I just had my mechanic due approximately 7k of work to my 92 Z-28 doing various things. One of them being replacing my old and rotted front and rear sway bars. I had him replace the rear sway bar with this one

http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/ca...hromemoly.aspx

After having my car back for approximately 3 days i heard a weird sound coming from my car which became consistently louder and louder. Eventually i got under my car and saw the sway bar links had actually bent forward causing the sway bar to forcefully push against my rear axle cover.. which pushed the cover into you rear axle gears. The grinding of the rear axle gears was the sound i heard and there was significant leaking of rear differential fluid due to little holes cut into the rear axle cover.

So i brought the car back to my mechanic and he asked me if i hit a big bump or pothole, because thats what he told me was the only thing that could of done it. (I for a fact know i did not hit any potholes or curbs or even a speed bump. Just smooth NJ interstate.) Personally, i feel its his fault but i would like to have some other opinions before i approach him on this subject.

Do you think it was an installation error or a freak accident barley 3 days after getting my car back? Thanks in advance for your replys.

 

thats no accident... I've gone over plenty of speed bumps myself and never had anything that bad occur... When I first got the car, there were no end links and it still did not mess with the axle...

 

Detailed pictures would be VERY helpful in this case. I can't possibly imagine how this would have happened, that would certainly require quite a large amount of force.

 

I had the Spohn 1" sway bar on my car for a couple years, drove it hard on back roads, hit pot holes, speed bumps, and everything. And never had anything like that happen. Like has been said, some pictures would help. I can't imagine how that hitting a pothole would do this, but I don't see how improper installation could either. I've bent endlinks on the rear of my car due to improperly installing the sway bar, but nothing like this. Is the bar still pushing into the differential cover?

 

I bet he put it in upside down and then jammed the endlinks in there. Or he didn't put the sway bar mounts on the axle correctly. There is a bar on the axle to index those brackets. You may want to see if he used them. Either way, it's the mechanics fault IF the sway bar was correct for the application. He worked on the sway bar and that's what had a problem. You couldn't of blamed him for a rod knock if he was never up there.

 

Ill try to get some pictures as soon as possible.. hopefully I will have a chance today. And yeah its still pushing into the rear cover. Right now i have it at my mechanics so i don't risk destroying my rear axle by driving it.

What im confused about is normally the sway bar will sit at the bottom of or right below the rear axle. My sway bar is pushing into the rear cover about 2/3rds up towards the top.... here picture i drew in photo shop to kind of imitate what is going on.

 

I have a feeling he did put it upside down... would putting it upside down make the sway bar sit closer to the bottom of the car?

 

Yes it would they have a bend that puts it at a slight downward angle. If installed properly. You can see that in the picture of the new one. You sould be able to tell if it is upside down, the bend in the middle should be towards the ground. It should follow the contour of the drain cover of the rear differential. If mounted upside down when the car was lowerd to the ground it would hit the cover. I would say if that is the case it is toast.

 

I called my mechanic today and talked to him about the sway bar possibly being installed upside down. When i questioned him on it he said there is no possible way you can install the sway bar upside down.. it wouldn't work he said. But he also told me he would take 3 weeks to finish my car and it took him 6 months. So I'm not buying it. Im not as mechanically advanced as id like to be but for people who have installed there own rear sway bars is it possible that it could be installed upside down?

 

There is no way it would take that long. You may want to do the work yourself and get your car away from that guy. Hopefully you gears are fine and you will only need a new pumpkin cover. I'd get far away from that guy. The sway bar swap should take an hour tops to do. He royally messed something up and I wouldn't want him playing with the car anymore.

 

I replaced my whole rear-end in a few hours including the swaybar. By myself with hand tools, no pwertools. It is not a hard job just a heavy job.

 

He did alot more then just that... basically the whole underside of my car went from a rusty mess to brand new. The problem is i dont want to pay 100 bucks for a new rear cover.. when i just had him install a brand new one. If he tries to charge me to do it... its not gonna happen.. but if i get him to admit he made a mistake and do it ill save 100 + bucks.

