Something Broke, Lets Play Name That Part!

Well, I noticed a bit of trouble in the front end as I began my 15 mile trip home after finishing a movie at a local theatre, at highway speeds mind you. It eventually grew into a rough ride and sounded as if something was being dragged but only so when I was steering or coming out of a turn. Nothing was visually wrong on the underside of the car but the driverside wheel looked a little off sided. I drove the car a little more at low speeds and I felt the trouble coming from something related to that driverside front wheel.

I parked the car and pulled the steering wheel all the way to the right so I could manage inside the wheel well and I began to feel around. What did I find? The vertical support rod that connects the upper part of the strut to the underside suspension components had broken off at the welds.

I finally got all the way home and now its parked in front of the house. Later this morning I'll begin the calls to the most local dealership to bring it in for that awesome warranty work. It wouldnt be the biggest deal if I didnt have a good deal of "performance" mods already installed on the vehicle. See signature....

Hopefully I can pull a string or two so they dont feel the need to void my warranty. I have a co-worker of mine who also works at this dealership so that may be a start.

Anyways, thanks for reading my little tale but can you name the part that broke? I knew what it was at one time but Im kinda feeling a bit upset so I cant seem to think of it right now.

-Dan

I would put your stock springs back in before you take it in.

Yah if you get the stock springs back you shouldn't have a problem. Your mods aren't really invasive. Sorry to hear that though man...should be a quick fix though.

Of course Im going to see if the tech would be willing to overlook the lowering springs before doing anything else. Even though it would take a few hours to jack the car in all 4 corners and remove the Eibachs and install the stockers again, the alignment (another $65) would have to be redone after getting the Eibachs back in.

Im not looking forward to this if that is the path Im going to have to take.

Does anybody know the name of the part yet?

-Dan

I'm fairly certain that Steeda sells heavy duty versions of the part you broke in case you want to circumvent the whole dealer thing. Maybe they have already experienced the same parts failure? I would guess that your dealer would try to blame it on the springs, but the burden of proof is on them, right? Good luck with your car.

Edit: Checked Steeda site. Part number 555-5553. Front Swaybar mount brace kit - $89.95

Well, this is the best picture that I can come up with right now that shows where the arm broke off from. Im guessing that the dragging feelings/sounds was the swaybar on my steering linkage. Ouch. It looks as if I could still drive the car if I remove the swaybar, am I correct?

Any way I look at it though is that there is no way the springs could have caused this.



-Dan

Sway bar endlinks. Steeda makes a very trick adjustable set for $159.

http://www.lmperformance.com/5604/73.html

There are bound to be others out there that are cheaper.

You can drive with the sway bar off for a little while. You say it broke at a welded point? Where? On the spring perch/strut or something? I bet they give you a hard time about the springs, but maybe not.

I hate dealers They will say "with those springs it's NORMAL for that to happen." Bastards. Sorry you are going through this.

You can do that alright but I'd disconnect the other side too to avoid uneven loading. I broke the rear swaybar on my old Cobra years ago and sort preferred the ride without it, it pushed like mad but driving it well below the G-limit was more predictable on my seat-of-the-pants-meter.

The Eibach's caused the failure.

The higher spring rate of the Eibach's springs, in conjunction to bottoming out the suspension resulted in the bottom spring perch lifting higher up toward the top perch, causing the front sway bar to twist at an angle. Over so many miles this flexing back and forth works just like breaking a credit card or piece of pot metal by slowy weakening the crack. And then snap.

I can not see how an upgraded end link is going o resolve this situation. Unless it has a pillow ball oliptical mount that allows for some deflection when the spring becomes fully compressed.

The weakpoint is where the end link mounts to the bottom spring basket. Sounds like lowered GT's need a beefier Strut spring basket with a billet end link mount that allows for the link to pivot and deflect under extreme spring compression.

Maybe you took out the stoppers in your struts or did not modify them to leave enough material to absorb the impact when the spring bottoms out. Or maybe you cut another loop off your Eibachs to make your car sit lower...

Either way this is a potentially bad problem and may reoccur over and over again unless you change something in your suspension geometry

...or adjustable ones (with the pillow ball mount) that can be made shorter like those I posted the link to...

what the heck is a pillow ball mount?
ive heard of heim joints but pillow ball

Kind of like a spherical rod end...I think.

Hey, he said it first! At least I didn't say 'oliptical' lol *shrinks into corner*

The Eibach springs caused the breakage? I think not. Unless Ford took a major step backwards on the 2005, that is not an acceptable answer. Millions of Mustang owners have been lowering their cars for years & years without snapping swaybar endlinks. I don't see why it would start now, especially with all the effort Ford put into actually improving the suspension...

Best of luck getting Ford to fix it. Kinda depends on the dealer, but the actual warranty approval does come from Ford themselves. At least it's not something especially expensive. Time to upgrade.

Dave

Dan,
Can you indicate on this pic where the breakage is

http://www.2mfffabshop.com/simgs/swybrlnk.JPG

man, i hope it was not the springs cause i have the same ones. i wish you the best man. i hope it works out, but let us know either way what you do.

So, should that rod be shortened if you lower it?

It broke right off from the welds btw from what I could feel last night.

I dont remember once where my front end bottomed out after getting the lower springs. The car took more abuse with the higher ride, all the scrapes I have on the underside of the front bumper were delt at stock ride height. Im just hoping for the best tomorrow morning.

Do you guys know what wrench I'll need to remove the bolt on the passenger side? I have been missing my car for a whole day now, its nearly 20 miles away at the other house.

I am the first to share the broken end link mount with the internet public so I kinda doubt that the Eibachs were the direct cause of this. Its been like 7000 miles of using those springs too.

-Dan

As in driveway jumping or speed bump hopping ??? Maybe you are just an abusive driver. I have driven my car hard through cresting apex's and drainage divets and have yet to scrape the underside of my bumper....