If you are concerned about potential problems with your aftermarket rear sway bar on your A4, please read the following:<p>There are several companies currently manufacturing/selling rear sway bars (anti-roll) bars for the A4. This posting is specifically for our product, the NEUSPEED sway bar, because we have taken the time to read every posting on the A4.org page regarding this matter, and have retrieved valuable information from a small group of owners. I would like to thank Jim Simone, Steve Sherwood, Warren Wang, Sharron Levy, and David Dassed for their input to date.<p>NEUSPEED is aware that the owners above have experienced problems after they installed our 22mm. rear sway bar. These problems range from the extreme (Jim Simone - cracked subframe) to the less severe (Warren Wang - broken plastic end link.) Our greatest difficulty at this time is duplicating the problem on our test vehicle, the 1.8T A4 quattro owned by our local distributor, Greedspeed. The prototype bars were tested for nearly 6 months on the Greedspeed car before we released them for sale. No damage is evident on the Greedspeed vehicle.<p>To this date, we have not seen the damaged parts removed from any of the above cars, further hampering our ability to diagnose the problems experienced by the owners. Warren Wang has agreed to send his broken plastic end links, and Jim Simone's subframe is currently in transit to us. Until a thorough analysis is done on these components, no definitive solution can be presented. However, our current strategy involves either (a) a non-adjustable rear bar; (b) a smaller diameter (greater than 16mm., less than 22mm.) rear bar; (c) an additional rear subframe brace to support the factory mounting position; (d) some combination of the above.<p>If you have ANY manufacturers' larger rear sway bar and are concerned about possible damage to either the end links or the subframe, I advise you to re-install your factory rear bar until that manufacturer provides a solution. NEUSPEED customers may contact us directly at <br>Info@neuspeed.com, or my personal e-mail box, M5guy@aol.com. NEUSPEED is currently working on a revised rear sway bar kit for its customers.<p>As always, thanks to Jason Teller for allowing us to post this message to readers.<p>Regards,<br>Greg Woo<br>President<br>NEUSPEED/APS/Neumann Distributing

I am confident that a viable solution will be found soon.<p>Steve S.<br>97 2.8QM<br>

To clarify any questions regarding how the factory and NEUSPEED rear bar function, and to discourage random theorists, please read the following posting. This is a basic physics lesson, NOT a press release promoting our products.<p>The Audi A4 rear sway bar pivots on two u-shaped brackets and bushings mounted to the suspension subframe. The bar ends (aka lever arms) are mounted to the rear suspension via a metal or plastic drop link. The drop link has a rubber encased bushing on each end to allow the link to pivot at both the top and bottom mounting point.<p>When the vehicle is traveling in a straight line and both rear wheels hit a bump at the same time, both bar ends rotate upward. There is no torsional resistance generated by the bar in this condition.<p>When only one side of the car becomes "loaded," such as in corners, or when only one side of the car hit a bump, the lever arm on the loaded side rotates upward. Because the bar is connected to the opposite side's suspension, an equal force is transmitted to that opposite (aka "unloading") side. The bar generates torsional resistance because the lever arm on the unloading side is attempting to push upward on the suspension, literally trying to lift the suspension on the unloading side off the ground. The unloading side lever arm is trying to lift the unsprung weight of the suspension, and compress the coil spring and shock assembly. <p>Manufacturing bar with a thicker diameter or a shorter lever arm are the two most common methods to generate increased torsional resistance, resulting in flatter cornering and a bias towards rear roll stiffness.<p>The end link on the rear suspension is designed to pivot from its top mount. As the lever arm of the sway bar travels in an arc, the distance from the pivot point on the bar to an imaginary vertical line drawn from the ground to the end link mounting hole, increases. Read this again. The distance from the pivot point to the mounting hole is always the same, but the distance from the pivot point to this imaginary vertical line intersecting the end link mounting hole varies. If you draw this out on paper, you will see why the end link must pivot back and forth from its upper mount.<br>The A4 rear end link has a slight curvature for this exact reason. As the bar end moves up and down, the end link pivots back and forth like a pendulum. The curvature of the end link is designed to help it clear the drive shaft.<p>Once again, thanks to Jason Teller for allowing us to post this message.<br>

As the owner of the A4 that sustained the most severe damage (cracked subframe), I must say that Greg has been very responsive and is very concerned with solving these problems associated with the Neuspeed rear sway bar .<p>Hopefully, the causative factors will become more clear after APS/Neuspeed's analysis of my subframe (in transit) and plastic droplinks (about to be sent).<p>In any case, I agree that it would be prudent of all those using larger aftermarket rear bars to re-install the factory bar until this is all sorted out.<p>Jim

<br>To bad it doesn't work!