Hi all, this weekend was time for a long awaited install of my front and rear Eibach anti-sway bars. Everything went fine. I had the install made with the car on jack stands and the wheels relaxed (no load on the bars). I tightened the **** out of every nut and bolt. The result when cornering is no short of amazing, the car is glued to the pavement now with a tremendous road feel.

But about 30mn into the first test drive, I came back downtown and heard an odd rear clunking noise, like **plok!**... kind of a wooden club knocking on the chassis. It only comes at slow speed when going over potholes and only one wheel dipping in the hole or going over a speed bump. I made a search but I can find no straightforward solution. The only common denominator seems to boil down to the end-link between the rear sway bar and the chassis. Again I don't get it cause I torqued the nuts like crazy + used loctite.

If anybody knows more I would greatly appreciate the input. Thanks!
RAF

 

I'm getting ready to install my Eibach sway bars later this week, so I might have some more insight then, but about all I can suggest now is getting the car up in the air with a load on the suspension, like on ramps for instance, loosen any hardware related to the sway bar and retighten it. Whenever I've installed sway bars on other cars, I typically do it with a load on the suspension with the car on ramps if at all possible.

 

Thanks. Well def let me know how it goes for you. Apparently it is a common issue with setting up these bars and it takes a little bit of tweaking to delete the clunking. I just don't know what kind of tweaking...

 

I had a clunking from my rear suspension two years ago at low speed, mostly on just one sided though. It started up about 9 months after I put on the sway bars and spring/struts. Started during the winter and come spring time it disappeared. I had a shop take a look at it but they didn't find anything. I didn't get any clunking this past winter, but I had the control arms put on prior to then.

 

I got the rear Eibach bar installed on my '08 yesterday evening. Went pretty smoothly, I only had the car about 4" in the air on some homemade ramps, wheels never came off for the install. Didn't get any clunking noises on the test drive I took today which included highway driving, around town driving, and some twisty country roads. The closest I got was a bit of a dull thud noise once or twice when hitting a pothole or uneven pavement, but it didn't strike me as out of the ordinary as the rear suspension is now stiffer due to the bigger rear sway bar and some of the stock rubber bushings were replaced with the polyurethane Eibach bushings. It is the kind of noise I often get on cars I've stiffened the suspension on in one way or another.

 

I had NO tweaking or clunking when I installed my Eibach kit.
The only thing I remember, was the factory bolts for the upper end of the rear swaybar links were slightly smaller than the holes in the aluminum links, perhaps recheck the torque on those 2 bolts.
Have had the Eibach set on for a year or 2 now with no problems.

 

Ok guys. Thanks for the input. I do feel that it must come from the swaybar links as well. Rechecking the torque will be the first thing I'll do when I revisit it in the coming days. I'll update the thread in case it helps someone down the road.

 

Alright, so here's the verdict. I emailed Eibach over the week and got a quick answer from them. Very good customer service by the way but I'm not really surprised. They advised me to check on the nuts on the rear end links first. So I lifted the car again with the back wheels off the ground. I immediately noticed that the nuts had loosened up as apparently it is commonly happening after the initial install. I swear this time I torqued the F out of every nuts till I was about turning my own body around them! Then I took that test drive and you bet there is no more clunking.

So advice to those of you who think about installing these sway bars themselves. Just take a quick test drive after the install to loosen the bar once and then go at it a second and last time. That should do the job. That aside, this mod along with the strut tower brace is making the car handle with discipline just like I wanted. It gives the chassis instant reaction just like a go-kart. You can plant the car with sharp precision while entering a corner, then feel the road throughout until you know exactly when the tires can handle some more power. You just "feel" the car and the road like never before. It's perfect. I highly recommend it.

RAF