AFE Front Sway bar and end link issues

[Fat Beezy]

Hello, I got new AFE Front and Rear Sway bars and end links installed on my car by a local Euro performance shop. Drove it for a few weeks, and noticed a clicking sound coming from the passenger front side when turning hard left. Well when I looked down there I saw that the bolt in the top part of the end link had came out of the Heim joint entirely.

Come to find out, for some reason when turning hard left, the tie rod was making contact with the top of the sway bar, and it must've hit it out or something. So when I took it back to the shop to reverify and redo the installation, then the bolt completely sheared in half when torquing down to 41 lbs. On top of that, the driver side Heim joint has a crack in it now. See attached pictures for each of these issues.

Now we've put back on the OEM end links and I am trying to get in touch with AFE support. But I was wondering if anyone had issues like this and what could've been the cause and possible fix?

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[razorlab]

Install error. Endlink set too short probably.

 

[Z4m40i]

They really fucked something up. There’s almost no way they could have shortened the link enough with stock suspension for it to make contact… it’s almost as if they installed a link while the other side was loaded.

 

[Fat Beezy]

Well it's not stock, since I'm lowered on Euro Eibachs (which isn't much), and the new sway bars. And TE37s if that matters (wider fronts, 265s) But yeah, I'm trying to see how they possibly could've installed it in such a way for them to hit when turning. I spent an entire weekend up at the dragon and didn't notice anything, so not sure if a bad bump or something damaged it or what.

I got it aligned to have minimal toe up front (.03 on both sides), but I think the driver side is fine. The passenger side endlink (the main one with the issue) was not adjusted, so it was on its shortest setting (with the sway bar being set to the stiffest setting). Though it's crazy that it having some preload would cause them to make contact. But maybe that's a thing?

 

[Z4m40i]

I should have clarified- stock shock. Some coil overs (like MCS) have the provision for the sway bar link mounted higher on the shock housing, which would require the sway bar to be clocked upwards, putting it closer to the tie rod.

going lower on stock suspension will actually make you have to clock the sway bar downwards (which is away from the tie rod end) if you’re already at the shortest adjustment range on the end link. As you can see in my prior picture, the end link is very close to the shortest adjustment and I was only lowered about 1”. You can see there’s a shit ton of space from the swaybar to the tie rod….

TLDR, either a defective part or your shop sucks.

 

[Fat Beezy]

Thanks for the replies thus far. AFE is sending warranty replacements and proper installation instructions, so I'll update when all that is received and installed.

 

[Fat Beezy]

Just an update on this. Long story short, it was an installation error on the shop's side. They claimed there weren't any instructions, so they didn't clock or torque anything correctly, which resulted in the tie rod hitting the sway bar, and eventually breaking both end link joints (on both sides).

Luckily, AFE were super helpful and sent free warranty replacements (even though it was install error) and they provided detailed instructions. The shop fixed it all for free after that. Now I just have a sway bar that has some scratched paint on the top, but nobody will see that lol.

The clicking ending up being something entirely different, related to the rear axle being loose or something. Not sure if that was part of them dropping the rear subframe for the rear sway bar install, or if happened some other way. But without that clicking, I would've never thought to look underneath to see the front end links broken.

 

[primeakf11]

Thanks for the update. What exactly was it the shop did, that caused the bar to hit the tie rods? Curious because someone in my scca region has been having this same issue.

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