Sway-bar failure - non-Alpine

From: Bob Douglas (b_s_d(at)hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Aug 25 1999 - 22:40:35 CDT


I found the end link hanging below the family land barge (Detroit minivan)
this afternoon. Turns out the ~4 year old sway-bar broke off about 10
inches in from the end link. A couple questions for the list:

First, it's really a sway-tube. Is it lower weight or some other advantage
they are after in going with the hollow tube versus the solid bar as is on
the Alpine? I suspect a solid bar would have had 3X the weight, but
probably would not have broken off like this.

Second, is this kind of failure more typical than I had thought?
The sway-bar is really low on the long list of auto parts I normally think
of as having an aptitude for catastrophic failure. Sway-bars are supposed
to just fade away, right?

BTW - No tire scuffs or other signs of a hard hit on that side and nobody
recalls a loud pop or similar noise while driving - suppose it failed while
sitting in the parking lot ????

Thanks for any inputs and tolerating the non-Alpine content.

Regards, Bob Douglas

NO ARCHIVE



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