 

Is the sway bar installed on the bottom of the axle or the top?

 

yeah you got ****ed.. you should of gave me the 7k i would have fixed it right for you! this is why no one works on my iroc but me not even tire or oil changes

 

take pictures then we can talk

 

"blue **** is the oil leaking out" aaaahahaha that's freaking hilarious

 

I would sue him! I don't believe you could but you could certainly threaten to sue him. See if you could get some of that 7k back or free work. If worse comes to worse just sneak in at night and steal little things like the fittings on the air compressor and the most common sized socket, batteries, anything little but important.

 

Im pretty sure its installed on the top... ill have to go there and take pictures... i just never have time with work.

 

anyway he f'ed you all over

 

If it's on the top this "mechanic" is a joke and you need to go at him any way you can. I'll scan you an image from my GM service manual that shows a rear sway bar PROPERLY installed on the bottom for you to bring in and show him.

Get us some pics!!! I really gotta see this, just lean down and snap a few from under the car, no need to put it up or anything.

 

That's about the lamest advice I've ever read on this site.

 

That would be awesome thanks.. ill try to get these pictures soon... I told him not to touch it till I can get there.

 

You could install the bar upside down, but you'd have to have no idea what you're doing to do it. If you did install it upside down, it would fork things pretty well once it's set on the ground.

 

I don't care who you are, that's just funny.

 

Get away from this joker as fast as you can!! There's no three strike rule here.I wouldn't trust this SOB to change an air filter!It's obvious you've been effed over (at least once) and there's no way I would take it back there,even if he decides to "make good" on his errors.This is a case where you'll just have to take it on the chin, and take your load down the road.Who knows what ELSE he has effed up that you can't see.And BTW,tell all your friends,car club buddies, crew, etc. to stay away from this clown,and don't be afraid to use his name.Let them know he's bad news........

 

Did you pay cash or credit?

If credit call the card company and inform them of the problem. They will reverse the charge and you will see how fast the mechanic will change his story

 

He DID install it upside down....It can be isntalled that way, I got half way on mine and realized I had to flip it.
IT was his fault. Its kind of easy to do, but it should be apparent that its on wrong REAL QUICK.

Also What did he do for 7k?? I could have done a lot of that much money..I mean like amazing stuff.

 

New headers, catback, y-pipe, lowering springs, struts, entire steering components, sway bars, panhard bar, wonder bar, short shifter, bucket seats, 4 point harness, sandblasting, welding in new floor panels, new clutch, flywheel, oil pan and accessories... honestly anything you can think of that dosent have to do with the engine was basically done.

Still havent had a chance to run by and take pictures because he closes at 6 and i don't get home till around 7.

If you live in somerset county, NJ though dont go to Extreme Customs!

Ill try to get these pictures soon... hopefully friday or saturday.
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Sadly I paid cash to avoid paying the 400 dollars in taxes.

 

A lot of that stuff is bolt on stuff, you probably could have done it yourself..
I did all my rear suspension stuff in a few hours. Do you have a rollcage?

But man when you actually get that thing on the road it is going to be amazing!!!!!!!!!!! I cant wait to see pics.

 

I've done everything to my car other than things requiring welding, involving the transmission, or the AC. They are pretty simple cars to work on.

 

I just dont have room to work on it... just a driveway which is on a 50 degree or so slant.

 

Do you have friends with driveways or garages? Some of the local mechanics rent bays out also, that is something to look into for the future.


I hope everything gets settled.

 

If you lived near me, I'd be happy to let you use our shop to work on your car in.

 

I look into that and thank you.
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If only i lived in Tennessee

 

is it possible he used a jack on the pumpkin and it slid off?

 

I have actually seen this exact thing before. A friend of mine backed his 92 into a parking bump in a parking lot. He didnt hit it straight on, he backed into the end of it and it crammed the bar into the axle housing...

like this, the equal sign was his car, and the dash was the parking bump.

