Ah! That's good news then. I didn't have the time to read through the whole thread yet.
JosueP5's '03 Protege5 Build Thread.
- Thread starter Josue6WGN
- Start date
Ah! That's good news then. I didn't have the time to read through the whole thread yet.
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- 2016 GT ST 47A
You'll be happy with the Progress, I was for the short time mine was on the car. My wife HATED the clunk and I had AWR adj links and one of the stock Progress brackets sheared in two. So I took the bar off and sold it, still have the stock bar in the attic awaiting re-install.
CheeseHelmet
Member
I think he drove over a sidewalk or something like that.
In situations like that the stock bar is flexible enough to twist without putting too much load on the brackets. A larger bar has less of a tendency to "twist" so all that force is transferred to the brackets instead in an effort to level-out the car.
Phen could give you a better explanation
- :
- 2016 GT ST 47A
My situation was kinda unique and a little operator error...no sidewalks were damaged with the shearing of my bracket. lol Long story short, one of the nuts in my rear sub frame was sheared off back when I tried flipping the stock rsb to install new endlinks. I decided to upgrade to the Progress and when I did, I had to hold the nut inside the rear sub frame by hand while Jason (god I hope I got his name right) tightened the nut down. Once it was hand tight he hit with the impact quick. We then did the other side.....looking back I should have alternated sides while tightening but was so damn worried about my loose nut that I wanted it nice and tight. Eventually the stress wore on the opposite bracket and pretty sure that is where my 'clunk' was coming from...then one day 'snap, crackle, pop'.
I know Evan had one shear as well, you could ask him what happened to his as well as I forget. Before selling mine off I did buy some Energy Suspension bushings and brackets with the zerk fittings but ended up selling them with the rsb.
Oh hai!
Yeah, I installed my Progress rear sway bar about 4 years ago. It was good for about a year. I lived in an apartment at the time with almost a curb to drive up to get into the parking lot. I used to angle it so I wouldn't scrape (and I'm not even that low) and one day the twist was finally too much for the rear sway and it broke the passenger side bracket. I emailed Progress with some pics and asking for a new bracket and they shipped me a new one free of charge and told me to be careful when torquing them down, go little by little and alternate. So when I installed the new bracket I did just that and torqued them down with my impact. That was about 2 years ago and I haven't had problems since, even with tri-podding on the BC coilovers.
I think they clunk because the bar will hit the rear control arm (or whatever it's called). It's really not a big deal and doesn't hurt anything, but the clunking does drive some people batty. I never really cared so I never looked into a solution so I can't really help out with the clunk fixes. But for some reason I don't have a clunk anymore with the coilovers. Or if I do I just don't notice???
Yeah, I installed my Progress rear sway bar about 4 years ago. It was good for about a year. I lived in an apartment at the time with almost a curb to drive up to get into the parking lot. I used to angle it so I wouldn't scrape (and I'm not even that low) and one day the twist was finally too much for the rear sway and it broke the passenger side bracket. I emailed Progress with some pics and asking for a new bracket and they shipped me a new one free of charge and told me to be careful when torquing them down, go little by little and alternate. So when I installed the new bracket I did just that and torqued them down with my impact. That was about 2 years ago and I haven't had problems since, even with tri-podding on the BC coilovers.
I think they clunk because the bar will hit the rear control arm (or whatever it's called). It's really not a big deal and doesn't hurt anything, but the clunking does drive some people batty. I never really cared so I never looked into a solution so I can't really help out with the clunk fixes. But for some reason I don't have a clunk anymore with the coilovers. Or if I do I just don't notice???
Ugh...all this info is giving me a headache. Endlinks, clunks, binding bushings, brackets breaking.....now I remember why I had ZERO interest in a bigger sway bar. Leaning towards track day only for this piece. I might throw it on come spring time just to see for myself what these issues are, but I'm just going to put it out of my mind till then...lol
Don't be a sissy. Just slap it on when you've got some spare time at work on your lift, drive around the block a couple times and hit 77/76 and you will poop yourself it handles soooo much better. Trust me. I wouldn't recommend something just because I have one. 
Maybe, but winter's around the corner and I usually tone it down when the road has a coating of salt on it. lol
I think I'm gonna get up to my work on Saturday morning and undercoat the underside of my car though. You never know when the s***'s gonna start flying here in N.E. Ohio!
I think I'm gonna get up to my work on Saturday morning and undercoat the underside of my car though. You never know when the s***'s gonna start flying here in N.E. Ohio!
CheeseHelmet
Member
You're lucky to have access to a lift, I tried using that spray-on undercoating a little over a year ago with jackstands in front of my house. More ended up on me than the car; I ended up looking like a middle-eastern guy. Washing that s*** off my skin was a huge pain, so cover up! (but you probably know this already...)
Also, with regards to the sway bar, it's pretty easy to swap it out if you have a set of ramps. Just back the car on and it shouldn't take you more than 30min to change bars.
I am using the RB sway in the back and Sport 20 in the front. Trust me that RB you won't regret it. Even though the clunk is a deal breaker/kill joy I just raise the volume on my music and ignore it. Still trying to get the clunk fix though because I can't do the loud music thing all the time. The stock is a twig compared to the RB or the Progress.
Yeah I get that too due to the bad grounding of the Pioneer HUs but it still better than hearing "POOT-TOONK!" ever so often while driving. lol
Got the underside of the car undercoated this morning. Wound up coating the whole bottom because I bought 4 cans and hey, gotta use 'em right!
I took the front bumper and front wheel liners off to get behind there as much as possible too. haha
And I dumped about a half a can of Amber Inner Panel Rustproofing under the hood and the core support area. This stuff is nice and runny so it'll seep into the areas that have no paint coverage and protect from rust. That's the idea anyway!
Now I just need to take off all the door panels, rear cargo trim, and hatch trim to spray the inner panel stuff inside there.
I took the front bumper and front wheel liners off to get behind there as much as possible too. haha
And I dumped about a half a can of Amber Inner Panel Rustproofing under the hood and the core support area. This stuff is nice and runny so it'll seep into the areas that have no paint coverage and protect from rust. That's the idea anyway!
Now I just need to take off all the door panels, rear cargo trim, and hatch trim to spray the inner panel stuff inside there.
CheeseHelmet
Member
That brown stuff looks like what I've been using, does it smell really sweet (like candy)?
Uh....I guess it kind of does. lol It's not an awful smell by any means. It smells just like this other stuff we used to use years ago, called 'Honeycoat'.
But, it was SO dirty! I wanted to clean it before we left, but it was sprinkling out...lol
Don't worry, I just cleaned it now.
