#%$@ Stock sway endlinks rant!

N

Nomad

Member

Contributor

• Apr 9, 2006

• #1

Holy #&%@!!!
These things kicked my butt today!(pissed)

I installed Eibach springs and all new brakes, also painted the calipers for kicks (gotta rep the rice).

Those endlinks were the ONLY stubborn bolts on the car. Sure, a few bolts took a cheater bar, but dang,these links were rusted solid and the allen keyway was useless... WHAT A HORRIBLE DESIGN!!!! Shame on Mazda for crappy designing...

I wasted a ton of time drilling out the bolts to bust them loose. Now I have to get new endlinks and take the wheels off again yet another day.
I knew they were going to be a pain but I wasn't ready for THAT!

Tomorrow I'm going to buy a metal blade for my sawzall and will go to town on the remaining bolts. What a waste of time, and now I'll have to wait a day or so to get another set of stock links (don't have big money for aftermarket). I'll slather those in anti-sieze when I install them.


Rant over...

 

K

Kansei

Banned

• Apr 9, 2006

• #2

I feel your pain. I've been without a front swaybar for three weeks now because I'm waiting on my front endlinks from protegegarage. They must have gotten lost, there's no way shipping took that long

I don't know why I just bought all new stock endlinks, but oh well. They are the only bolts on the car I've encountered that had to be broken and cut off. I still haven't cut the rest off of my front swaybar, I should probably do that so I can just slap the new endlinks on. I sprayed the new rear endlinks with some rustoleum black enamel paint so that hopefully they don't just rust out again. As bad of a stock design as they are, the bolts on a brand new set of the endlinks look like really nice high quality stuff. They don't come with the nuts though so I had to pick up some at home depot (10mm x 1.25 I think). Hours to get rid of the old endlinks, but literally less than a minute for each endlink to put new ones on.

 

T

TheMAN

:

2001 BJFP MT

:

2016 BMYFS AT

• Apr 9, 2006

• #3

yeah, if mazda actually bothered to use stainless steel studs, this wouldn't be a problem... I live in TEXAS and my s*** rusted out in a matter of weeks! yeah, it's zinc plated, but what good is it when 1) when you stick them into the strut and sway bar, it's always an effort to put them in, meaning the coating scrapes off! 2) the coating goes away further when you actually put a nut on it and tighten that s***!

so yeah, it's a damn good idea to paint/rust proof that s*** BEFORE and AFTER installation... give plenty of time to prepare the end links so that the s*** is nice and dried before you **** with them

 

N

Nomad

Member

Contributor

• Apr 9, 2006

• #4

I'm thinking of putting a big old glob of silicone RTV on them to seal out moisture. Ah, screw it, I'll just cut them off next time too...

 

A

altspace

Member

Contributor

:

1990 RX-7 Turbo II

• Apr 9, 2006

• #5

This should be stickied. "Air tools and PB Blaster is a must if you are going to remove end links." That's all it took to free up mine. Soaked em' with the PB for about 30 min. Came back with the impact and zip, they all came off with ease.

 

M

Moonman8

Member

:

2003 MP5-T

• Apr 9, 2006

• #6

altspace said:

This should be stickied. "Air tools and PB Blaster is a must if you are going to remove end links." That's all it took to free up mine. Soaked em' with the PB for about 30 min. Came back with the impact and zip, they all came off with ease.

Click to expand...

same here. When I installed by Progress rear sway bar, I used a 3/8" drive impact with a crapload of PB Blaster and the nuts just shot right off. I tried it at first using a solid ratchet with an allen key to hold the bold and a socket to turn the nut, and it didn't even flinch.

 

K

ke20sprinter

Member

:

Daily Driver Protege5

• Apr 9, 2006

• #7

altspace said:

This should be stickied. "Air tools and PB Blaster is a must if you are going to remove end links." That's all it took to free up mine. Soaked em' with the PB for about 30 min. Came back with the impact and zip, they all came off with ease.

Click to expand...

Must be the california weather or something...All I needed was WD40 and a socket wrench. And that's changing both struts & sway bars...Had no problems.

WiL

 

P

pr5owner

Member

Contributor

:

2001 Mazda Proteg5

• Apr 10, 2006

• #8

how does your car handle without a front sway bar? lol

 

K

Kansei

Banned

• Apr 10, 2006

• #9

pr5owner said:

how does your car handle without a front sway bar? lol

Click to expand...

It's uh.. interesting. I haven't hit any nasty twisties lately because well, they are a bit hard to come by in Western NY. The roads are all straight here :'(

There is this one corner I have to take turning from one road onto another where I'm going a little uphill and take a left onto a steeper hill, and when I hit it at "normal" (in the protege sense) speeds, the back end rotates nicely

The front end does feel a bit weird though.

 

i12drivemyMP5

<<<<<<< >>>>>>>

Contributor

:

-- 03 P5 / 23 CX-5 --

• Apr 10, 2006

• #10

ke20sprinter said:

Must be the california weather or something...All I needed was WD40 and a socket wrench. And that's changing both struts & sway bars...Had no problems.

WiL

Click to expand...

I think it has more to do with having a garage & no salted roads to drive on. Hell, I live 20 minutes from a beach & mine didn't even take WD40 or any crazy tools or effort, just an allen & normal wrench. Haven't been rust proofed or anything either. I guess I will just consider myself lucky on this one.

 

P

P-Funk!

:

Lancer Ralliart Sportback

• Apr 10, 2006

• #11

Nope. i had the exact same rant when i did mine!

junk design IMHO (MS in Engineering)... sigh.

 

A

AlbNYPR5

Member

:

2011 CX-9 Touring

• Apr 10, 2006

• #12

zverg said:

It's uh.. interesting. I haven't hit any nasty twisties lately because well, they are a bit hard to come by in Western NY. The roads are all straight here :'(

There is this one corner I have to take turning from one road onto another where I'm going a little uphill and take a left onto a steeper hill, and when I hit it at "normal" (in the protege sense) speeds, the back end rotates nicely

The front end does feel a bit weird though.

Click to expand...

Sorry to get off topic....Take the thruway to exit 43, take rte 21 south along the lake. You can take that south until it intersects with rte 15 in Wayland, take 15 north, which brings you to 390. You can also take 15 to 15a and then back to the thruway. The whole round trip should take you less than a couple hours unless you end up behind a lot of old people which will make things really suck.

 

K

Kansei

Banned

• Apr 10, 2006

• #13

Route 15?? I live on Route 15! 15a is right near me too.

Um I'm definitely going to try this out this weekend.

thanks!

sucks that I still won't have my front swaybar connected though.

 

L

L8R

Member

Contributor

:

02' Sport 20/Familia

• Apr 10, 2006

• #14

Yes, they suck ass!!! I know how you feel. I stripped mine before, but Sears has a bolt remover kit that works well.

Good Luck!

 

P

proman

Member

• Apr 10, 2006

• #15

i feel your pain. i went to the dealer to pick up new stock endlinks before putting on my illuminas (just in case) and parts guy said it was a good idea. He said the techs there just cut them off cause the endlinks are such a pain. And of course that's what i ended up doing anyways.