Popping after Progress Tech Rear sway install, '19 Abarth
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 9:07 am
Just as the title suggests, recently installed the Progress technologies 16mm rear sway bar and mounting hardware onto my Hypnotic Red 2019 Manual Abarth 124.
Now, instead of plowing into a turn it wants to wag the tail out everytime I'm not on my correct line. I don't mind so much, it's much more heroic looking (if just as slow) to wag the tail out than it is to plow over a line of cones with the wheels locked into a turn. But hey, learning is occurring.
My issue is that I'm hearing a popping noise coming from the rear of the car when going over speed bumps, things like that now. I already checked the torque on the mounting fasteners and everything seems to be fine there. I'm wondering if the axle height sensors and the rear sway bar end links are now occasionally interfering with each other. (I'm also wondering if the stock muffler is moving around on the mounts and bumping into stuff when lateral Gs are applied.)
If so, are there Slimline rear sway bar end links available, or can I just swap the links from one side of the car to another? The only difference I could see by doing the latter is on which side of the upper end of the link the bar mounts. OEM, the link mounts on the inside of the bar, I'm talking about switching it to the outside. This would keep it from interfering with the axle height sensors.
The other possibility is that, now that the rear is much stiffer than stock, I'm hearing all the creaking and popping from the relatively floppy body moving around like my old f-body Camaro. Without punting myself into another class for SCCA by installing bracing where there presently isnt any, is there anything I can do stopping the creaking and popping?
Now, instead of plowing into a turn it wants to wag the tail out everytime I'm not on my correct line. I don't mind so much, it's much more heroic looking (if just as slow) to wag the tail out than it is to plow over a line of cones with the wheels locked into a turn. But hey, learning is occurring.
My issue is that I'm hearing a popping noise coming from the rear of the car when going over speed bumps, things like that now. I already checked the torque on the mounting fasteners and everything seems to be fine there. I'm wondering if the axle height sensors and the rear sway bar end links are now occasionally interfering with each other. (I'm also wondering if the stock muffler is moving around on the mounts and bumping into stuff when lateral Gs are applied.)
If so, are there Slimline rear sway bar end links available, or can I just swap the links from one side of the car to another? The only difference I could see by doing the latter is on which side of the upper end of the link the bar mounts. OEM, the link mounts on the inside of the bar, I'm talking about switching it to the outside. This would keep it from interfering with the axle height sensors.
The other possibility is that, now that the rear is much stiffer than stock, I'm hearing all the creaking and popping from the relatively floppy body moving around like my old f-body Camaro. Without punting myself into another class for SCCA by installing bracing where there presently isnt any, is there anything I can do stopping the creaking and popping?