About two weeks ago I installed an H sport comp rear sway bar. A couple days later I noticed a clunk upon turning. If I turned left I would hear it once and then I would not hear it again until I turned right, and again I would not here until I turned left, etc. Over the last few days it has progressed in its noise and frequency. Now I hear a couple clunks whenever I go over bumps of any sort and it's more pronounced with turning. I have checked every single bolt that was removed during the install, including the subframe, shocks, sway brackets, and links, etc. Everything is tight. Additionally, there are no signs of rubbing or wear and tear anywhere that I can see.

The only potential area of rubbing is on the driver-side sway bracket bushing where there is about 1 mm between that and the chassis. One thing I did notice is that the end links look like they could potentially be blown, but I haven't looked at a whole lot of these OEM ones. I've attached photos, is this a normal appearance? Or are they supposed to be more perpendicular?

For completion sake, I have NM lowering springs, OEM sport suspension shocks, H-Sport rear lower control arms, 17x7 wheels with 5 mm spacers. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Make sure the brackets are torqued. Mine clunked a few days after the install, one bolt had backed out. After that, just a grunt after a while. I plan to remove it and re grease it, wrap the bar with teflon tape as a backup.

 

A clunk like that is usually where the end link attaches to the sway bar - try tightening those nuts - you need to hold the center with a 5mm allen socket and tighten with a 16mm box end wrench, otherwise you can't get them tight enough and they'll make noise.


If the end links aren't loose, they're fine.

 

Thanks for the replies. I checked every bolt and all seemed tight. Today for the first time there is less clunking. Maybe something minimally tightened when I checked that I didn't realize. But I'll double check the end link bolts.

Re: the PTFE tape, so I'm understanding correctly, you're wrapping the whole bar just in case it rubs anywhere?

 

Yea, well. Not the whole bar, just there its against the mounts.

For what its worth, the mounts are super close to body parts on my car as well. 1mm sounds about right, but from what I can tell its not rubbing (no witness marks)

 

Yup, your pictures look just like mine and mine clunks like a son-of-a-pup; has since day one.

I went through everything and made sure all was tight (even the links; I've dealt with loose links before and this doesn't sound the same), added teflon tape around the bar at the mounts and even put washers between the subframe and the car to move it down a bit. Nothing has worked. And have used mirrors and lights to look all around it and see if anything is making contact where it shouldn't; found nothing. And, if I disconnect one link, all of the noise goes away.

I am told by the people who installed it that the noise comes from the bushing in the mounts but have not tried to replace them yet. It is less noisy when it is warm out and worse when it is cold. I think if you look around you will find posts that this is not unusual with these bars...

Well, if anyone finds a solution other than putting in a solid 22mm bar, please post it.

 

Well that sucks. This is so annoying. Because when asking, so many people said this is the bar to get. And one vendor in particular swears by this thing and states no problems ever with it. It's tolerable, but annoying because it makes me feel like I'm driving a rickety car.

Does it improve if you set it at the lowest setting? Maybe I could do that and just pop it up to tightest setting on track days.

 

Well that's good to know, maybe WAY can offer some wisdom as he recommends this bar.

 

Sorry to say, but mine has only been on the softest setting and that is the way it is...

But, between that bar and the 27mm solid bar in the front, I smile from ear to ear every time I carve a corner...

I look at this way, changing the way the car is to improve one thing will likely take away from another. So the car rides a bit stiffer with this setup and it is a little "rickety". I can pull over 1g on street tires in a car that will get me to the ski slopes in the dead of winter in a snow storm, I'll take the "rickety". And pick something good on Pandora and crank it up. As it is, I don't notice it over 30 mph anyway...

But if there is a fix, I'll take it

 

Yeah, for the most part I share that sentiment. Not the end of the world. But I just wish I would've been prepared for it. Would've almost rather had a 19 mm or 22 mm solid with a little less rigidity and no noise. But I guess beggars can't be choosers. And I hope the increased noise in the cold isn't true bc I'm moving from south Florida to Chicago in 8 months. Eek!

