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Cobb front swaybar failure...


fatbastard

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Well this morning I had something quite unusual happen. My Cobb front sway broke inside the bushing. I was coming down a side street to make a right up a slight incline and heard a loud pop. I figured that either an end link broke or I kicked up a rock into the bottom of the car. Since I didn't hear any more strange noises I kept driving to work. Then when I was driving home tonight I went over a speed bump and heard something start dragging. Thankfully this bar didn't break in the middle of a high speed corner or there may have been more damage. I called Cobb and sent an email with pics to let them know since I can't think of what could have gone wrong. Anyway, I tried to get teh rest of the bar off but don't have many tools at my condo so it will have to wait.

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hold old is the bar just out of curiosity? and have you condidered trying to contact cobb. i doubt they will do anything for you cuz they never do and there service sucks ass, but its always worth a shot.

OTM.

Sorry I didn't mean to start a war which mainly forum people is all about ;).
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Called Cobb tonight and spoke to someone who said they wouldn't likely do anything since it was out of warranty. Honestly don't really car about that too much since it could have been a lot worse if this failed while cornering hard. As for how old...I just found a thread back around May of 07 when I was installing them.
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i guess you have to look at things from a positive perspective though. you are lucky that it didnt break going around the turn, and for that i am glad as well as you that it didnt.

OTM.

Sorry I didn't mean to start a war which mainly forum people is all about ;).
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Thanks for posting. I was looking at sway bars, and now i know i will not be purchasing COBBs. the fact that they will do nothing "because it is out of warrenty" is absurd. You would think they would offer you atleast a discount on a new one. 2 years old isnt really old imo
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Well first I only contacted Cobb yesterday so when I posted that they were not going to do anything I was just repeating what the CSR said. He didn't say a definite no but he didn't want to get my hopes up. I posted here not to bash Cobb but to let others know since this failure could have been a lot worse.

 

Speaking of worse...I just realized that I effectively have no front bar, well it is connected on one side and a rear bar set to hard. Then throw in the snow that is coming down now...I think I might end up staying home to play it safe. I guess I will have to see how the car behaves on the back roads...I did change tire pressures yesterday hoping to influence over/under steer but I don't think it can over come this one.

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You could just disconnect the rear.

 

I don't think I could since I couldn't get the front undone due to road crap but I'll see what I can do when the snow stops.

 

:eek:

 

who else makes sway bars for our car that are good? This is the 2nd time I've seen disturbing things about the cobb sways.

 

2nd time? Can you provide a link to the other time?

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I don't think I could since I couldn't get the front undone due to road crap but I'll see what I can do when the snow stops.

 

 

 

2nd time? Can you provide a link to the other time?

 

the 1st time was the sway bar coming out of a bushing or something. The owner had an outback. I dont recall what came of it, but it was still a fitment concern to me when it comes to suspension flex.

 

 

the thread hasnt been bumped in a while so its probably buried in my subscribes.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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really though, i wouldnt get my hopes up either on getting COBB to replace it, and you arent. I understand that you might not be that pressed about having COBB replace it, but it would still bother me that they dont wan to do anything to help you out. Seems like a company that is just wanting the money but not willing to help anyone out.

 

Remind them that the economy isnt all that great.

 

 

I bought a bran new COBB catted downpipe. i wanted to install a wideband but i could not find out anywhere on here what size the bung was to remove that little torque bit. i was on the phone with them for a half an hour, and then was told it was 22mm. i had to call back and argue with them that it wasnt 22mm.

 

its just that kind of servie that you can expect. go buy perrins. i have had COBB sway bars and then these perrins. i would rather take my money somewhere else for better service anyways. tell COBB about the thread you started as well.

OTM.

Sorry I didn't mean to start a war which mainly forum people is all about ;).
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I've almost always seen/heard about good customer service from Cobb relating to these matters, specifically when something breaks at a point where it clearly shouldn't break. I mean, you can install an endlink bolt poorly and somehow break the bolt-hole in the sway bar....but you can't really make the sway bar shear somewhere along it's length, at least in my mind.

 

That's a product defect, and they should eat the cost....even if it's "Ship the broken one back to us at your cost and we'll ship you a new front sway bar on ours". Probably $100 out of pocket for them, give or take.

 

Joe

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im not a big sway bar guy after popping them into the miata (and yes, pop is the operative word because that's all they do apparnetly)

 

yes, you get results but i would likely be happier having gotten a set of coilovers instead of the sways + konis that i did.

car for sale. PM me!
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HUMMMMMMM. If you carefully look at the sway bar bearing, , it looks like a Perrin spherical bearing, sans the grease fitting. It is possible that the bearing froze and something had to give, to wit the sway bar!???
"Belief does not make truth. Evidence makes truth. And belief does not make evidence."
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HUMMMMMMM. If you carefully look at the sway bar bearing, , it looks like a Perrin spherical bearing, sans the grease fitting. It is possible that the bearing froze and something had to give, to wit the sway bar!???

 

I think you are referring to the SS shaft collars that I installed per this thread: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38084 It was noted that Cobb did not include features to keep the bar from shifting to one side or the other which caused severe misalignment of the end links. Since I am running STOCK endlinks I was concerned they would break so I picked up the collars from McMaster.

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sounds like you could have moved the failure point downstream then. If for whatever reason the shaft was in a bind and the end links would normally have been the stress point, but the collars prevented the stress from transferring.. something had to give I would guess.

 

whats odd to me is it sounds like you were just joe normal driving down the road. A "performance" sway bar should not snap like that even under autoX conditions imo.

 

I'm surprised Cobb hasnt been more eager to address the seemingly growing number of issues with these bars. I mean you had to basically install those collars to keep the sway bar from moving.. wouldn't a properly designed system not have this problem to begin with? I mean you dont see this happening with stockers right?

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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sounds like you could have moved the failure point downstream then. If for whatever reason the shaft was in a bind and the end links would normally have been the stress point, but the collars prevented the stress from transferring.. something had to give I would guess.

 

whats odd to me is it sounds like you were just joe normal driving down the road. A "performance" sway bar should not snap like that even under autoX conditions imo.

 

I'm surprised Cobb hasnt been more eager to address the seemingly growing number of issues with these bars. I mean you had to basically install those collars to keep the sway bar from moving.. wouldn't a properly designed system not have this problem to begin with? I mean you dont see this happening with stockers right?

 

FWIW, when I installed the JDM 20mm RSB, using the stock end links, on my 05 LGT I installed collars to limit side to side movement. It is just a smart thing to do for any bar.

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