what causes the rear swaybar links to snap?

[czar loc]

Flushed the brake fluid out of my wagon and found my rear passangers sway bar link has completely snapped into two peices straight threw the center, I have only traveled 1500km since replacing them 6months ago (hard race branded from trademe, and curious if it could have been faulty, but after doing a bit of looking on the net I am wondering if the fact that I have converted it to a vf23 and there is a noticeably bigger increase in power and torque if this is the cause? I have replaced with a spare one for now but if it happens again what should I be looking at doing modification wise to remedy? Cheers

[Kiwi_Fozze]

i'd be using quality brand swaybar links, think whiteline or similar...

[DacerX]

depends on what car they are on

[Dacca]

Where the originals replaced because they also broke?

I personally think hardrace is over hyped. They look just like stock ones.

Whit line are nice but pricey,SaaS have their own brand of alloy links for $50

[Rosssub]

+1, plastic fantastic aren't they? If your cars very low, or capable of cocking a leg going in and out of driveways etc. All that strain and twist is going on your sway links. Same with hard cornering or big bumps on one side.

The cheap steel adjustable ones in my garage thread are still going strong:

http://clubsub.org.nz/forum/showthread.php?40238-Oddball-swaybars-and-links-in-BH5

[czar loc]

No, rubber was worn, failed wof, and yea the quality of the link isn't great as were it broke it is a honeycomb looking **** going on, rubber bush itself is still 100% algud though, car is a bg5b and it is low and home driveway is steep, lol, but yea will get some steel ones asap, cheers

[Guest]

Mines been pretty low for over a year on adjusties so cocks a leg all the time. Never had an issue running big swaybar and stock gen links afaik.

[loner]

lol at vf23 question

Ask for your money back... replace with stock, or something alloy or steel.

[czar loc]

 loner said:

lol at vf23 question .

um ok.. after a wee while searching on the net that was the initial conclusion I was getting suggesting that increased engine power is a factor although alot of the examples were fwd hondas, so if along with this and other mods recently done completely changing the car to something so different from stock thay weren't up to the job maybe a one off but I will move on to replacing with steel ones and on that the arse end of the car is pretty solid/stiff currently on stock shocks that probley never been replaced, but ive got a set of tein HA coilovers in the shed from a 1995 wrx so might see if thay are algud to go in and go from there.

[loner]

It could just be a one off... it is pretty weird for a link to break... but I don't think you have told us what size bar you have,

or what the car is used for, or how hard it's driven. If you have something massive like a 27mm, then the link and mounts will break... especially if you are using stock shock/springs, as the swaybar will be doing a lot of work.

[czar loc]

Rear end is all stock, and just to work and back not hard at all, a few trips to the beach fishing with a kayak on top and a a full boot, but yea only had the car 7months so haven't done to much suspension wise except replace those, will upload a photo, but I think that plastic is just a waste of time anyway.

[czar loc]

Edited June 30, 2014 by DacerX

[DacerX]

They just do it under load, they are plastic and are designed to let go before anything else.