I see no reason for any aftermarket sway bar to be made worse than stock except inability to do it right or cost savings. I'm sorry, but I don't see here any need for a comfort tradeoff. More weight, higher cost - yes. Much higher noise - no.
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Sway Bars, End Links, and Rear Control Arms Installation & Impression
- Thread starter beastmode13
- Start date
Correct me if I’m wrong @MountainPass...that’s not what I’m reading:
OEM sway: bushings are BONDED. There is no grease at the bushings. So that means the bolted portion to chassis is static and the bar and twists at the ends at each wheel to the chassis. There is a midpoint. Bar cannot move side to side or rotate internal to the bracket.
A to B to A
Aftermarket sway: bushings are not bonded to the bar and the bar rotates freely inside the bushing hence the grease. There is no preload from wheel to the chassis. Only wheel to wheel. The bracket only exists to keep the bar in place in the X and Y Axis. Allowed to move side to side (hence flanges and internal rotation)
A through to B through to A
A=Wheel
B=Chasis
Stock bars bonded, but not static - they can rotate otherwise there will be no suspension travel. But they are preloaded and push both dampers upward. Not high force, but I'm more worried about damaging bushings at full contraction.
Yes, that's correct. I can easily remove and install the front bar with the car on ramps (which to be fair is not full ride height). But I couldn't tell you for sure how much I'm lowered, I didn't measure compared to stock
The rotation largely comes from the bushings I think, not the bar flexing. They pretty flexible.
- Front end links 98 Nm
- Front sway bar nuts 35 Nm
- Rear end links 55 Nm
- Rear sway bar bolts 30 Nm
The main reason for *possible* increased noise with aftermarket suspension products is the use of harder bushings. Impacts that would normally be absorbed by the rubber get transferred elsewhere. It doesn't mean it always causes more noise, or noise that you would notice, but it's a valid point.
However that's not what's being discussed here, at least not in my case. This is a *clunking* sound caused by (hopefully) a defective bushing that's too loose around the bar. Or a clunking sound caused by the bar shifting left and right and the flanges hitting the bushings (but this one seems less likely). Or maybe both...
Sorry, didn't mean to be confusing. It's 98 Nm for all of the front end link nuts, top and bottom:
The 35 Nm value is for the nuts holding the bushing mounts:
I had the same, returned to stock, clunking is gone. I hope MPP would release properly designed sway bar...
Reminder: I'm one of the ones with a clunking sound caused by the Unplugged Performance front sway bar. UP sent me a set of replacement bushings to try. I installed the replacement bushings today and retested. I was not able to reproduce the clunking sound with the replacement bushings. The replacement bushings have a noticeably tighter fit, especially once the bar is bolted onto the car (the clamps seem to compress the bushings a bit more).
There's still a gap between the flange and the bushing so I think I can conclude the cause of the noise was the bushings being too loose, and not the flange hitting the bushing.
If you're having this issue, I recommend contacted UP for replacement bushings.
There's still a gap between the flange and the bushing so I think I can conclude the cause of the noise was the bushings being too loose, and not the flange hitting the bushing.
If you're having this issue, I recommend contacted UP for replacement bushings.
Good feedback and good that @UnpluggedP was able to help and make it right. Mine has been quiet and I have a steep driveway and speed bumps in my neighborhood.
Thanks everyone we appreciate the support and we pride ourselves on delivering above and beyond with customer service and after sales support. I'm glad we've been able to support with our ongoing improvements and revisions to some of the members here in this thread. We are here for everyone always and can easily be reached at [email protected].
We continue to evolve on our suspension products like our sway bars rapidly. In fact we're happy to announce here first our latest Racing & Competition version Model 3 sway bar set using a new tubular rear bar designed in excess of 25mm (our first sway bar releases were copied rapidly after publishing so please forgive us for not disclosing more details).
We are also looking forward to offering our front and rear adjustable end links very soon as they are in production currently.
In the meantime wishing everyone safe and fun driving!
PS - Our sway bars recently scored back to back wins in Japan's EV Grand-Prix series JEVRA (the car also uses our race spec 1 way coilovers, our adjustable suspension arms and our competition brake pads). We always love hearing great results coming in from around the world, more to come!
We continue to evolve on our suspension products like our sway bars rapidly. In fact we're happy to announce here first our latest Racing & Competition version Model 3 sway bar set using a new tubular rear bar designed in excess of 25mm (our first sway bar releases were copied rapidly after publishing so please forgive us for not disclosing more details).
We are also looking forward to offering our front and rear adjustable end links very soon as they are in production currently.
In the meantime wishing everyone safe and fun driving!
PS - Our sway bars recently scored back to back wins in Japan's EV Grand-Prix series JEVRA (the car also uses our race spec 1 way coilovers, our adjustable suspension arms and our competition brake pads). We always love hearing great results coming in from around the world, more to come!
