///// rear sway bar stopped working ? /////

Hi All,

About two thousand miles ago I installed a Whiteline adjustable rear sway bar.

One thing I noticed about the rear end links was that some of the polyurethane extended over the steel Bushing where the bolts go through the end link....

To that end I lightly sanded the polyurethane until it was roughly the same height or a little less than the steel bushing where the bolt went through ( I had previously watched some YouTube videos regarding how to keep suspension moving freely when you install polyurethane bushings and they all seem to indicate that you don't want the washers or nuts to clamp onto the polyurethane parts but rather pinch only on the metal sleeves.).

Anyways, after putting the bar on the car and lightly sanding the bushings, I noticed the car had remarkably different / better turn in and transient response ( Before I put the rear sway bar on I drove the car at slow speeds and jerked the wheel left to right to see how the car felt...).

After installing the rear sway bar , The car seemed to respond much better to left and right jerking of the steering wheel.

Another thing that I noticed after installing the rear sway bar is that the rear suspension really didn't feel like it moved a whole lot independently from each other which I guess is what a rear sway bar does more or less tying, the two sides together to promote somewhat better handling...

Which brings me to yesterday's Drive... For some reason the car felt different. As though it were back to stock type handling. And feel...

So I went to an empty parking lot. And did my same transient handling test. And oddly the car felt like it did prior to installing the rear sway bar.

I did follow the instructions as far as ensuring the bolts are tight after driving. It's approximately 75 miles and everything was indeed tight.

Looking under the car. Everything seemed normal for the rear sway bar. Nothing apparently broken Etc.

My question is could the end links. Somehow I'll be rotating in a way that they are no longer applying Force to the bar. ?

Is the only way to ensure that my bar is actually offering torsional resistance to install spherical heim joints?... My potential theory is maybe somehow the bushings broke loose from the polyurethane parts. And somehow they are just rotating and pivoting in place and not actually applying Force to the bar.

Or maybe after the break-in period Maybe the bar is more flexible and needs to be ramped up in stiffness?..... I thought it could be that I'm just getting used to it the way it is, but My low speed transient test would say otherwise.

For what? It's worth. My end links are not. Very vertical..

Sorry about all the punctuation and periods my dictating on the phone does not seem to handle that very well...

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Andrew

Sound like maybe the links gave some of your initial rigidity (tight/binding), then loosened up??

I put a Neuspeed swaybar in about 10 years ago and have changed out the end links recently as I was looking for some adjustment and the original ones had seized up.

It sounds to me like the sway bar may have become disconnected from the beam or the end link poly popped out of the steel retainer so it may need large flat washers on both sides on the poly to keep it contained in the steel frame that is attached to the car and to the swaybar end.

I was able to pick up as set of end links with the little swivel joints from ECS tuning. These are all metal and have swivel joints at both ends.

When I drive the car over uneven pavement, I can see usually see one of the tires coming off the ground which is how stiff it can be. No need to jack the car up to take the wheel off.

HI,

The whiteline RSB is fine .... Turns out when I did my transient handling test after the car "felt" funny" it was due to a nail in my front tire reducing the tire pressure and that is why the transient handling did not feel as sharp as before....

I guess for me lesson learned .... if something feels funny suspension wise check tire pressures! (at the time the tire pressure had not gotten low enough to cause the car to pull to any one side .... just enough to make it feel "mushy" if making rapid steering inputs).

Thanks for the input tho .... maybe this will help others.

Andrew