Shebs

Need your help here.

I bought H&R front and rear Stabilizer (Sway) bars. While installing them I used the old rear links but bought new front stabilizer links from an authorised Lemforder dealer.

The front links are not BMW approved, they are from Lemforder the manufacturer of BMW suspension parts.

After installing the bars front and rear and the new links in front, the handling was improved. I got less sway in curves, which was my goal from the start, so the the H&R sway bars do make a difference.

However, after a week of installation and around 800 km, I noticed a clunking sound when hitting a pothole. I checked the links and found the left one to be broken from the middle of its rod, not from the ball joints ends. I am currently very confused and I still have the old original links.

I don't know if the failed link was due to the fact that these links are not BMW approved (just Lemforder) or due to the increased stiffness of the H&R sway bar compared to the original one. I am worried about buying new ones from BMW dealer and ending up with them broken due to the high stiffness of the H&R sway bars.

Do you think the problem is with my Lemforder links or the increased stiffness of the H&R sway bar?

Thanks in advance.

acuteperformance

When you installed the stabilizer bar did you make sure it was parallel to the floor when the car was not on a lift/jack stand?

Shebs

Acute,

Thanks for your reply. I installed the rubber mounts on the supports at the same location as my original bar. I then installed the links to the bar and then installed the bar and links together to the rubber mounts and supports on a hydraulic lift.

I then lowered the car to the floor and raised the right side serparately with the car's original jack, took off the right wheel and installed the right side. When I tried to do the same with the left wheel I couldn't, because the suspension was relaxed on the left side and the stabilizer link was already attached on the right side. I had to install the left side with the left wheel on the ground.

I then raised the car on the jack again and checked everything. It looked perfect.

I might have done something wrong, but it worked perfectly for 800 km.

toyota2bmw

If you snapped the middle of the link, it sounds more like a stress fracture from when you hit the pot hole. Like you said, Lemforder is BMWs OEM for the links so I doubt that there was a quality issue there. I'd just get another one since they are cheap to replace at least here in the states. I think I paid $25 each when I replaced mine with the factory ones.