divil

Anyone ever have this happen? I've never heard of it.

I did a DE event this weekend, and I ended up not going on the last day as I discovered a power steering leak. So, just now I jacked up the car to investigate the leak, and found the driver's side end of the sway bar has popped clean out of the bushing in the drop link!

The bracket is bent too. Hopefully I can bend it back, and maybe get the Rennbay reinforcement brackets. But how could this have happened? I would have thought it would make a big difference to how the car handled. I did actually have a hard time handling the car at the track, but I put that down to (a) new unfamiliar track/surface (IMS) and (b) me being a $&%^* driver

Could it have popped out just now as I was jacking it up? I jacked up the passenger side first.

The other thing that might be connected, the passenger side bushing is destroyed. I knew it was softened from a previous leak...maybe the new one pushed it over the edge. To make matters worse, I discovered the PS leak is from the rack, BOTH ends. I pulled back the boots and they were literally full of fluid. It's a rebuilt rack I installed around 2 years ago. Lucky that it just started to leak noticeably while I was at home. A few hours later I'd have been on the track.

AlphaOmegaPower

It makes a difference. Big difference. Had that happen before on a street car. Just get the polyurethane bushings and call it a day.

Chunkerz

If you get polyurethane bushings make sure you grease them really good. I have them on my car (Power Flex purple) and I was a little conservative on the grease. Now my car makes all kinds of little squeaks....

SloMo228

That destroyed bushing probably introduced enough play into the system that the other end was able to pop out. The bracket bending was probably a side effect. The reinforcement brackets are a good idea, the stock arrangement doesn't really have a lot of stiffness.

944teen

This happened to my car when i was shifting the suspension around to install new struts. Its weird because i also have a blown out bushing. I can't get the sway bar back in though. I tried getting the car on level ground, jacking up one side more than the other, but no luck. The sway bar isnt even close to getting back in

divil

Are you trying to push the end of the sway bar back into the drop link bushing? You'll probably have to remove the links from the control arms and re-install the sway bar the normal way.

Oddjob

Stock springs? A lot of body roll and suspension travel will move the sway bar around in the drop link bushing.

Factory put C-clips on the ends of the 30mm Cup/968 M030 bar, but the other sizes don't have it.

Get the triangulated brackets for the hangers, to eliminate the possibility of the assembly pushing forward and popping out of the drop link. Replace the rotted bushing, stock rubber is fine.

divil

Yep, stock springs. I suppose that combined with the blown bushing must have allowed it to happen. Still, I've love to know exactly when it happened. I didn't notice any sudden change on the track.

In other news, I found out my rebuilt steering rack had a 1 year warranty, and I got it 2 years ago so it looks like I'm screwed. Is it unusual to have both ends suddenly leaking badly like that? Could there have been some kind of overpressure condition due to something with the pump?

Tom M'Guinn

A bad steering rack will leak right on the sway bar bushings, and make them swell and fail.

When you get it back together, but a hose clamp or shaft clamp on the end... kind of like the big circlip Porsche eventually added.

porscharu

Do you turn your wheel fully locked where you can hear the pump whining a bit and hold it there?

divil

I do sometimes hit full lock, but I don't typically hold there for long - and I don't so much hear a whine as I just hear the engine revs dropping a little.

porscharu

Scratched and scoured shaft can prematurely wear the seals. These weeping seals are exaggerated by holding full lock and dead heading the pressure from the pump on the end seal. Lastly a small atf leak looks worse than it really is. ATF is so thin that it soaks into and spreads everywhere. The only way to inspect the internal shaft is to reseal it yourself. Here is another good resource. Good luck.

Arominus

Get the brackets and new rubber inserts, if you go harder you'll explode the drop link with the brackets on the car. I did it a few times running delrin inserts. Rubber keeps that from happening.

CO951

I've had a different problem running delrin and the triangulation brackets for the sway bars, my brackets have bent in the middle on both sides.

Oddjob

I think there is a concern with too much rigidity with the front swaybar. There needs to be some flex somewhere in the assembly. The control arms and the sway bar pivot in different planes, so the geometry of the swaybar rotation and the control arm movement starts to diverge when the suspension is pushed thru its range of motion. So something needs to flex. With the factory rubber bushing and the the single supports, there is plenty of flex, maybe too much. If you use solid bushings and the triangulated brace, there is no more designed flex in the system, so something may eventually break.

I use the triangulated braces, but leave all the rubber bushings in place. I have not had any issues with that configuration.