Sway bar end links?

[Dexman1349]

Originally Posted by usafboy

Anybody have problems with the nut staying tight on the sway bar? I've been hearing a noise from my rear suspension and looked under the car this past weekend and one of the but connected to the end link was so loose that I could easily hand turn it. I put my pfadt sways in around April last year.

Mine "knocks" when I go around a corner.

Background: 2010 2SS LS3. Within the last couple of weeks I have installed a new Pfadt sport sway bars (front and rear) and adjustible endlinks. I have also recently installed a complete exhaust system (not sure if this is part of it, but I'm listing it anyways). I installed a set of Pedders cradle inserts about a year ago with no change in sound. In the front I also installed Prothane radius rod inserts and a Prothane steering rack bushing.

The specific scenario that causes the noise is when I turn and the car goes over un-even surface (like going over a concrete drain pan). Once it "knocks" on a left turn, it won't knock for any more left turns. That is, until it knocks going right. I've jacked the car up and checked all of the connections and everything in the rear is tight (even the wheel lugs).

The sound seems to be coming from the rear, and at first I thought it was due to a can rolling around in the trunk. I can autocross the car hard without a sound, but it knocks if there is any sort of flex in the body. I was able to confirm the knocking sound in the garage by jacking up the right front wheel. Just as it comes off of the ground, the knock occurs. I then let the car down, jacked it up again with no sound. I then jacked the left front, and sure enough it knocked again.

At this point, the only thing I can think of doing is to get a Gopro camera mounted underneath the car to see if anything "slips" when I go around the corner.

[usafboy]

I et the knocking sound coming from the rear when I mostly make right turns which is why I looked and found the loose nut. Tightened it up but still hear the noise so it must be something else. Could it be the spring? I have stock springs but I do have 50K miles.

[Dexman1349]

With it only knocking once per direction, it's like something is shifting. Once it's shifted to the left, it won't knock again until something makes it shift to the right. The part that makes it confusing is that it only "shifts" when the body flexes. I can (and have) run some pretty serious corners without it making a sound, but as soon as the ground is uneven (front-back, left-right) and the body to flexes, then *knock*.

The only other time I've experienced something like this was when the lugs on a wheel were loose and the camber would shift from negative to positive and back around each corner, but that didn't have a body flex component to it.

I may just have one of my neighbors come over and jack it up while I'm lying down under the rear to see if I can isolate it.

[ssmike]

If you are using spherical endlinks this might happen. I had a similar noise with BMR sphericals and had to remove them. BMR and Pedders make "quiet" endlinks that have a similar fitting as the stock ones but much beefier and don't bind like the sphericals can. Of course Pedders is out of commission now so check with BMR. I'm not sure if Pfadt does or not so check with the vendor you bought them from.

[Dexman1349]

These are the endlinks I have:
http://www.jdpmotorsports.com/manufa...aro-ss-1410108

Looks like they are spherical. Is there anything I can do to prevent binding?

[ssmike]

Originally Posted by Dexman1349

These are the endlinks I have:
http://www.jdpmotorsports.com/manufa...aro-ss-1410108

Looks like they are spherical. Is there anything I can do to prevent binding?

No. I would talk to Tyler or Jordan at JDP. I'm just throwing this out as a possible cause but I don't know for sure. I do know that sphericals have had noise and binding issues but Pfadt advertises these as OEM quiet.

[Dexman1349]

I may swap back to the stock rear end links, if only to see if they are the problem...

[ssmike]

Originally Posted by Dexman1349

I may swap back to the stock rear end links, if only to see if they are the problem...

Good idea!

[VR Baron]

Originally Posted by tw78911sc

If you have lowered your car and don't have adjustable end links, the sways bars become part of the spring package, they are preloaded and not just not sway bars, that is when you tear suspension mounting points off IMO. Swaybars should have now real load on them when the car is sitting still, when you lower a car, keep the endlinks the same length, it preloads them, the chassis mounting points remain constant, but the suspension pickup points are now closer to the chassis.

interesting. Talked to Jordan at JDP when I did my bars with drop springs and this isnt a problem. Adjusting was good but stock doesnt hurt anything.Adjusting more for directional cornering or hieght differences, something like that.

[Dexman1349]

Problem seems to be fixed. I'm not sure which of the 2 really fixed the problem, but here is what I did:

1) one of the "locking" nuts on the drivers side was loose. I tightened it back down again, but I noticed there was still some "play" in each of the two endlinks.

2) I legthened the passenger side endlink by 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch. This eliminated the "play" described in #1.

What I'm thinking is that because the two endlinks were installed at the same length, the sway bar was able to rotate about a 1/16" before the endlink was engaged (due to the miniscule amount of space between the bearings and the bolts), and that engagement was the "clunk" sound I was hearing. By lengthening one endlink to remove that free movement, the sway bar is always just slightly engaged and no longer is allowed to move freely.