I guess my end link snapped sometime?

[cntchds]

There is this horrible banging sound when I drove my car today from the front left side of the car, so I pull over and check out the tire to see if it's flat. It's not, but it's a little low, but I still didn't know what the banging was, so I feel the tire and low and behold the far side of the tire is so bare that the braided metal part is hanging out. So I very carefully drive home... (two blocks) and I jack up the car and take the tire off. My end link was snapped in half. I was thinking maybe my sway bar has been riding against the wheel since it is unsupported and this caused the irregularity of the wear on that side maybe? I feel like an idiot not checking it out sooner since it seems like it did quite a bit of damage to the tire before I checked it out. Does this seem plausible? It was dark out, so I didn't really get a chance to look to see if there is rubber residue on the sway bar, but that is my only guess. I'll have to check again tomorrow.

 

[bobtsgt]

well that sucks to hear. Don't think I have ever been in a car where the end link snaps like that. Go get some energy suspension ones and you should be fine.

 

[cntchds]

I kind of forgot about this thread, but after further investigation I can see that it didn't have anything to do with the sway bar/end link. They have since been replaced though, on both sides. I have yet to see how they have impacted handling since I haven't driven since the incident with the tire tread being so low, but I have to assume that it's been broken at least since I bought the car since I've been extremely disappointed in how much flex there is in the front end during turns. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how much this remedies that.