Bent rear control arm Eibach sway bar setting too stiff

I took my 02 996 in to get the rear alignment done and the tech. said I have a bent control arm and the drop link snapped off and was just hanging there, he said the cause was my Eibach anti-sway bar setting was too stiff so when I got home I crawled under it and sure as sh@t the arm was bent the drop link was busted off the and the clearance between the bar and the arm was barely an inch. My question is, is there an after market part that would lower the mounting spot a little for the sway bar or any suggestions other than changing to a softer setting oh forgot to mention I did install lowering springs that dropped it 1.25"

I didn't bend a control arm or break a drop link, but one of my rear sway bar brackets on my coilovers snapped off and the drop link was dangling. This was with Eibach sways set on medium. The coilover manufacturer sent me a replacement strut body asap free of charge even though I was out of warranty.

Buy adjustable sway bar links. Probably 10 or more different options out there.

I�ve heard this can happen if there is any pre-load on the sway bar. Make sure your car has its wheels on the ground and the bar isn�t loaded before tightening any of the sway bar attachments, adjustable drop links help with getting things even and unloaded.

OP - Not sure why a technician would ever say a sway bar is too stiff. The other posts mentioned preload. The link failed because the install was done wrong (loaded suspension) or the link is defective or the link had damage from an impact. I guess you found out what a part of your handling problem was! Installing a new drop link takes 15 minutes per side once the car is up on ramps. You don�t need adjustable rear links for 1.25� lower, unless you want some crazy negative camber/drop.

let me get this straight, loaded suspension is when the wheels are off the ground and unloaded is wheels on the ground? That just doesn't sound right to me?

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[ Nope it�s sort of the opposite. Ideally you should have the car level and the full weight of the car on the wheels with the wheels on level ground, or on the ramps of a lift, before you fully tighten up suspension parts. This way everything, but especially the dampers, springs, sway bars and control arms, are statically loaded as they would be on the road. If you have adjustable drop links this is also the time to make sure they are set to zero pre-load, ie they are not causing the sway bars to exert any force, you do this by tightening up the drop links evenly until they just begin to exert a force. So in reality all the suspension is statically loaded which means the sway bars are unloaded.

Okay well I got the control arm installed so I will take it in for the alignment and have them install the drop links on the rack but that still may or may not solve the bent arm issue that got me there in the first place will it?

Im still trying to figure out which link u actually bent. The lower contor arm or coffin arm is very strong. There is no way a tight sway bar caused it to bend. If it was the toe bar or fork link then a large pot hole or curbing the car can cause them to bend. The sway bar links are the weakest part of the system and they would break long before they caused something else to bend.

I think the control arm needs to be examined for impact evidence. More forensics required to explain what is really uncommon for these autos.

I do not recall hitting anything its bent from the sway bar hitting it there's even a small indentation on the arm right where the bend is

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Please post a pic of the bad link.

here is a couple of pics

Looks like a rock hit,, could have happened a long time ago ......

Thx. Most likely the bar was bent and then came in contact with link. Then broke the link. If there was no contact on the other side then the clearences are correct and the part should fit in the side with the issue. An outside event caused that arm to be out of position first. So u have a 16 year old son? a few extra miles u didnt notice? Just so u know and to clarify that is a rear toe arm and not typically reffered to as control arm. This led me to be a little confused. This arm can bend from a side or bottom impact or even just too much latteral stress.

I have another problem with the new drop links I ordered from ebay the brand is MEYLE how do I screw them into the bracket on the shock housing without taking everything apart? There is a 16mm half nut to get a wrench on but it's so stiff it's impossible to get it started total PITA !

Okay I got everything back together and the clearance between the sway bar and toe control arm is 1/4" that seems too close for me. '

Pictures Sir, we need pictures...

Pics of both sides

Ill say it again.... Buy adjustable drop links. When u change the position of the swaybar the length of the link should be adjusted

okay I ordered them

Had a chance to have a look at my 99 c2 with stock anti-roll bars and Bilstein PSS10 set appropriately 1" lower than stock (RoW) ride height as it's on the 2post lift currently. Out of curiosity what distance my car had and for your/future reference I checked the minimum distance. I could pass a 6mm drill bit between bar and track rod where these are closest together on the LH side. An 8mm drill bit would not pass. On the RH side I could easily move a 10mm drill bit past the tightest spot. There is no contact between the parts either side during operation. Ride height is set equally left and right so that doesn't explain the difference between L and R. I guess it's just tolerances in all parts involved and I'm not in the slightest worried about it. If you set the bar to full stiff you need longer arb drop links than stock in order to not pull the arb closer to the track rod. So, good thing you ordered them

I installed the adjustable links I set them up for about 10mm clearance each side took it to get the rear aligned and here is the best he could do. I asked if the new drop links had anything to do with those numbers he said no but I'm thinking it did from what i've been reading and there is definitely a difference between sides! Well it's better than it was but it's still not close to being right. They didn't charge me anything so I'm not going to bag on them but what is going on here?

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The sway links dont have anything to do with the toe or camber. U have lowered your car, this will change the range if available camber and toe ssettings with the essentric bolts. These r issues we all face when we start modifing the suspension. U need more adjustability and that comes from adjustable dog bones (or gt3 lowers) and tie bars. If he can straighten up the camber, move toward 0, it will bri1ng the toe out some.

That much toe is going to eat your rear tires in a short time. I am assuming your car is lowered. You need adjustable rear toe links to get the toe back into spec. This is very common on lowered cars. The lower the car = more toe that cannot be adjusted out with the stock links.

Here were my settings with stock adjustability (Stock LCA's, dog bones and toe arm) on my car when it was lowered to Ohlins Spec...This was much more dual use than my current setup and tire wear during my (admittedly relatively limited use) was acceptable. https://www.ohlinsusa.com/files/ohli...MI_POZMI00.pdf

I ordered the adjustable rear toe links but what do I do about the camber why is there a difference between sides?

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the only way to adjust camber in the back with stock parts is the ecentric bolt on the lca. Maybe one side is at the min and the other at the max and your alignment guy doesnt really know how they work? Try another shop?