A word of caution to the guys installing the swaybar.

I contacted Mazda for the Torque specs on the bolts which hold the swaybar bushes. The Mazda specs are 17-23

As the swaybars are much thicker than the OEM ones we torqued them to 23. Four days later 2 of the 4 bolts on the rear swaybar bushes snapped clean off.

The fix seems simple enough get two more bolts, bolt it back up and we are done.

WRONG... Arghhhhhh! Mazda has spot welded the back of the each bolt at 3 points.

On inspection of the 2 broken bolts it would seem that the figure of 23 is just a bit too much for the OEM bolts. Inspection of the 2 bolts that did not snap revealed some lenghtening of the thread and therefore weakening of the bolt which meant these too had to come out.

The only way to get the 2 snapped and 2 whole bolts out was to drill them out. 8 hours later after dropping out the exhaust & heatshield the last bolt was finally out. I would have given anything for a couple of cobalt drill bits but it seems nobody on my side of town stocks them, so the process was drill a bit then sharpen.... Drill some more and then sharpen some more!

Guys this is not a fun way to spend your day at a friends.

To be safe the mechanic I was working with recommends that you torque them up to 20 and no more so as not to risk the same problem.

I have had the car back on the road for 3 days and done some hard driving up through King Lake and 20 seems to be fine.

Just a word of caution guys!

 

what units were you using?
there is a big differnece between 23lb-ft and Nm

 

ILIV48

Sorry to hear of your troubles however thanks for the advice , as rotarenvy stated can you distinguish between the type of measurement you are referring to lb-ft or nm ???

cheers
michael

 

17 - 23 nM is the unit of measurement.

How many nM is 1 lb-ft??

I don't think it is any tighter than normal sway bar and the mechanics should know that he was using extra force before.

 

never had problem with mine.
whiteline must be done it properly. have had it on the 8 for a while now. :D

 

Google calculator is great for this sort of stuff
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...on+metres&meta=

 

The mechanic was using a torque wrench and set it to 23nM so unless the torque wrench is wrong it would be very difficult to use too much force. I actually took them off while he worked on the front end.

One theory is they were torqued on too tight at the factory. My last Toyota had to have all the bolts the wheels sit on replaced after a wheel came straight off while driving home from picking it up new. Toyota's warranty assessment was the wheel nuts had been torqued on too tight at the factory. It's great when your new car is off the road 15 minutes after picking it up

 

Hi all,

Just a quick question:

Were the fitting instructions followed?

On the back of the sway bar box;
"... We recommend that you check and retension all fittings after an initial settling in period of at least 100km."

It is likely that being a tension issue, that the bolt were actaully not tight enough, adn ende up being flexed so much they snapped,

Regards,

Case

 

Did you get them fitted how much and how many hours did it take? , any advice on fitting appreciated .

cheers
michael

 

i get special deals mike.... :D

nah, whiteline uses my 8 for the R&D and testing, so i always drop it off and pick it up the next day, all fitted up and ready to rock 'n roll.
most "reliable" mechanics can perform this type of work, shouldnt take long either.

 

Hey guys, what is a nM???

The closest I can come up with is a nano mole.

Oh - you are meaning a unit of torque. That would be a "newton meter" which is correctly abbreviated as N.m :p

Sorry - I must have had smart **** salt sprinkled on my dinner tonight



Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Remember Hymee too much smart **** salt in the diet is not good for you. Just to make sure you did not have too much last night I would suggest you put a large sprinkling of 'Get back to work and finish the bloody supercharger sugar' on your corn flakes this morning.

Enjoy your breakfast :p :p

 

ILIV48

WELL SAID :D LOL

cheers
michael