 

Could always sell it and get a 22mm, I wouldn't be able to put up with a clunking noise, it drive me nuts.

 

Not to worry about the cold. I live in the Northeast, there is not a big difference between hot and cold weather. There is probably a bigger difference based on how well it is lubed.

As for the 22 mm bar, it is basically the same stiffness as the 25 mm hollow bar, so it would be a good option. Just a thought.

 

I'm not entirely clear on the mechanics of that. Why would the hollow bar clunk more than the solid bar?

 

My rear suspension clunked shortly after putting on the Hotchkiss hollow bar. It sounded just like when I had to replace the bushings on the stock sway bar (28k miles - repair done by the dealer under waranty), so I assumed I screwed up installing the bar, failed to tighten something, didn't lube the bushings properly, etc. After ruling out all of those things eventually I discovered that one of the end links had developed some play and had to be replaced. A few months later the other link developed the same problem so I replaced that one too. The problem disappeared and hasn't come back in >30k miles driven since the last repair.

It's not clear that replacing the sway bar caused the problem. Could just be coincidence. Others told me they had to replace their links with stock suspension at < 30 k miles so maybe the stock part is just a bit fragile.

 

Yeah, it doesn't seem like that's the issue. They seem rock solid. I can grab a fist around the link and try to shake it with no play at all.

The noise is less of the click-clacking on turning that I originally described. Now it's more of a clunk when the car shakes or goes over bumps. Can't really isolate it to one side or the other. I almost wonder if there's any chance the bar itself is hitting the frame somewhere along its length in the center. Like if wrapping it with a thin foam or something would make a difference. Maybe I'm grasping at straws...

 

Mine isnt so much a clunk, more of a grunt.

 

I think the difference with the 22mm bar is that the bushings are thicker which may make it less sensitive to small variations.
That is all I can think of. But what I've see of complaints, the 22mm bar seems to have fewer.

 

This is the same as I would describe mine and I thought the same thing, that it might be hitting something. I tried adding space with washer between the subframe and the car body; no change.

I was actually thinking that it might be the links being just a little loose. I've want to get stronger links. This could be a good excuse.

 

I had exactly this problem a few weeks after I installed my 22mm RSB. I jacked the car up, took both rear wheels off, shook the links as hard as I could, and felt no wiggle or play. I retorqued the nuts anyway and the noise went away. It came back a few weeks later, so this time I backed the nuts off, put on some loctite blue, and torqued it back down again. That was over 2 years ago and it has been quiet ever since.

 

interesting - usually clunking right away points to endlinks. could try new ones if it's really bugging you. I think I might have clunking when I go over speedbumps, but otherwise not sure cuz I'm not sure exactly what the clunking is supposed to sound like


I put Teflon tape on my bar as well as the grease. also worth noting there's a flat on the otherside of the endlink that you can put a 17mm wrench on to hold it - no need to use that little hex key that likes to strip itself

 

I had a horrible clunk after installing mine as well, we thought it was from the sway bar hitting the sub frame so we bent it back as much as we could and it didnt help. Then replaced my stock end links with detroit tuned adjustable end links and it fixed the problem.

 

when real cold my Tarett bar clunk goes away

 

Mine has never made a sound. NM 22mm bar with the end links Way sells on the front, NM end links on the rear. Both end links are good but I like the ones Way sells.

 

I was wondering if that might be a fix. I will have to try that on mine. Thanks for the post.

 

You need to tighten the end links more than you think, even if they look or feel tight. Use a thin-walled open-end wrench or hex key to keep it from rotating while tightening them.

Also do not use Teflon tape. I used it on my larger rear front and rear away bars (2009 Clubman S) because I thought it would give extra protection. It ends up giving a creaking, popping noise in cold freezing weather on the rear, but was fine in warm weather. I removed the tape and relubed and now it's quiet in all weather. The front still has the tape and it creaks in all weather conditions when I go over speed bumps. Don't use Teflon tape!