RALLiTEK rear sway bar hitting lower arm on 2008 Spec.B

Greetings,

 

I finally got a complete RALLiTEK sway bar setup onto my 2008 Spec.B: sway bars, end links & the AVO reinforcement bracket for the rear. I absolutely love how the car feels with the upgrade - should have shipped like this from the factory!

 

Unfortunately after just a few hours of driving I noticed a dull knocking / clunking noise coming from the rear end when driving over larger dips or drops in the road. To make a long story short, it looks like the rear sway bar is hitting the lower suspension arm under larger upward strut compression. RALLiTEK have been awesome thus far in trying to identify and resolve the issue, but they have not seen anything like this before. Hence this post...

 

Having looked in detail at the rear suspension geometry and its movement under compression, I am convinced that this is caused by the sway bar geometry combined with the rear RALLiTEK HD end links being approximately 0.8 inch shorter than stock. When uncompressed and on the ground, there is approximately 0.6 inch clearance between the parts. I positively confirmed with putty that the sway bar touches the lower arm in the area highlighted on the photograph, when the suspension is compressed (lots of heavy stuff in the trunk).

 

I am curious if anyone has experienced anything like this on their car with the rear RALLiTEK sway bar and end links?

 

Thanks in advance,

TR.

Yes, see here:

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/gi-fs-nj-rallitek-19mm-rsb-140114.html?t=140114

 

When I had the Rallitek installed with stock endlinks, I had clunking on major and sudden dips/potholes. I honestly thought it was just because I had notoriously underdamped 2.5i shocks, but now I see it's even happening on Spec B Bilsteins? Blasphemy!

 

All kidding aside, I have since swapped it out for the Perrin 22mm RSB and Kartboys, and have noticed no clunking from it. I also believe that the angle where the Ralliteks connected with the lower control arm, the Perrin's is much higher/angular.

Yes, see here:

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/gi-fs-nj-rallitek-19mm-rsb-140114.html?t=140114

 

When I had the Rallitek installed with stock endlinks, I had clunking on major and sudden dips/potholes. I honestly thought it was just because I had notoriously underdamped 2.5i shocks, but now I see it's even happening on Spec B Bilsteins? Blasphemy!

 

All kidding aside, I have since swapped it out for the Perrin 22mm RSB and Kartboys, and have noticed no clunking from it. I also believe that the angle where the Ralliteks connected with the lower control arm, the Perrin's is much higher/angular.

 

Interesting... Thank you for the info, I will pass it on to Rallitek. I am really surprised that you still had contact on stock end links, since they should increase the clearance to over an inch... In any case, I am going to put the stock end links in for now until Rallitek comes up with a solution.

 

TR

I had the same problem. I switched too a perrin rear sway.

Same problem here. Driver's side only. Using Rallitek RSB w/Kartboy endlinks, and on Bilsteins/Pinks. Noticed it as well on stock suspension.

 

Curious to see what Rallitek says about this.

Oh wow, curious to hear the outcome. I have the Rallitek rear sway and endlinks planned as a future mod...

Same problem. Rallitek rsb and kartboys. I switched to Perrin rsb and noice gone.

I now have a short video clip from under the car that shows the interference and the clunking noise. I wish I could attach it to this thread...

 

I will be passing it on to Rallitek.

Could you upload the video to youtube and link/embed here? I'd like to see it.

Get aftermarket adjustable endlinks and make them a little longer

I had this problem. The rear HD endlinks are only for lowered applications according to rallitek, had to put the factory endlinks back on, problem solved. I called them and talked to Sean, I put the front/rear bars on and front/rear endlinks as well and the front endlinks are fine, the rear rallitek links are too short and cause a clearance issue. It's not the angle of the bar that's the problem, it's the length of the endlink. The stock one's are doing just fine back there with the rallitek bar.

I had this problem. The rear HD endlinks are only for lowered applications according to rallitek, had to put the factory endlinks back on, problem solved. I called them and talked to Sean, I put the front/rear bars on and front/rear endlinks as well and the front endlinks are fine, the rear rallitek links are too short and cause a clearance issue. It's not the angle of the bar that's the problem, it's the length of the endlink. The stock one's are doing just fine back there with the rallitek bar.

 

I am actually convinced that it is both. The bar geometry is a big part of it, since the Rallitek bar attachment end is straight and does not "hang down" as it does on stock bar and on many other aftermarket bars. This brings the bar very close to the lower arm. Lowering the suspension (equivalent to some compression of the strut) brings the bar closer to the lower arm. A shorter link therefore creates less clearance with lowered suspension than with stock suspension. If I ever manage to post the video online you'll be able to see this clearly for yourself.

 

I have been in close contact with Ron at Rallitek - they have been extremely responsive. My interim solution is to put the stock links back on, as you and others have suggested. This will definitely increase the clearance, but it is not a permanent solution.

 

Thanks to everyone for your feedback and suggestions. I will post updates here as they happen.

