Rear sway bar end links

B6/7 S4/RS4
#1

I had been hearing a clunk coming from the rear for the past couple of days everytime i make a right turn so I finally had time to investigate this morning and noticed the rear passenger end link was just sitting in the hole to connect to the sway bar. i couldn’t tell if it the bolt was sheared off or not, but it’s not there either way and there’s some sort of grease on the bushing.

I think I’m going to just pick up a hotchkis RS4 rear sway bar and some new end links. Does anybody have a recommendation on which end links to pick up? I think there are 3 different options on ECS tuning, and JHM only carries the front end links from what I can see on the website, so which ones should I get?

#2

I would do the oem ones. Especially with the Hotchkiss RS4 rear bar. The non-oem ones on the ECS site look noticeably cheaper. Probably fine to use them on a stock bar but the Hotchkiss 29mm has been known to snap even the oem links.

#3

Yeah, the meyle’s look like junk in the pictures, the lemforder looks really similar to the OEM one though and it’s 18 bucks cheaper though. Maybe I should just go with OEM to be safe though. Joe, do you have hotckis RS4 rear bar?

#4

My 29mm Hotchkis snapped my OEM end links within a couple months. I ended up getting BenSTI’s custom endlinks and even though not many people like him all that much, his end links are better than OEM. No issues with them yet and I have the RSB on its most aggressive setting. Take it for what you will.

#5

Stern makes adjustable rear end links too:

http://www.purems.com/Products/ST-B6-SW01Stern-Adjustable-Rear-Sway-Links

#6

I’ve snapped two of the stern ones with my Hotchkis rear sway. The bolt is the weak link. I’ve been talking with a friend who has given me two ientical size bolts for replacement but with stronger “values” for lack of technical term. I also think by putting the rear sway on the more aggressive setting actually helps the longevity of the stern links. In the less aggressive position they don’t seem to have the full sweep available for the spherical joints and that’s what I think is snapping the bolts. Any type of off camber incline like entering a parking lot with a ramp.

#7

My endlinks were designed to solve the issues associated with the OEM and Stern unit breaking. So far I have 5 sets on cars including my own without any trouble. I have a batch of the machined parts coming in soon so I will both be updating the units that are already out there for free, and offering new units for sale. They will carry a 2 year warranty against breaking parts, not including ware on the spherical joints. They have rubber boots to seal both ends, and they were designed and optimized with FEA to maximize the strength in the small area we have on these cars.