bl817

a torn boot on one of the end links was the culprit of my clunking noise. replaced both and have not had the noise since. they are like CV joints, good while the boots are good, after a tear they go to hell. good luck

Robertatl123

I checked the boots for both and did not see any of the boots torn. I will see if I did the entirely idiotic thing of installing the bar upside-down. I tried to pull up a picture of any installed aftermarket front sway bar with no such luck. Right now the bar is sitting parallel to the LCA at the endlink side which is why I think the two might be making contact. There is also not a whole lot of clearance there.

Not sure if this is relevant, but Steeda's install instructions include a note that the bar can make squeaking and clanking noises during an initial "break-in period." The instructions state that grease will need to be reapplied to the bushings to eliminate the noise.

In any case, I won't be able to get underneath the car for another two weeks. I don't believe I'm in any danger of anything breaking, but this is also something I'm not going to ignore.

bl817

the middle part of the bar should be down. the hump or bump part. it could have been installed upside down and is hitting the support brace on hard cornering.

Robertatl123

I know it has been awhile, but with a combination of life and bad weather on the weekends, I was finally able to fix the problem. I ultimately also emailed Sam Strano for his inputs since I wanted to make sure that I had everything covered before working on the car.

Anyway, his recommendation was to make sure that the end links were torqued down to spec (85 ft-lbs for my model year) or it will make some noise. When I initially installed the bars and thereafter I was using my box end wrenches only which produces maybe around 40-50 ft lbs when comfortably tightened. I managed to get my smaller torque wrench for the top bolts and wrestled it to spec, but I had to use my box end for the lower bolts due to clearance. I managed to get it tightened a little more than the previous times. Anyway, it seems like that fixed the problem.

Thanks everyone for your inputs.

Derf00

Glad you got it figured out Robert.

This isn't directed to you since you took the advice but:

This is an excellent example why good-n-tight isn't always good enough.

Given how difficult it is to reach the bottom bolt for the stabilizer link one would think that when you crank on it with just a wrench, that should do it but, that bolt is very difficult to get to 85 lbs because of the limited space in there... Less than spec on the bolt has undesirable side-effects.

/end soapbox

Sorry , just seems like a lot of people on the forums these days disregard the importance of using a torque wrench when working on brakes, drivetrain, and suspension. They just crank on it until it feels 'good enough'. This is a very good real life example.