'04 sedan 6MT with OEM "sport" (red) shocks and coupe coils.

The first (original) rear end links lasted about 80,000 miles with no significant wear. I swapped-out the stock springs for purple OEM coupe springs about two years ago and did a proper alignment.

Second set of rear end-links lasted about 8k miles before wearing to the point they had to be replaced.

I'm not generally a spirited driver and I don't live an a "pothole" area. The suspension doesn't get a lot of abuse. And I don't drive my car a lot. I have a motorbike, too, and I live close to work. My car maybe gets 3500 miles a year.

Any thoughts on premature wear of the swaybar end-links? Would a 1" lowering of the suspension add a significant amount of stress on its own?

 

how do you determine that end links are worn?

 

lateral play. Basically the lower joints are shot. L & R.

 

Upgrade to Whiteline endlinks...haven't looked back

 

lateral is side to side play. the end links dont really play a big part in controlling side to side.
body roll yes, but thats not the same thing.
your lower ball joints could just be worn out from normal conditions.

 

that's just weird to me. I mean, 8k? I could see maybe 25k at the minimum, but a third of that?

I live on the West Coast - no snow/ice/potholes. There are some gnarly speed-bumps in my neighbourhood and at work, but I take them dead slow.

I don't get it.

 

Endlinks don't wear out in 8K miles unless they're receiving major stress or they're cheap Chinese trash. I had a similar issue and switched to Power Grid end links. With around 30K miles on them, no issues and working great...Gary