Last weekend me and several friends installed the Hotchkis sway bars on the Z. I set the front to the stiffest setting and the rear to the medium setting. Everything fit pretty easily and felt good when we all took it for a test drive (about 10 miles and pushing it on some sweeping curves).... no rattling at this point. Also I'm running totally stock suspension besides the sway bars and the car has about 5600 miles on it.

That afternoon I drove about 60 miles on the highway.... when I got off I started to hear a rattle from under the car. Well I drove it slow with the windows down and noticed that there is a loud rattle coming from the front when I hit bumbs. Sounds like a midget is under my car rattling a chain.

Since then I have checked the torque spec on every endlink and bracket nut/bolt. Everything is torqued down... but the car is still rattling. I have checked the other end of the endlinks and those are also tight. I have talked to Hotchkis several times and they suggest checking that nothing has come loose and even tightening it beyond the suggested specs. So now all brackets have been torqued to 50ft/lbs. and the end links that connect to the sway bar have been torqued to 55ft/lbs.

STILL RATTLING!!!

Any advice would be appreciated as I am running out of ideas that may help. My last resort tomorrow will be adjusting the front endlinks to a softer setting... maybe hole #2. Hotchkis told me that this will not matter but I cannot think of anything else I can adjust?

Help!?!

 

jeff bring it by this tuesday i'll help you out with .

 

Well after taking my girlfriend for a ride she said I was wrong and that the noise was definitely coming from the back..... so this morning after much looking around and checking endlinks and brackets I noticed an exhaust hanger had shifted, upon closer inspectioni the nut holding it tight was GONE! We had detached the muffler during installation but I had not remembered us undoing the hanger that is about 2 feet from the muffler. Well I'm guessing we only hand tightened it and it fell off on the highway; explaining the delay of the rattle by about 60 - 70 miles.

Thank god the rattle is gone and I can drive happy.

Thanks blue(Billy), shifty711, h8bumps, Datona Jess and Lisa for helping out!!!

Also thank you to Mark at HOTCHKIS who was helpful and patient. All I can say is that the Hotchkis pieces are a great improvement over the stock sway bars. The Z is so much more fun to drive!!!

 

dumbass!!! j/k