Front Sway Bar Link poped off!!

E

esracer

Member
:
2002 Mazda Protege5, Silver
So I was driving to my favorite Sushi joint on Sunday, and while looking for parking..I hit a pothole (Socal) while turning left. All of the sudden, the left front suspension starts making lots of noise. Turns out, after looking at the car w/ my brother, the left front Sway bar link (cap) poped off of the sway bar. I couldn't believe the link is was made so cheaply. So we popped it back on and said.....Abaaaaazzzaaaba!!! The Engineer who designed that should be fired!

Has anyone upgraded the front links with aftermarket parts? AWR front links? Is this a simple install w/ stock or aftermarket struts (Tokico HPs)?

Thanks,
 
sorry to hear that .. lol i hate those roads around hollywood and the 101 .. blew a tire and busted a rim cus of them darn potholes on the freeway..anyway good luck!
 
digitalricepape said:
sorry to hear that .. lol i hate those roads around hollywood and the 101 .. blew a tire and busted a rim cus of them darn potholes on the freeway..anyway good luck!
Click to expand...

Yeah you gotta watch out for them damn pot holes. I always go around or over them. But yeah, I think I'm getting some AWR endlinks. I don't want to worry about pushing my car and that cap just popping off.
 
It happened to me I also bent the front sway bar and lost one of the end links(AWR). Now upgraded to Racing Beat and a new set of AWR links.
 
I have AWR with Illuminas all around and they're really noisy in the front. I have to keep on tightening them all the time, but besides that they appear to be really good quality. You can take them off and put them back on as many times as you wish, unlike the stock.
 
KrayzieFox said:
I have AWR with Illuminas all around and they're really noisy in the front. I have to keep on tightening them all the time, but besides that they appear to be really good quality. You can take them off and put them back on as many times as you wish, unlike the stock.
Click to expand...
There is a thread from some time back where I think it was BrianMP5T that used firewall grommets on the awr endlinks to silence them. Try searching around for it & give that a try. Pretty sure he just got them in the help section at an auto parts store.
 
Energy Suspension - endlink bushing grommets

Yo-

The AWR endlinks are great but they'll get really noisey after a while. No matter how tight you make that s*** it will still clink. That's the sound of worn heim joints - not to be mistaken for the lower freq. clunk - a separate topic.

I used the supplied black nylon magic washers to start and did not hear anything for a long time. Since I don't auto x my AWR endlinks worked silently for a long time. Then they started to make a higher freq. noise that I'll describe as the clink. I was also experiencing the clunk as well. I was clunkin' and clinkin' and bitchin'.

To alleviate the clink I purchased Energy Suspension brand endlink bushing grommets at my local autozone (part no. 9.8105). These grommets are fat and not exactly for our application so I chopped them in half and was able to use them to buffer each side of the heim joint. It seems to help keep the clinking down.

Use a bunch of lube - which you should always do - boys and girls...
 
Last edited:
booom said:
Yo-

The AWR endlinks are great but they'll get really noisey after a while. No matter how tight you make that s*** it will still clink. That's the sound of worn heim joints - not to be mistaken for the lower freq. clunk - a separate topic.

I used the supplied black nylon magic washers to start and did not hear anything for a long time. Since I don't auto x my AWR endlinks worked silently for a long time. Then they started to make a higher freq. noise that I'll describe as the clink. I was also experiencing the clunk as well. I was clunkin' and clinkin' and bitchin'.

To alleviate the clink I purchased Energy Suspension brand endlink bushing grommets at my local autozone (part no. 9.8105). These grommets are fat and not exactly for our application so I chopped them in half and was able to use them to buffer each side of the heim joint. It seems to help keep the clinking down.

Use a bunch of lube - which you should always do - boys and girls...
Click to expand...
Pics of gromets installed? What kinda lube did you use also? Thanks.
 
They Make noise huh?

So the AWR links wear down after awhile....Hummm...well...as long as its stronger and better than stock pieces of crap. I guess I can live with it. Thanks for the additional information.
 
Please log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Sway bar link lengths
Replies
2
Views
2K
sleeprp5
S
Y
  • Question
Mazda3 (Gen2) Aftermarket Sway bar compatibility w/stock links?
Replies
0
Views
1K
YourAvgUser
Y
I
Suspension rebuild on 2014 CX-5 with 145,000 miles
2
Replies
21
Views
4K
inverted25
I

Latest posts

Back