I blame it on the phrase NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWSS

 

either a bad install or a material defect... either way, nothing for everyone to be alarmed about

 

again to clarify it is NOT my sway....i have tanabe's front and rear

 

I still gotta believe this was installed backwards. Anyway to get back to the owner and really find out the answer...........the real answer? How did his endlinks look? That could be an important data point.

 

i will see him tuesday.....he usually comes out if it doesnt snow

 

did your friend buy it directly from RB?

 

yes he did

 

damn, thats some scary pics

and yeah with all the crazy Salt on the road in NE region, its easy to rust **** in the matter of days.

Call RB up, they have good customer service.

 

No problem. My RB Sways have ben on the car since 7/04 w/ no issues.

 

I have both front and rear rb sways. No issues either.

The RACING BEAT stickers on the swaybars are upside down though. So assuming they put the stickers on the same way for everyone, then anyone who aligns the bar according to the sticker will have it installed incorrectly.

The manual directions override sticker orientation.

 

Correct....................I myself have seen(in person) two different RB sways(for the rears) in which the stickers were NOT orientated the same way!

 

Look at where it snapped. See the bend part? Maybe someone can tell if it was installed wrong by the bend point that I just pointed out???
I dont know.
-Gil

 

the last pic shows the bar getting "pinched", which means that for some reason the sway was torquing when it shouldn't be if installed correctly... wierd

 

good going racing feet!

 

That's a weird failure picture and from the looks of the smooth break, it looks like it fatigued for quite a bit (the break that is roughly perpendicular along the circumference) before the weakened bit just snapped in the last half or third (the break that is at an angle). Now whether that's due to improper installation or not is hard to tell, but at least it did break in an area that makes sense, i.e. by a bend where stresses are higher and far away from a loading source.

 

that looks like the rear. and if i remember correctly, it's pretty hard to install the rear upside down, right???

 

"Yes" it's the rear and "No", it's easy to put it in upside down and although I didn't....I know of several who did. It normally results in mangled endlinks and not a snapped bar though. I guess if one was to push it hard enough when installed wrong it might snap, but we don't know that is the case yet.

 

North East pot holes?

Incorrect lifting of the car?