Xantium

The other day i was entered a very sharp turning onramp.. there was some gravel on the road and Im still running winter tires (the ground is totally dry) so when I got a bit of unexpected oversteer I wasn't really all that worried. Some positive lock and ... I heard a loud pop from the FL suspension following by wicked snap back that sent me into a spin. At first I was pretty sure either my front left tire popped or my rim cracked or... well anyways the resulting F&F tokyo drift0 tripple piruiet (sp?.. im not a ballerina) into the interstate lanes which thankfully weren't occupied at the time was not very cool. I took a look under my car and something was definatly not right.. I called RB and ordered new bushings and bushing brackets (the white u-shaped things).

Today I jacked my car up to see exactly what happened and to hopefully fix the problem (and to throw some koni's and teins on) and snapped some pics of what I found. After the incident I had really only driven the eight about 10 miles.


On the passenger side the sway bar was shoved into the shock, the shock wasn't dented but some paint was missing. The problem was pretty obvious, the drivers side bracket literally tore in half and the bar popped out making it a limp noodle. So essentially in the middle of a slide my FSB dissapeared which definatly would make the handling balance go waaaaay to the oversteer side of nuetral. I also have a RB RSB which I'm sure didn't help when the front one gave up.


I was very worried that the bar was bent but I took everything apart and put new bushings and brackets on. Now the car feels perfectly fine... actually better (but thats becuase of the konis and s.techs)


I attached some pictures of the carnage... thank god the pictures dont include my car crumpled into a ball after snaping sideways across the interstate in front of a semi.



Also a couple other quetions: During the spin I was in doubt and kept both feet out (im a cheezeball, i know) and sort of forgot to clutch when I stopped spinning and killed it. Anyways I had to crank for about 15 seconds before it would fire up again.. which was then followed by a CEL which went away after a minute. Any particular reason for that? Did the oil get pulled from the pickup?

And another idea. When I replaced the bushings and brackets the racing beat grease I put on them was practicully sludge. I had to use solvents to clean the gum off. This is after only about 3k miles. Has anyone considered putting something around the bar and bushings to keep dirt and grime away from the grease?

Xantium

Oh and something else very important. I bought the front bar used from this forum so for all I know the guy who has it before me ran over his bracket and then bent it back with a hammer. RB was very helpful and acted genuinly concerned over the phone. They want me to ship them the broken part so they can figure out what happened.

kwescott

Lucky that you were able to escape without further damage. Saw an endlink break on the autocross track once...made the car undriveable.

Razz1

did you have end links installed?

The bar was bent so I know it was NOT straight. Not an RB problem.

Xantium

Not sure what you mean.. I did order rb's front endlinks.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

it's extremely unusual for that bracket to shear off even and cleanly like that, definitely a material or manufacturing deviation from the standard specs






Would somebody please let Batman know that the Riddler is on the loose again ....


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