So I've read about some people switching out endlinks when they change out their sway bars, but I didn't believe it was really necessary. Turns out they are fallible as I sheared the bottom bolt connecting the endlink to the lower control arm on the front, passenger side. I've got the hotchkis bars set to med/med and I've put 2 track days on them. The bolt sheared when I was making a right turn up a fairly steep driveway. I heard a "pop" and some clunking after that. I must have weakened the bolt after all that use, and this driveway was the last bit it needed to fail. Luckily I was going about 5 mph so it didn't really matter, but if I was in a high speed turn on a track and this broke, I'm not sure how bad it might have been.

 

Good for you it could have been ugly.

 

If correctly installed, it seems to me an unlikely part to shear. Sure the Hotchkis bar means increased force applied, and the right hand steep hill might also apply more force than even in extreme cornering but geez! Could the bolt have been left untorqued, or been loose? Was an impact wrench used for installation? Maybe it was overtorqued.

I've been considering drilling an extra hole 3/4 of an inch in on my stock (factory sport suspension) swaybars to shorten the lever and increase roll stiffness but no one has been able to comment on experience or potential problems.

I'm interested to hear your story, although it still leaves me not really knowing much more except that failure can occur. Imagining the geometry of the bar while turning as you describe onto a steep hill, the right wheel/arm would be pressed pretty fully up while the left could be left low creating a maximum sway bar stress situation for sure... thanks for sharing!

 

Now I am so daaam self conscious about hanging turns with my Stillen Sways set on Med/Med. I am scared to see what would happen if the link all of the sudden busted while I am hanging a turn. Anyone else have failing or failed endlinks?

 

well, since the bolt connecting the endlink to the lower control arm hasn't been touched since the car was originally put together, I can only tell you that it wasn't my doing for this failure. I removed the upper endlink when I switched the sway bars, but actually that bolt I can't take off right now since I can't get a grip on the bolt to loosen the nut. I'm gonna have to take a dremel to the bolt to notch it and put a screw driver on it while I back off the nut with a box wrench.

Whenever installing items, I always use a torque wrench where possible and don't have any impact tools to overtorque. I would imagine the failure of that bolt is most likely due to the combined extra stiffness my sway bars provide as well as a few potholes and speed bumps I've taken at an angle. On the bright side as long as the car isn't at the limit, the endlink is only $22.79 at Infiniti to replace. Since the endlink itself didn't fail, I'm gonna replace the broken part with an OEM piece. The bolt that sheared may have just been defective, and I'm not totally convinced that spending $75 per endlink aftermarket is worth it. Plus I would imagine that the bolts on the aftermarket piece are of similar hardness and durability as the OEM piece. The advantage to the aftermarket ones are their adjustability and the strength of the ball joints and body.

 

sweet dude .. thats what i call driving

 

I hear that 350Z people have lots of clunking issues with their oem endlinks? I don't hear many problems about our factory endlinks with aftermarket sways. I saw on some searches where some G's had noises. Anyone else have issues with the factory endlinks with aftermarket sways?

I am just seeing if I should just break the bank and shell out for some super expensive spl endlinks.

 

Well, maybe there's a good reason for aftermarket links when upgrading sway bars then. They may be stronger/harder.

 

Before buying new OEM, maybe ask if there are different parts for standard and sport suspensions, if they're different ask for the sport suspension part.

I checked and found out that the shocks/struts have different part numbers for sport vs standard suspension.

My stock front sway bar (sport suspension) is 1 3/8" thick. Anybody know if the standard suspension is thinner?

Just a thought.

 

So I bought a new OEM endlink and replaced the broken one. Getting a grip on the bolt connecting the endlink to the swaybar was a bitch. I had to grind off the flat sheetmetal tab which is supposed to keep it from spinning when turning the nut. Since the original one sucked major *****, I used a hammer and tapped the new one off as you can see in one of the pictures. This way I can just grab the bolt with a pair of vice grips which works pretty well.

You can also see the end of the original bolt where I had to grind off some of the threads since they were a little bent while I was grinding a notch to keep the bolt from turning.

 

Did you drive it around while you still had the broken endlink or did you just give the car a rest til you replaced the endlink?

 

It seems that it was manufacturing defect. Aftermarket end link won't help against such failure, because it would use same diameter hardware, otherwise it will not fit in mounting hole in lower control arm.

 

Hmmm....the spl ones look stronger to me.

http://www.splparts.com/Parts/Z33/Su...rs/default.asp

 

I just zip tied and taped the enlink to the sway bar and drove the car around. Without a sway bar the car will oversteer if you push it, but at normal speeds its not really noticeable. As for the strength of the bolt that bolt: the size is a factor but so is the composition of metal. If the aftermarket ones from SPL use a different alloy, it could be stronger, but I don't know what the type of metal used was in the original one or the type in the aftermarket ones.

 

extremely old thread, sorry

just did the exact same thing on mine, going up a steep hill into a parking lot. im lowered so i need to take those at an angle. heard the "pop" and found a sheared half bolt/nut on the ground. however, i had my hotchkis sway set to full stiff in the front instead of medium and i have whiteline endlinks. may have been overtorqued because they kept clunking so i tightened them down pretty hard, but it sounds like this has happened before. am i ok to drive home a few miles? i dont have a way to ziptie or repair where it is now. thanks

i also never adjusted the endlinks properly, because they were pretty noisy. could this have contributed to that bolt shearing?