Hi everyone. I installed vmaxx coilovers about 3 months ago. I always heard a clunking noise when hitting bumps, but recently I started hearing a terrible metal on metal sound. Jacked the car up, took the wheel off, wanted to see what was up. I ended up seeing this:



If you look towards the back of the coilover, you can see where the endlink snapped off. I'm not sure why it did this, but it did. I was under the car looking and all I see that it connects to is my front sway bar. So my questions are:

1) What can I do about this? Would this be a warranty issue with the coilovers?
2) Is the car safe to drive? It appears to me that it only connects to the front sway bar, and the front sway bar still is connected with the bushing.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

You may have some excessive body roll, but if you keep your turns nice and smooth I don't think it would be a problem to drive with until you can get a new link installed (which should happen asap, of course).

Clunking isn't something that should be ignored though. I don't really understand how it could be ignored after you installed the coilovers. For that reason alone, I put sole blame for this damage on you. I don't intend any offence by that, but I really doubt the coilovers directly caused the broken ball joint.

 

I didn't ignore it when I installed the coilovers- I actually had a certified MINI mechanic help me out with the install. When the coilovers consistently made noise, I went back to him and he said that it was normal to have noise when the coilovers were so set low.

 

Just remove the end link or tie it away from everything so it does not bind up other moving parts, such as the spring.
You can drive without the sway bar connected.

 

I removed the endlink and it is no longer making noise. I didn't notice any excessive body roll from my short drive with it removed.

 

From the look of it, the attachment on the shock body failed. You'll need a welder to fix that, or get a new shock. There is some possibility that the lower spring perch there put extra stress on the mounting tab for the sway-bar drop-link, contributing to its failure.

If the shock was a new part for the coil-over swap, then the swap is definitely responsible. Do the stock shocks have the sway-bar drop-link mounted the same way? That doesn't look very strong to me--from the picture, it looks like the mounting there is a single flat piece of metal with a hole through it. Loads on the link would tend to flex the mounting tab back and forth, which would lead to fatigue cracks and exactly the failure we see here.

If you had to remove and reinstall the link when you installed the coil-overs, the mounting tab could have gotten bent during that process. That will contribute to early failure as well.

 

As stated above: drive conservatively and you should be ok until you fix it.

 

I see what happened now, that's what I get for using a phone.

I still can't really identify how the lower end connects to the sway bar, it looks pretty steep though.

Again though, your next drive should be a calm one involving a stop at Mini. I also wouldn't be too trusting of that mechanic as something was obviously wrong. Trust your instincts - if something sounds or feels wrong, it probably is.

 

I appreciate everyone's help so far.

I agree, he got very defensive when I said I thought something was wrong. I drove back to his house and he kind of threw out "You're probably just too low". Strangely, I have noticed that since I took my endlink out, I am no longer getting clunking on that side of the car, so it might be related. It is now just making a clunking noise over bumps on the passenger side (the side which is still intact).
I tried to visualize how the endlink connected to the tab, but I could not get it to match up. I am guessing you'd have to use a car jack to jack up the wheel base so you could bolt it on? I know you have to do that to install the rear coilovers, so who knows.

I am hoping it's under warranty (I don't see why it wouldn't be), so I'm assuming they'll just send me a new front shock and I'll be on my merry way.

StF- I went to my basement to look at my stock shocks, and thought the stock shock's tab looked stronger than the vmaxx tabs. They were cheap coilovers, but still- they should be practical.

I will keep this forum updated as I learn more information.

 

Cheap azz shocks, with crappy fabrication. Happens all the time.

 

From the look of it, the mounting tab used to be taller, with a hole through it. The bolt that goes through the drop-link went through the hole in the tab.

I wouldn't stress too hard about the sway-bar end of the drop-link, it attaches however it attaches. But that upper attachment looks very cheesy and not up to the job. At least, if I'm seeing what I think I am seeing.

 

I spoke to Vmaxx, and they told me that it would be covered under warranty, and to go ahead and unbolt my other endlink- so I did. Now the swaybar is completely disconnected, and the car handles like absolute ****. So I'm kinda ticked about that. But, get this- the car is making no clunking noise whatsoever! So I attributed this to the fact that whenever I would hit bumps, the swaybar would hit the body of the car, and it would cause a very loud clunking noise. I looked at the sway bar and it appeared to have marks on it from where it had been hitting the body of the car.

Does anyone have any way around this? I obviously want to get my front sway bar connected back again so that the car handles like a MINI and not an American car, but I don't want the clunking back.

 

I think you'll need to talk to the people you got the kit from about that as well. If the bar is hitting the body, the links are either the wrong length or the attachment is in the wrong place.

Unless the sway bar is aftermarket too?

 

You probably should get some adjustable links that you can shorten to make the fit more like stock. I am just guessing that the length of the stock ones is too long for the total travel of the lowered shock. I am imagining the link should be set to be in the middle of the travel so up and down will put the same force on the part. If it is too high, it is lifting the shock, or at least fighting it all the time and a big compression really stresses things.

Just a guess, but adjustable endlinks should stop this from happening again.

 

Just to clear up a few things.

The endlink mounting point on the shock body doesn't change. Every one I've seen is in the same place relative to the length of the shaft. Lowering the car lowers the attachment point of the anti roll bar to the body.

The more you lower the car the LONGER the endlink needs to be to keep the anti roll bar horizontal to the ground.

You really need to install the endlinks with the suspension loaded. I bet the clunking you heard was a result of improper installation, and the endlink was loose.

 

Makes sense. How would I go about installing the endlinks with the suspension under load? Would I use a car jack and jack up the wheel base (with the rotors, etc) when the wheels were off, and then bolt it on?

 

Raise the car closer to the stock ride height. If the sway bar is hitting the body it's too low.

 

Put the front of the car up on ramps. The suspension will be loaded because the weight of the car will be on it.

 

Get adjustable end links. Shorten it to fit the ride height. That sucks though, looks like it broke off the actual shock.

 

Ramps will work, but the tire kind of gets in the way.

I use either a pair of floor jacks, (heck, I've only got 3...) or I'll use a pair of under hoist stands when the car is on the lift.

 

I do not have ramps so I use two jacks. One to lift car and one to lift the suspension a little to get the end link in the sway bar hole.