=-

 

to make a long story short the mechanic is a freakin clown and you should bring the car somewhere else to be fixed and charge it to him

 

You've got me curious! In for pictures!

 

first clue is the name, sounds like a place to go that put on high performance stickers, neon, 5ft wings, and fart cannons

second is that the guy let you pay cash to avoid taxes, any real shop wouldnt do that

just my on the story

i would find a real shop to go to, or someone that know their butt from a hole in the ground

 

Pictures Finally.

 

it's upside down, it's his fault, he installed it wrong. Have him fix it at his cost, threaten to sue, take car to a reputable shop and see what else he ****ed up. That must have been the first car he ever worked on or something.. it's just so obvious..

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA! Thats freaking awsome! This mechanic did remove the stock sway bar right? so he did see how it attached. What a tool

 

Best part is when i asked him if he installed it upside down he gave me his word it was impossible... i find it hard to believe he has been a mechanic for 30 years now.

 

Yep, he's definately lying to you. That is upside down, he would have had to know that was *** backwards, just by looking at it! The angle of the end links doesn't even look right. That's why something like that would be best done at a dealership, they know what the hell they're doing.

 

wow, thats f*cked up... look for pics of properly installed sway bars and tell he WILL fix it...

 

Here are some pictures of mine for ya:

 

in that top pic, it looks like he left the top bushing off...

well i feel your pain anyway.
i recently brought my IROC to a place called RMR Motorsports and this joker Ronnie said he could fix it no problem.

4 months later he is done and i get it back.
get about half a mile down the road and it feels like the whole transmission is about to fall out.
turn around and bring it back.

he takes it back in, and in 2 weeks its "done"
he said that my problem was my shifter **** was loose and it was between gears.
well it wasnt loose before... he just lost the snap ring that holds it in.
anyway, i take it for a drive and the exact same thing happens again.
this time i was paying attention and realized that it was in between OD and 3.
turn around bring it back.
3 more months pass (ive already paid the guy mind you... i paid him the first time he gave it to me)
finally he says that its the lockup wiring and it has been completely ripped out of the car.
i put the car in 3 and drive it to another mechanic, who drops the pan and shows me the wires.
i took a picture of the wiring and brought it back with me to ronnie who then stubles and ends up saying that if i bring him the wiring harness he will install it for me and the car will be fixed.

i reply with no, you are the mechanic, i paid you to fix my car, not to have me bring you parts. fix it.

anyway, long story short, this guy was an idiot.
he kept giving me crap over and over.

once, i asked him if it was possible that the TV cable was improperly adjusted.
he replied that there was no real way to adjust it exactly, and that it was more of a trial and error process.


sorry for the long post.
anyway, he is feeding you a line and unfortunately there is nothing you can do about it.

 

what a retard, you need to print out this whole post and take to his shop, tell him to go back to wal-mart and get more training

 

That's funny. I've never seen a sway bar on upside down before but now that I have, I can see how someone who is a complete idiot could install it that way. It kind of looks better installed upside down

NJ is filled with some of the best high performance shops in the country but we also have a ton of crappy ones. I've never heard of "Extreme Customs" before though. What else did you get for $7,000?

 

since nobody else mentioned it I will. I'd be very worried about the metal shavings floating around inside your rear diff, it's quite possible there are metal filings floating around in your gear lube now cause by the ring gear rubbing against the cover like that. What I'm saying is there is a good chance that you will be needing a rebuild in short order since metal filings and bearings don't get along very well. When I had a carrier bearing go the metal filings went as far as trashing my axles when they got caught in the wheel bearings. Hopefully you will get lucky. If it is indeed the case he should have to pay for that as well since he screwed it up and caused it in the first place.

Edit: RedDragon is correct, he left on of the endlink bushing off, most likely it was the only way he could get it to bolt on upside down like that..