Hey guys, thought I'd chime in. I have not had any issues with the UP bars since putting them on my car in May. I did actually compare the 2 bars between Eibach and UP, and found issues with the Eibach's lack of a flange design, which caused the bar to shift under light use. I had the Eibach's on for about 600 miles, and they only truly felt tight after the first road test. The UP units have been on about 1000 miles now and the car still feels razor sharp in the twisties. I'd recommend the UP bars as the Eibach looks too be a poor man's copy.
Thanks for pointing me to your thread. I’ve emailed UPP. I too have spent hours working and trying to eliminate this clunk. it makes my car sound like a junky old GTI I owned that had worn out MacPherson Strut bushings. Hopefully they will send me also some new bushings.
UPP, please see the email i sent you this morning. I sure would like the replacement bushings sent for my front and rear bars that I purchased in February this year (may have been January). Nothing i do gets rid of this damn clunk. Tired of jacking up the car and tearing the undersides apart in hopes of discovering the issue
Ok, so i just bought some whiteline adjustable sway bar links but have not yet installed them. Frankly in hopes of getting rid of the noise over bumps. Based on reading further here, i suspect its caused by too much slack or too much hardness in the bushings that UPP provided for their front and rear sway bars. I don’t track the car. I still have the packaging. debating keeping or returning the whiteline links. Anyone have any issues with them, or difficulties installing? I sure hope i can remove the stock links. I’ve torqued up right up to the limit trying to get rid of the clunks.
Amen. so tired of jacking the car up with my floor jack, then repeating multiple timesYes. In addition to possible issues with the bushings, the new bar also has more slop between the flanges where the bushing stops are:
View attachment 554306
The old bar wasn't this bad. However I already checked with UP and they said the distance between the flanges (663.5 mm) is "correct". Note that the mounts do have a small amount of side-to-side slop in the bolt holes, but not enough to eliminate the gap you see in the photo.
My initial theory was that the sound was caused by the bar moving left to right so that the flanges hit the bushings. However after removing the bar I noted there is a large amount of slop on one side (only) between the bar and the bushing. The other side has no slop at all. I haven't pulled the bushings off to measure everything yet. UP sent me a new set of bushings to try as well. I did note the replacement bushings have a slightly different design so maybe something has changed.
I suspect it's a defect in the bar though, not the bushings, especially if I'm not the only one with the issue.
(and just to be clear, I put the stock bar back on and there is absolutely no noise at all, the noise is definitely related to the UP sway bar)
I'm awaiting some Race Ramps before I dive back in and try to isolate what's going on. Jacking the car up and down over and over again is not my idea of a fun time
rotus8
Member
Hi Husky Fan, we are closed for 4th of July but as a small business owner I try to be available even when closed and your message has reached me. Your email sent during the holiday will be responded to by our dedicated team when we reopen next week but I would like to assure you that we will support you 110% every step of the way for the aftersales support that we pride ourselves in.
We guarantee silent operation and full satisfaction of all of our products and we will ensure our full support.
To move rapidly we will provide new bushings to verify completely silent operation of the sway bars (as there was an earlier small production batch of sway bars that we found had occasionally been reported to have some noise and we’ve since switched bushing source).
While we can’t be certain that the noise you are hearing is from our sway bars, for purposes of speed I will proceed regardless and we will ship you the new replacement bushings ASAP. In the event that it is our sway bar that is making noise then the only cause we’ve ever seen was from one particular irregular batch of front bushings and thankfully is a very fast swap out and fix. You have a lifetime warranty on our sway bars and we will make sure they operate perfectly and silently for years to come. I look forward to next week following up to ensure your car is riding perfect and silent as we expect it to.
I’ll PM you directly my personal contact info so that I may be of service if you need anything at all.
Have a great 4th of July!
Sincerely,
Ben Schaffer
Unplugged Performance
We guarantee silent operation and full satisfaction of all of our products and we will ensure our full support.
To move rapidly we will provide new bushings to verify completely silent operation of the sway bars (as there was an earlier small production batch of sway bars that we found had occasionally been reported to have some noise and we’ve since switched bushing source).
While we can’t be certain that the noise you are hearing is from our sway bars, for purposes of speed I will proceed regardless and we will ship you the new replacement bushings ASAP. In the event that it is our sway bar that is making noise then the only cause we’ve ever seen was from one particular irregular batch of front bushings and thankfully is a very fast swap out and fix. You have a lifetime warranty on our sway bars and we will make sure they operate perfectly and silently for years to come. I look forward to next week following up to ensure your car is riding perfect and silent as we expect it to.
I’ll PM you directly my personal contact info so that I may be of service if you need anything at all.
Have a great 4th of July!
Sincerely,
Ben Schaffer
Unplugged Performance
Last edited:
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