Tonight, we were re-tightening the bolts holding the brackets for the bushings of the rear sway bar after installing the racing beat rear sway two weeks ago. A loud knocking sound had started when the car goes over bumps or starts from rest.

Upon beginning the tightening of the top driver's side bolt, while applying barely any force at all, the bolt snapped. There was no excessive force and we were using a torque wrench.

I have no idea what to do, I was thinking of taking it in to ajax mazda tomorrow to get them to repair it. Do you think it is safe to drive?The other option is to remove the exhaust to get access to the bolt and drill it out but I don't have time to do that since this car is my daily driver and I have limited experience with this stuff.

Any thoughts on a course of action or how much a repair would cost? The passenger side bracket tightened just fine and now the driver's side is being held by pretty much just the endlink.

We removed the bushing since after lowering the car, the bar moved and started to warp it.

Argh, cheap bolts


edit: should I just remove the entire rear sway and endlinks? it looks like if the endlink rotates enough, the bar is going to smack the heat shield.