Audi_Catalyst

Hello, World!

I have been an avid viewer of these forums. I'm quite busy these days, and I wish I had more time to look at "fun stuff" on here, but for the first time I have encountered a mechanical issue that needs to be addressed.

I already have a pretty good idea of what I should to to fix this, but I would like to reach out to the community.

First and foremost, I respect all of you, and your opinions. It means a lot to me that you will take the time to read into my struggles, in hopes to help me find a cure for my car's problems. Haha!

Okay, so today I took my car to get the tires swapped out. No big deal. When suddenly, after the tire guy took my front left wheel off of the hub, I saw that the sway bar linkage was totally missing the bottom bolt! (I'll attach pictures with my phone after typing this message on my computer.)

Even further, thankfully I didn't snap the OEM bolt, but the sway bar itself, which has threads, has stripped threads. The mechanic suggested rethreading it with tap and dye set, which apparently aren't as expensive as they used to be. I'm open to the idea of doing this, and replacing the entire sway bar with something better, but that's neither here nor there.

I'm curious if anyone has faced a problem like this. It may not have to be with a B6 Audi A4.

My thoughts, are to stay off it around the corners, and probably borrow my moms car for driving to work, until I can afford to fix it properly (however that may be...)

Also, I really really hope someone out there knows the specs off the top of their head. Since there's not bolt on the bottom of the sway bar link, I don't have one to reference. Or use for the Tap and Dye set. I'd prefer not to remove the other one, although as a last resort I will. The mechanic suggested getting Grade 8 Bolts (Automotive grade for suspension) and thats all well and good, but I'd like to have the exact part or at least the right size all around as OEM. I've done google searches, and the only thing I can come up with, is I'm lacking some sort of common sense requiring me to find bolt sizes. I can find plenty of pictures that have the right part, and the right bolts, but the don't have the size in mm for the top of the bolt, or the length of the threads. In my time viewing different forums, I've almost always seen "WELL I DID A SIMPLE GOOGLE SEARCH, AND FOUND 10 RESULTS" Well I don't know what your google is smoking, because I can search most things pretty well. And I always find a link for a random forum that says use the search function. Well here I am using the search function, and google did not give me s#@! for results with bolt size. I'd like to contribute to the community by asking questions that are useful to those around me. So if another member answers, who ever comes searching along, and finds this thread will be able to benefit from our collaboration!

Thanks, and good day.

-Catalyst

Audi_Catalyst

The sway bar link moves fine. I can align it perfectly with no effort. The threads are just stripped, and the bolt is AWOL.

Audi_Catalyst

I definitely think that I'm gonna do this mod down the road.

B6 A4: Installing H-Sport S4 Sway Bar Kit

John535is

the original bolt should have been an M10 *50mm long.
The problem you will have is that you will need to tap it out to something like an M12 or even bigger depending on what damage has been done, you will then have issues as larger bolt will not pass through the linkage so you will start modifying the linkage etc.

You could try inserting a helicoil thread repair, or replace the bar with a second hand unit, or buy a nice shiny new bar.