Tail pipe rubbing on sway bar links - what can I do about it?

[nscarnati]

I just had my exhaust replaced, and the new tail pipe is rubbing/vibrating against the sway bar link. My old tail pipe did this too, and I was hoping it would go away once the new pipe was installed.

I would like to get rid of the noise, and didnt know if there's any kind of padding I could put between the pipe and link (that could withstand the tail pipe heat), or else if anyone make sway bar links in a different share than the stock ones that would give me more clearance between the two things

 

[hunterdan]

If you had it done at a shop I would have them tweak the pipe so that it did not hit the links.

 

[wood1]

Couldn't you take it back to the shop that replaced your tailpipe? They should fix it for free. Other then that you should be able to bend one of the hangers/brackets to get the pipe off of your link.

 

[nscarnati]

If you had it done at a shop I would have them tweak the pipe so that it did not hit the links.

It was a pre-bent (mandrel bent) pipe, and they would only be able to crush-bend it, which I wouldn't want anyway

Also I bought the pipe and muffler elsewhere and just had them weld it together for me.

 

[97ford50x]

you might want to check the sway bar it could be bent

 

[Mbrooks420]

Crawl under there and smack around a bit with a hammer.

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

is it rattling cause my 40 series flowmasters rattle too

 

[hunterdan]

It was a pre-bent (mandrel bent) pipe, and they would only be able to crush-bend it, which I wouldn't want anyway

Also I bought the pipe and muffler elsewhere and just had them weld it together for me.

I would still take it back and have them tweak it somehow. If its hitting the sway bar when sitting level, then they didn't have the pipes lined up properly. I wouldn't bend the sway bar link if you plan on keeping it. If you really wanted to, you could just pull the rear sway bar and links and not have to worry about that problem. The least I would want them to do is cut a hanger and reweld it on to pull it away from the link. As for bending it, all it would take would be a minor tweak of a bend to move it away, nothing that you would ever notice on your mandrel bent pipe, and you would never feel it performance wise. Take it to the shop and get their opinions and deal with it from there. Really isn't a major deal and they should be willing to work with you to fix the problem.

 

[nscarnati]

is it rattling cause my 40 series flowmasters rattle too

yeah, but its not the muffler rattling, just the pipe

I actually got underneath and pushed stuff around to see exactly where its making contact, and there's actually two places. The sway bar link and also part of the frame by the tire

 

[Mbrooks420]

Just have them adjust the pipe. Non mandrel bending won't effect performance on a stock sohc.