Sway Bar End Links

[thezoneR32]

After a recent mishap (see pic below) I am wondering if I should get a set of aftermarket front end links or perhaps just new oem ones. I'm running a 26mm H&R bar in the front. Or does anyone think this may be a one off fault of the strut? Anyone have any thought on this?

[noone]

Interested to hear what people think, are they KW's?

[thezoneR32]

yes HPA KW SHS.

[stormshark]

yes HPA KW SHS.

I had this issue with those shocks and H and R Sways. Std VWattachments too short, highly strung,shore off the strut mount "ring" lhs. I bought some "adjustable links" from Ian at Rennenhouse and it seems to have fixed the problem. Hope this helps.They should not sell the Sway bars without them in my opinion.

[thezoneR32]

I had this issue with those shocks and H and R Sways. Std VWattachments too short, highly strung,shore off the strut mount "ring" lhs. I bought some "adjustable links" from Ian at Rennenhouse and it seems to have fixed the problem. Hope this helps.They should not sell the Sway bars without them in my opinion.

Thanks for the reply. Jeez this has actually happened to you as well? Sheet! I was beginning to think this was a one off. I have heard all sorts of negative things about adjustable end links? Did you have to give your first born child to Ian? Last time I bought something form him I had to mortgage my house!

[stormshark]

Thanks for the reply. Jeez this has actually happened to you as well? Sheet! I was beginning to think this was a one off. I have heard all sorts of negative things about adjustable end links? Did you have to give your first born child to Ian? Last time I bought something form him I had to mortgage my house!

Hi TZR32, I actually claimed on warranty for the strut, however they did charge freight,no problem with the adjustable links(6mths fingers crossed).The Suspension guys swore i must have hit something with it shorn off, but i hadn't, just a huge amount of tension cause the VW std too short.Occasional "twang" or noise on full wheel lock, but look like a fine bit of engineered kit. From memory they were under $300 from Ian, cheaper i recall than Whiteline quoted at the time or didn't have in stock from memory.

[Tim]

Instead of going to the expense of adjustable drop links you can actually have the standard ones shortened to suit your setup.
You wont get as many "Scene points" but it will be just as functional if not better. (you still need to ascertain if there is any length issue here. The standards ones may be just fine.)

[VWindahouse]

Also Pedders do a very robust set of adjustable endlinks that are custom cut down to the height you require as the entire shaft is threaded. And literally less than a third of the price mentioned above

[noone]

your current droplinks / endlinks must have been pretty robust in order to not break but pass enough force through to bend / break the tab on the strut.

I buy OEM from the UK, usually about $30-40 (different car).

These look interesting (can't comment on the quality)

[Tim]

For the record this kind of damage isnt that uncommon either. To me it all comes back to a strut that has been under-engineered.
The forces that go through this link arent always just lateral either. Plenty more examples on the net of damage occuring on cars that are driven hard.
You can spot the design similarities on all the ones that are failing.

VWR coilovers


Cross coilovers


BG coilovers

[Guy_H]

The failure is all about the length of the sway bar link, the angle of the head (the way it pushes up with a twisting force twists / sideloads the coilover bracket).

You need to have the correct link for the application, and generally the stock one wont work & cause a failure (because of the above) unless the coil over was designed to use stock mounts.

To work out the length you need (if you are making your own), you need to have the car sitting level (loaded), the sway bar set to its intermediate movement position, and then set the sway bar link length from that. Once the length is set, then position the ball head in the centre of the steering movement plane, so there is no side load from turning. This is the part that starts to flex the mount on the strut & causes the failure.

Here is a pic of the links supplied with the VWR coilovers, being installed on a customers Golf R. You can see the adjustable heads / ends.



Nolathane make a good adjustable product, you need to measure the bolt hole size for your application - but they are a great cost effective solution:

Nolathane 42790 Front Sway bar - link assembly

[dylan8]

Instead of going to the expense of adjustable drop links you can actually have the standard ones shortened to suit your setup.
You wont get as many "Scene points" but it will be just as functional if not better. (you still need to ascertain if there is any length issue here. The standards ones may be just fine.)

I disagree, more scene points for custom stuff!
We made some custom ones for my mk4 (bit longer then stock in my case) after my whiteline ones failed within the week.

second Tim, can you confirm you need shorter or longer? is the sway bar hitting on something?
Answered by Guy

[Guy_H]

P.S. in some of the previous failure pics in the thread, you can see it was a sideways force that has twisted the mount to start with.

[Idle]

Quite agree with Tim.

Pic's show signs of metal fatigue — always a sign of lack of rigidity (but then, if you make them too rigid you shift the motion somewhere else...)

[Tim]

Im no engineer but if you have a look at a bilstein strut for instance you can see the force is then distributed to the shock body which is cylindrical stainless steel. Not only that. It then has multiple weld points which help resist shear forces which what cracks welds.