 

TR

Yeah I see what you're saying. All in all, putting the stock links back on 100% solved the issue with clearance and banging. Sean was great at providing support, Sin as well, over at rallitek. OH and note the brackets, you might be able to slide them up and down as needed, I ended up using the stock brackets to position the bar a hair lower because it was also contacting the spare tire bump as well as the control arm(- from endlink problem). I initially thought the noise was coming from the spare bump since there was markings of contact, after further notice, it was the control arm. Either way, with some mixing and matching all is well. I ended up selling the endlinks on this forum.

Everyone that had this problem, does your Rallitek RSB make contact on the driver's side lower arm? That seems to be the only side where mine makes contact.

 

Sucks that we're all having this issue but glad its not only me having it: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/figured-out-rear-clunk-coming-144134.html?p=3066169

Everyone that had this problem, does your Rallitek RSB make contact on the driver's side lower arm? That seems to be the only side where mine makes contact.

 

Sucks that we're all having this issue but glad its not only me having it: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/figured-out-rear-clunk-coming-144134.html?p=3066169

 

Mine is on both sides. I could only hear it coming from the right side while driving, but putty placed in the gaps on both sides clearly shows contact on both sides. The clearances are so small that the bar shifting slightly to one side in the bushings will make one side worse.

 

Yeah I see what you're saying. All in all, putting the stock links back on 100% solved the issue with clearance and banging. Sean was great at providing support, Sin as well, over at rallitek. OH and note the brackets, you might be able to slide them up and down as needed, I ended up using the stock brackets to position the bar a hair lower because it was also contacting the spare tire bump as well as the control arm(- from endlink problem). I initially thought the noise was coming from the spare bump since there was markings of contact, after further notice, it was the control arm. Either way, with some mixing and matching all is well. I ended up selling the endlinks on this forum.

 

Yes, the bar is also very close to the spare tire bulge. I though it was contacting there as well and moved the brackets a bit lower, which brings it slightly closer to the lower arm.

 

Overall it seems to me that small adjustments to the bar bend geometry would make all the interference issues go away, independently of suspension height and end link length...

 

TR

Finally set-up a YouTube account. Someone is squatting on the handle I've been using for over 10 years, so had to pick something different. Anyway, you can see it an hear it in action right here:

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StGMlJH74QU]YouTube - DaClunk.mov[/ame]

 

Initially the suspension is effectively unloaded with two bags of grass fertilizer in the trunk.

 

Then you can see it compress a bit when I (gently) hop into the trunk with my significant other (consider it equivalent to dropping the suspension) - you can see how the gap closes.

 

Then we gently swayed up and down to induce some oscillatory compression. You can hear the clunk and see where it hits.

 

Sorry that the quality of the video is a bit junky, we used an ad-hoc setup with a point and shoot camera.

 

TR

Great video. Thanks for posting it. So that was caused by you and your significant other swaying up and down inducing oscillatory compression? Sounds like fun!

Great video. Thanks for posting it. So that was caused by you and your significant other swaying up and down inducing oscillatory compression? Sounds like fun!

 

Thanks. She enjoyed it as much as I did

 

TR

I must be blind. I can't see it hitting. But try one other thing: the AVO mounts "move" the whole setup ~1/8 inch rearward (or whatever the thckness of the metal is. PITA, but remove the AVO reinforcements and see if that helps. That and the stock endlinks (or equivalent) might fix things. If so, I don't know where that leaves you, as I am sure you want the reinfocements. If there are endlinks that are LONGER than stock, that might do the trick. Like Outback links. Or adjustable ones

I must be blind. I can't see it hitting. But try one other thing: the AVO mounts "move" the whole setup ~1/8 inch rearward (or whatever the thckness of the metal is. PITA, but remove the AVO reinforcements and see if that helps. That and the stock endlinks (or equivalent) might fix things. If so, I don't know where that leaves you, as I am sure you want the reinfocements. If there are endlinks that are LONGER than stock, that might do the trick. Like Outback links. Or adjustable ones

 

 

 

mmmm, the stock endlinks work just fine with the aftermarket bar, the rallitek ones are shorter than the stock ones. I'm using stockers with my rallitek bar, and you can't see the contact in the video, it's on the backside of the bar bend.

T-Rex's first pic showed some marks, that IF they were from the impact would have shown in the video. My guess is those marks are from more drastic suspension movement than what he can muster with his wife (with all due respect). The actual clunk might be from something else..perhaps the backside as BMX045 suggests, or perhaps from a muffler or pipe.

The bar is hitting the LCA, not seen in the video, my bar had contact marks and made the same exact noise with the rallitek rear endlinks.

Amazingly I had no fitment issue with the Perrin (everything else they make does not seem to fit, LOL). Longer endlinks look like the solution.

^ I'm having no issues with Perrin's 25 mm bars, either (and I'm amazed as well ) - on a set of the Rallitek HD endlinks, also front and rear.

 

Wildcards for my '05 2.5GT sedan are a set of iON springs, and the use of AVO Reinforcement Brackets.

Did you guys ever get this issue resolved with Rallitek and if it can be fixed? I was looking at order sway bars from them as well, but if this is still an issue, I'm just going with Whiteline instead.