?

[qoncept]

Um, I would say I applied liberally but didn't overdo it. The problem is with a flat surfaced bushing there's just no where for it to go and it doesn't last long. The other problem is that getting to them is such a huge PITA.

[Books]

My car has been clunking since last November. First it was the front endlink to sway bar was loose, that's fixed. Next it was my rear Koni's squeaking like crazy, but greasing the connection to the LCA fixed that. Now, it's I think it's the rear endlink to LCA connection that's clunking.

I said screw it, and now i'm running no rear sway bars... I'm finally at peace.

[qoncept]

Another (sad) update:

While I was changing the oil and tires for autox this weekend I did some more poking around. I didn't take the sway bar out but I looked at everything I could see with it on the car and jacked up the car by the control arms to different points to see what it looked like under load. I couldn't find any interference except the retaining collars which, to spoil the surprise, weren't the source of my clunk. But here's what I did anyway (after hearing Strano say something similar).

The collar on the driver's side was rubbing on the sway bar mount bracket, just like it looks like it would. The passenger side wasn't, at least not in the position I had it installed.



So I pulled them both off and ground them down on the side toward the bracket.



And then I hit them with a sharpie so if I ever decide it's worth pulling them out again to look I can tell if they have been rubbing again.



But still clunking. Usually at slow speeds, going over small bumps like driveway thresholds. The only way I can replicate it in the garage is by putting the car on jack stands, jacking up the driver's side control arm and then letting it back down. When its at nearly full droop I hear the clunk.

I can't tell exactly where the noise is but I think it's probably just the hiem joints in the endlinks. As in there is no fix other than to replace them. So the next step is to dig through the garage and find the stock endlinks, shorten them and see if that works.

[ramiram1984]

as much as a pain in the ass it is to install/remove sways, your best bet is to re-do it all over again... and see if issues still exist.

[qoncept]

If anyone is still interested.. I finally silenced my sway bar again this week. Kind of cross-posted from my autox log: http://goo.gl/eOM2mf

So lets exhaust the subject. With any aftermarket front sway bar there are a number of potential causes of noise and interference. I've got to think I've encountered them all:

- Front sway bars have little clearance (Whiteline does, at least) and must be pretty precisely centered to avoid interference. Adjust collars by mounts to fix.

- The retention collars can/will interfere with the sway bar mounts, from my post above. Grind them down so they'll clear. More: http://goo.gl/gLp117

- End link studs can interfere with control arm and inner fender well. Adjust endlink length and add spacers to studs to fix. More: http://goo.gl/pZYBvz

- Preload and binding issues. Adjust endlink length with car on a level surface and suspension settled to fix.

- Jamb nuts backed off allowing endlink to work itself loose and adjust itself. Threadlocker on jamb nuts to fix.

- Maybe not important here, I just noticed Friday night that my race tires have been rubbing on both the sway bar and interior of the fender well. Part of my project for the week was to add camber bolts, lengthened wheel studs and 5mm spacers, so hopefully this is fixed. I'll check it out tonight. The race tires are 245/40-17 Hankook Z214s on stock wheels. http://imgur.com/rBU5n99

- Finally.. a loose fscking nut on one of the endlinks. This is what I chased all week. The 5th time under the car, with modified stock endlinks in hand and ready to install, I found out the driver's side endlink was just loose at the sway bar. Are you kidding me?

Between all these problems I probably have a good 48 hours of poking and testing invested. But now my car is quiet.