So i installed my ITR bar w/ a home-made spacer kit about 1.5 years ago. It works great except when my rear suspension moves a lot, i get a clunk noise. I did some search a while ago and i read people were installing it upside down and things like that. Mine wasn't upside down. I do have an Apex WS, but nothing is hitting it. So I looked really closely and found that the Sway bar actually hits the brake lines that attach to my lower control arms! There was a tiny flat spot on each side of my sway bar (driver and passenger side that is) and the brake line on each side! The dents are fairly small so I don't think there's any real damage.

Do you guys have this problem? I'm thinking I may need to make my spacer about a millimeter thicker to push the bar out, but wasn't sure if that would fix it. Let me know if any of you have this problem and what you did to fix it.

Thanks in advance!

 

Same thing for me too using BSQ's kit. Dunno if I did something wrong... but anyhow, now one of my rear abs sensors is acting up...

 

actually now that you mention it, my "brake" warning light comes on every now and then. But i haven't changed the fluid since i bought the car at 43K miles (now it's at 80K miles) and i didn't change the pads too

I'm gonna try to buy or make a spacer and install it today if i can. hopefully before it crushes my brake line

so how do you know your rear abs sensor is acting up? what does it do?

 

i get the same clunking too w/ the bsq kit. when i get a chance, I'm gunna go under there and figure out how to fix it. When i do, I'll post it.

 

I recently noticed that there appeared to be light contact between the swaybar and the ABS sensor wire bracket which is attached to the lower control arm, but I have not experienced any "clunking noise". I determined that the contact could only occur when the suspension was near full compression. For me this is probably occuring on the track when the suspension is heavily loaded in certain turns. How much is your car lowered? The reason that I ask is because the lower the car is, the more likely the suspension will closer to "full compression" which could allow the swaybar to come in contact with the ABS sensor wire bracket.

I will look into what can be done to prevent this contact.

 

ok, so this weekend i bought a piece of metal and cut it up to fit onto my existing spacer. It added approximately 2mm to my existing setup.

usually when i pull into work, it clunks on these large speed bumps there...i ran over them twice and no clunk! so i'm thinking it worked. But i will get a car full of people and go over it again

BSQ,

my car is only lowered about 1.5", no aftermarket rims...

i think we just need to move the bar closer to the back of the car by a few mm


[Modified by Scooby, 9:09 AM 10/9/2001]

 

Thanks for the update. I am hoping to be able to take a look at mine tonight. I'm planning to modify the ABS sensor wire bracket on the LCA to prevent it from coming in contact with the swaybar. I would prefer to keep the swaybar as close to the subframe as possible, this is the reason for my approach.

 

BSQ,

That idea actually crossed my mind also, but there didn't appear to be too much slack in the brake line so i opted for the larger spacer idea. Let me know how it turns out.

I went over those big speed bumps again and no noise...so hopefully it's fixed. Now i just hope i didn't move the bar too far back, where it could have more torque forces on the bolts

 

I took a look at my swaybar last night and I altered the ABS sensor wire bracket enough I believe to prevent it from contacting my swaybar. I first noticed that the swaybar was contacting a raised lip on the ABS sensor wire bracket, so I filed the lip off. I also noticed that the sensor bracket stuck out slightly from the LCA, so I loosened the bolt which connects the bracket to the LCA and then I placed a large screwdriver in between the LCA and the bracket. This allowed me to bend the bracket slightly back towards the LCA. I then tightened the bracket bolt and inspected the bracket. The bracket is now tucked into an indentation in the LCA, which should give me 1-2mm of room that I didn't have before. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I had never heard a "clunking noise" before on the street, so I will have to wait until I go to the track the next time and see if I notice any new contact between the swaybar and bracket. HTH

 

tucking the bracket into the LCA seems like it should work. I probably should have done that instead of work up an additional spacer...

i'm just glad the "clunk" is gone...sort of embarrassing for me when my passenger's say "what was that?!"

 

i've never had a clunking noise from my ITR swaybar with BSQ's kit! nah nah!