Need HELP?! Blown strut or Sway bar knockin?

[lowrider418]

It has beena long and expensive journey trying to install a stupid FSB on my 06 Leg GT!

 

i will keep the name of the vendor private because this posting is not intended to destroy a company or banish anyone from business - truthfully they have been quite decent with me trying to resolve this issue - at this point though, i ask you, the legacygt-ers, for your input, bc im soooo fed up!!

 

I bought a FSB 2 years ago in a package deal with a rear one. price was great, vendor was known, i pounced on the deal.

 

the RSB was fine and still is for the most part (random squealing)

 

The FSB was an issue from the second day it was installed.

 

To shorten this story quite a bit, the FSB sent to me was TOO SHORT IN LENGTH. The bar was too short causing the endlinks to snap while driving on the highway.

 

i bought a set of new aftermarket (name brand ) endlinks and installed them back on the car with the FSB (not knowing it was too short yet). Unfortunately, they too snapped, or cracked, wtvr.

 

I called the vendor, complained, and they were kind enough to send me a new bar and set of endlinks free of charge.

 

since the new bar has been on the car, the sway bar has been problematic!

 

it shifts from left to right, right to left, stressing both endlinks and causing metal on metal knocking. i brought the car to the shop (again) and they recommended putting lock collars on the bar to limit its abaility to shift from side to side. the lock collars were placed by the sway bar bushings.

 

The car wont stop making noise by the front left (drivers) side.

 

the shop insists that this new bar is too long, the vendor beleives the bar is correct (its machine made so i doubt it is too long)..

 

i have no more patience at this point to deal with that matter. this stupid FSB arrangement has cost me over 1200 between garage fees, time spend not driving (ie loaner cars and such) and the head ache of dealign with this and driving a car that knocks every time i drive!!

 

Maybe all these problems has caused something else to fail?

 

maybe the strut has been damaged, moved, broken, something?

 

maybe the chassis parts where the endlinks or bushings are screwd in have been damaged?

 

can anyone think of what time be wrong with my car?

 

i dont want to bring myc ar back to the shop bc its going to cost me 100 just go get it looked at.

 

Im desperate!

 

Thanks guys!!

[kha]

Hey. I had similar problems, but it's mostly fixed now. I have cusco rsb and rallitek fsb, with kartboy endlinks all around, and this is what I did to this setup. I've done quite a few things, so I'm not sure which measures actually helped, but well, it worked.

 

The first issue was metal to metal clunking, which was from the endlinks. The noticed that I did not put a washer on one end of the endlink, and the rubber spacer had slid over the bolt head and out of the endlink assembly. The bolt shaft was hitting the aluminum part of the endlink, making clunking noise. Just to be safe, I put larger washers all around the endlinks, and no more loud clunks. The key is to put washers on the open end of endlinks, since the other side is closed in by the control arm/sway bar.

 

But there still was some minor metal to metal sounds, which I think was from where the endlink bolts meet the metal inside tubes of endlinks. There is a slight gap between the bolt and endlink inside tube (the bolt has slightly smaller diameter than the tube). And since they were both metal, I figured they might clunk as they move around. I fabricated nylon spacers to fill the gap, and the occasional metal sound is gone. But this was too much work and I'm not sure if it was worth it.

 

The other issue was sqeaking, which was resolved by using mobile 1 synthetic grease all around LIBERALLY. I just made sure to wipe off the excess afterwards. I used it on the mounting bushings, and also on the endlinks. One thing I noticed with the kartboy endlinks is that as the bar moves, the rubber/poly spacer can sometimes rotate within the aluminum endlink body, making sqeaking noises. I ended up taking apart the endlinks completely and greased every layer of it, and it not only silent now, but the suspension movement is much more fluid as well.

 

I still get occasional clunk from the fsb/endlink after hard driving. I haven't looked at this closely yet, but I believe it is from the bar sliding sideways and pulling on the endlinks. It disappears if I leave the car sitting for a while, probably b/c the bar centers itself again. I'll probably end up adding lock collars all around.

 

btw, even with all the work, adding the fsb was definitely worth it for me. turn in has improved dramatically with fsb alone. rsb definitely balances it out and gets rid of understeer, but i think fsb made a bigger impact on inital turn in. I experimented with different combinations of stock and cusco/rallitek sways. fsb w/o rsb, rsb w/o fsb, both on, both off (not recommened).

 

I hope this helped.

[devobuzz]

Just throwing this out - maybe the bar was installed upside down? I seem to remember this being an issue in an old thread. Post some pics...