Question: Will this break? (Ireland Engineering content)

[DCColegrove]

WOW WOW WOW

Carr doesn't sell IE stuff anymore. They did for a short time when they first tried getting into performance scene, but for quiet some time now they've been selling quality stuff. I mean I happened to be 4 blocks away from them.

Point taken,

I laid off this rant for a while and I may not be up to date.

The trend though has been that almost everything out there is is not top quality most of it being sourced from Mainland China etc.

Some (alot of some) Companies are foisting this stuff off as something that it is not.... (Basically full of shit).

[xLibelle]

I hadnt heard of many people having this issue with the tabs breaking. I can recall now, thinking "this is gonna break" when i installed it.

What is a comparable sway bar by another maker?

[Aptyp]

Eibach and H&R sway bar kits cost a lot more, and they are smaller diameters. There a whole lot of others available, but they are also sub par. I mean, if you're willing to spend $400+ then you have options, IE stuff is like $200. I also wander about the adjustable links, because maybe some people make them way too tight. That could put a lot of extra load on the connection, although the weld in the pic looks like solder job.

There are a few places where quality stuff comes from, and that would be like household brands, again like eibach, (BavAuto resells their stuff, powdercoated their colors) H&R (Korman sells it also repackaged), but for the money, IE is great. Take the bar to any exhaust place and have them reweld it, and you'll still be saving a few hundred bucks.

[xLibelle]

i have industiral welders and was about to do this on my broke one but thought better ask for a replacement first. I think its a good bar - 25mm is thick and being hollow just means lighter weight as the core shouldnt play much of a role in stiffness. So if it happens a second time, then i will do the work myself.
If there were a higher quality bar with equal or greater stiffness, i would consider. But so far, nothing that i know of.

[Jesse30]

have you called our shop yet? cause i haven't heard any news of a broken bar..

and that looks like an old batch, done by a fabricator who no longer works with us.

WOW WOW WOW

Carr doesn't sell IE stuff anymore. They did for a short time when they first tried getting into performance scene, but for quiet some time now they've been selling quality stuff. I mean I happened to be 4 blocks away from them.

lolololol

[G-Man]

IE has great customer support, if you have a problem with something you buy from them, they will work with you to make you happy. Trust me, I know. I've dealt with them for years and if something is wrong, let them know. I bought a used big six M30 getrag 5 speed gear box that went bad a year after I bought and they gave me parts credit for what I paid for the gear box. I have a IE stainless steel E30 exhaust on my daughters 89 325i, it sounds sweet, music to the ears.

G-Man

[BeirBrennerE30]

Yeha good customer support, call them. WHen I ordered my bars the rear was made a lil over an inch too long... not sure how that happened... and they replaced it for me no questions asked

[maniacmatt]

It's pretty hard to tell from that picture how good or bad that weld really is. the profile is a little bit concave but if you could take more pictures of the welds on the tab front and back from straight on I could definately give you a better idea.

With regards to some of the earlier comments

Although this weld does look funny, as if it wasn't properly matched to surface and just randomly spot welded with lots of feeler.

What does that even mean? Spot welded with lots of feeler? A spot weld is not possible on a joint like that, And I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that by feeler you really meant filler, which the weld in question could actually have used more of.

un-certified welders! there is poor fit on the tab to begin with. it should at least sort of conform to the shape of the piece it is being welded to (the sway bay) not just using the weld to bridge the gap.

Personally I have no issue with joint preperation in this case. That gap on the one side will actually give you more penetration and a larger surface area than if the tab was a tight fit on both sides. That said more heat input is required on a joint like that so if what you say about spring steel is correct (I have no knowledge of spring steel) Then perhaps that preperation isn't the best option. On mild steel though the joint preperation shown in the picture would be stronger than if it fit tight on all sides.

[Sam Cogley]

It's pretty hard to tell from that picture how good or bad that weld really is. the profile is a little bit concave but if you could take more pictures of the welds on the tab front and back from straight on I could definately give you a better idea.

It broke, that's enough proof that it was a bad weld. A good weld should be stronger than the surrounding metal.

[der affe]

Personally I have no issue with joint preperation in this case. That gap on the one side will actually give you more penetration and a larger surface area than if the tab was a tight fit on both sides. That said more heat input is required on a joint like that so if what you say about spring steel is correct (I have no knowledge of spring steel) Then perhaps that preperation isn't the best option. On mild steel though the joint preperation shown in the picture would be stronger than if it fit tight on all sides.[/quote]

in this case since you are welding a flat tab to a round surface you should at least try to contour it to the other (round ) surface. the issue isn't joint prep per say it is the part prep. when you are welding the mild steel (that is prob what the tab is made of), you want to try to put more of the heat into the mild steel to lessen the chances of making the spring steel brittle. with a better fit you are going to spread out the load and the hot spot a little more (not much, but it is also on a small surface to begin with). this application may be better suited to a 2 pass or maybe even a 3 pass weld also. if you are relying on the strength of the weld for support more than the actual metal itself.

[der affe]

[quote=maniacmatt;1104251]It's pretty hard to tell from that picture how good or bad that weld really is. the profile is a little bit concave but if you could take more pictures of the welds on the tab front and back from straight on I could definately give you a better idea.

i do however totally agree with you on this. i just went through my welding re-cert. (it expired while i was in the hospital doh!)
i was supprised at how many of the people that took it with me failed!
to the untrained person a nice looking weld is a good weld. not so!
a bad looking weld can be a good weld and vise versa. with time proper welds look good. unfortunately with a MiG welder you can lay down some junk welds that look really nice.

just because you have thick metal doesn't mean you crank the welder up to 7 or 8 or it wont weld. everyone that took the test that did that's welds failed. why, too much heat eating up the wire (filler), and not enough time spent on heating the actual metal.
you actually want to be welding with it set on three with the crooect wire speed and spend more time building the weld.

for the test we had to do a 3 pass weld between 2 pieces of 1/2 steel welded together in an offset "T" , the overall width of the 3 pass weld could not be smaller than 1/4 inch and not much more (they allow for a little over). the first weld joined the 2 metals (you had to go half way, stop and continue on each pass. never stopping and starting in the same spot so you have an overlap). the the second and 3 welds over lapped the others by half way. they then put it in a press and broke it. if the weld help and it tore some of the parent metal across the whole weld away you pass.

[blunttech]

lets paraphrase for those who dont want to read the whole thing
"ireland sucks"
if they can get it wrong they will.
if you call and complain it will be your fault unless you talk to jeremy
jeff has zero customer skills
i have had a minimum of 10 separate experiences with ireland and not one has gone according to plan. that said, i have continued to buy from them because they have some shit nobody else carries. but i only do it when absolutely necessary

[maniacmatt]

It broke, that's enough proof that it was a bad weld. A good weld should be stronger than the surrounding metal.

I believe the sway bar in the first picture and the broken one further down the thread are two seperate bars. The OP is asking if the weld on the bar in the first post is going to break. The thread title would not be "will this break" if it was already broken.

[PiercedE30]

Wow, that is some SHITTY welding. Hell, MY welding isn't even that bad. At least when I try and break a test piece that I've welded the weld itself doesn't break. I've always been told that when you try and break a weld, the weld itself should NEVER break, but the metal around the weld (where the heat affects it the most) should break, or tear.

[xLibelle]

maniacmatt, no, same bar.

jesse, yeah, ive put a call in and was told to send it in to get a swap no problem. That is one thing i could say is where ive had a problem, if it was something of manufacturer's mistake, IE has been game to replace/fix.

But like i mentioned earlier and as blunt reiterated, they have shit no one else does.