Wear on front sway bar end links

[romero1990]

Short ver --- has any one has similar end links wear near front strut? It almost feel like the end link is a little bit too fat so it will get rubbed into front struts on both sides.

But it does not seem like rubbing every time the wheels are turned though

Should I be looking for different end links to replace them? or


Long ver-- Owned the E92M for about 1yr so far. I decided to start refresh the car a little bit for track days next year, so naturally the suspension and tires are the first place I looked at. The car came with KW V3 and RD sport front sway bar and Bimmerworld end link from the last owner. (figured it was a good start). Then found the end links are scraped by the front strut. Started to concern it will snap at some point if I start to go to tracks.

[pbonsalb]

Those don’t look like stock endlinks. Mine were cast aluminum. The ball joints do wear out eventually. Then they clunk.

[romero1990]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

Those don’t look like stock endlinks. Mine were cast aluminum. The ball joints do wear out eventually. Then they clunk.

Based on previous owner, they are bimmerworld links, seems to be adjustable too.

[pbonsalb]

Sometimes aftermarket parts don’t fit perfectly. You could chamfer the sharp lower inner edge of the mounting tab on the strut. I can’t see whether you could do something similar in the area of the scrape on the middle of the endlink. As the bar does it’s job, the links will move around a little. The links cannot and should not fully rotate but they may have been adjusted at times, exposing more or all of the link body to scraping.

[romero1990]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

Sometimes aftermarket parts don’t fit perfectly. You could chamfer the sharp lower inner edge of the mounting tab on the strut. I can’t see whether you could do something similar in the area of the scrape on the middle of the endlink. As the bar does it’s job, the links will move around a little. The links cannot and should not fully rotate but they may have been adjusted at times, exposing more or all of the link body to scraping.

I finally got time to take the wheels off. It looks like the tab on strut where end link connected to is the culprits. Essentially there is not enough offset between the end link and the tab. When the steering is turned to lock, the tab literally cuts into the end link. I'm going to check with Bimmerworld to see if I can add a few washers as spacer to increase the offset. It only needs about 1/8" to be entirely clear the tab

[pbonsalb]

Grind the tab a little or use washers as spacers if you have enough thread engagement on the ball joint stud.