Front Sway End Links ?
 

Happy afternoon all,

I am looking for any replacement for the front sway bar end links.
- I've seen SPL, but those apparently do not stay tight.

What is available for the front?

:driving:

Pretty sure whiteline has front end links available

I keep reading about swaybar links. Are these a problems? I currently only have ft eibach swaybars do they come loose or something?

Whiteline only makes end links for the rear of the 370z. :(

And they're garbage. They fail faster than oem ones.

Good note Chuck... thanks!!

I have SPL links and haven't had any issues so far.

Yea I think SPL is your only option. Havent heard about them loosening up either. :confused:

Me either. Issue free so far. :tup:

Okay, so presuming they DO stay tight.

Any handling/feeling difference before/after installation? :confused:

:tup:

Not that I could tell. But you can preload the bar if you want.

There is another post about them being loose, I have them now and I put a lock washer and Loctite and still came loose after 2 months, so I'm waiting to get my camber arms in so I can do my whole suspension and really wrench those nuts down. I get a little dull clunk on driveways and bends but nothing crazy just annoying to know its there.

enough thread to do 2 nuts to jam them? dat will keep them nuts tight...usually. worth a try.

No problem with mine as well.

Well I'll provide my experience with SPL endlinks. I put them on, correct length, verified by SPL. Whenever I'm driving I can hear clunks as the road surface changes or if I hit imperfections in the asphalt. Even backing out of my driveway is a small curb and they make noise on that. I thought maybe they were loosening up, I bought some really good locking nuts from McMaster Carr. Installed those torqued them to the correct torque. Same issue happened again on the test drive within a block from my house.

So I decided to blue loctite with new locking nuts. Let it sit the night, drove it the next day same issue. So I doubled nut it (keep in mind each time I added a locking nut it was new not reused) and the same issue. So I left it double nutted and it makes noise still but doesn't loosen up. The nuts have remained the same torque each time I checked, even after autocross events. I'm just wondering if they clunk due to the spherical bushings they use?

If you can deal with the clunking like I do then they're not an issue. Keep in mind my car is a autocross car only, and is hardly driven on the street.

Lack of lubrication in the sway bar brackets? Use something like silicone grease (marine application) which is very resistant to water.

Thinking about this. Did you wrap the swaybar bushing area with teflon pipe tape and grease?

but arent even the factory endlinks spherical joint inside the boot? it shouldnt make any noise.
i run powergrids on my G (stillen swaybars) and no noise wat so ever.

Exposed spherical bearings are noisy. They shouldn't be on a street car. The comment about the stock bearings being spherical - they're enclosed with grease in them and booted to keep dirt out. No problems there. If you've gotten away with no noise on a pillowball bushing, give it time. They'll start clunking.

the powergrids are exposed spherical bearings, and so are the stillen rear rods i run on my G. no noise. ive had this setup for 11yrs? lol

btw my post about the factory endlinkds wasnt a question.. i just posted it with a question mark not to alienate the op.

Yes they are noisy. The reason they are noisy is because when installed positioned at the center of their travel they are quiet, but as soon as you drive they move to the edge of their travel and clank against the metal part of the bearing. You can jack up the car, readjust the bearing to center it, but as soon as you go over a couple of bumps it will return to its prior state and clunk. I contacted SPL regarding this to verify I had them adjusted properly and was told the clunking was characteristic of spherical bearings.

You have to live with it. If someone asks you what that noise is put on your cool face and tell them it's your racing spherical end links.

Yup, from SPL themselves, it's the nature of spherical bearings.

Don't like to hear this of the SPL endlinks -- as I am examining my options for suspension upgrades now. I was really leaning towards the hotchkis bars with SPL endlinks, but if these things make a lot of noise -- I don't want to install. This is my DD, and I don't want a noisy/clunky result from aftermarket endlinks. Would rather just do springs/struts/coils and leave the sways the way they are...

I've had the Hotchkis bars and SPL endlinks for about 2 years now (about 15 trackdays). The only thing that I get is some noise from the swaybar bushings being dry. I fixed that with wrapping teflon pipe tape around the bar where the bushing fits, and greasing the bushing really well. And greasing them every time I change oil.

Yeah, I would go with the Hotchkis bars and Moog endlinks because they all have Zerk fittings.

Makes sense. Thank you for providing your experience.

The only time I hear them is when backing out of my driveway or rolling through the bumpy, broken up roads in my neighborhood at 25 mph. I never hear them past 35mph. Coil overs are not as quiet as the stock suspension either. The engineering and testing put into OEM automobile suspensions to keep them quiet at all speeds and conditions and how good a job the manufacturers do is a constant source of amazement for me. Cars have come a loooong, loooong way since my first car, a 1973 Dodge Charger that I bought for $50 because it didn't run.

A lot of coilovers use pillowball top mounts. As in, exposed spherical bearings. If you use coilovers that reuse the stock upper mounts and use a quality shock, the difference is minimal. Bilstein and Koni both reuse the stock tops and they are not any noisier than stock.