So the EP3 was making some funky clanking noise up on the front passenger side wheelwell for pretty much all of this winter. I figured it was the typical spring/strut problem and I waited until a nice day to try to track it down.

So today, I dissassemble the entire strut/spring, grease the crap out of everything and still get the noise. I was thinking it was going to be a more serious problem, but everything else checked out ok. I was scratching my head, but I continued to search for the noise. Then I wiggled the swaybar.

Turns out it was the swaybar endlink. Seems Honda make the hole on the control arm larger than the bolt on the swaybar endlink that runs through it. So unless you really tighten it down, it will slip and move inside of the control arm attachment and give a sound like the spring is unloading or binding or something.

To top it all off, of course the swaybar bolt and nut were rusted together. So I had to break out the hacksaw to get it off. I will be ordering my new endlink tomorrow. So the car is noise free right now, but the swaybar is not attached. I'll see how good it rotates, but I can tell you that the steering is very vague right now with no front bar.

Remind me again why I bought one of these cars...

 

yea i hear ya on the swaybar endlinks...last summer when i went to install my type r rear sway, I ended up stripping the allen key hole because it was rusted....then just a few weeks ago while installing my comptech race header, I stripped the front endlink allen key hole for the same reason.

Sooner or later i'm gonna upgrade to the hotchkis endlinks...much beefier and no allen key holes to strip...My steering was pretty vague feeling as well when the front endlink was cut.

That's weird though that the hole is bigger than needed for the endlink...perhaps get a new control arm from the dealer under warranty?

 

That's weird though that the hole is bigger than needed for the endlink...perhaps get a new control arm from the dealer under warranty?


Looks like it was designed that way to me. I surely didn't drill anything out, nor has that endlink ever been off.

I'll do some checking though.

 

I wonder if this applys to the RSX-S. I may have to check this out. Todd, were both sides lose or only one?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by f1nal zeros &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I wonder if this applys to the RSX-S. I may have to check this out. Todd, were both sides lose or only one?</TD></TR></TABLE>


Only one side was loose--the passenger side.

You have no idea how long I spent trying to track down that damn problem. My guess is that it loosened itself when I autoxed the car last year, because as I said--I had not touched that endlink. Everytime I needed to take the tension off of the swaybar, I always loosened the brackets under the car.

So yeah, if you've driven your car a little harder than normal, check this out and let me know what you find out.

 

Cool info, I've been getting an intermittent "bong" noise once in a while when I turn the wheel sharp... it comes and goes. Hope you can get yours fixed without too much hassle.

 

i've driven an EL and a premium. Both had that noise as well.

Have you tried seeing if the dealer will change the endlinks for you under warranty?

 

ep3 front sway is 25 mm

dam i sure hope that honda dealership will do somthign about it, mine makes the soudn too and it annoys the crap outa me. but in all honesty i really doubt they will do anything about it whihc sucks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by socalep3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ep3 front sway is 25 mm

dam i sure hope that honda dealership will do somthign about it, mine makes the soudn too and it annoys the crap outa me. but in all honesty i really doubt they will do anything about it whihc sucks
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You will never know until you take it in and ask them about it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by socalep3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ep3 front sway is 25 mm

dam i sure hope that honda dealership will do somthign about it, mine makes the soudn too and it annoys the crap outa me. but in all honesty i really doubt they will do anything about it whihc sucks
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ep3 front sway is 25mm?? no freakin' way.

 

Way.

 

wow that's very interesting. i would have assumed to go thicker in the rear than up front. that's crazy though to be 24-25 mm. what the rear size?

 

this car is the biggest pain in the *** evar!

of course, i still love it. haha