Do you hear some noise whenever you turn your car and do you also feel that your wheels are somewhat unaligned and kind of swaying in one direction? These all can be the signs that show that the sway bar in your car’s suspension system has gone bad. The damaged sway bar can not be as easily identified as any other damaged part in your vehicle, since the sway bar works only when your car is turning or jumping up the speed bump. But driving with a damaged sway bar can be very hazardous at some points and can go really terrible if at a turning point your car turns its alignment and you lost control over your car.
So, dive into this article to understand the function of a sway bar in your suspension system and what you can do if your car starts to show some bad sway bar symptoms also learn how you can fix them and what is the average cost that is charged to replace a damaged sway bar.
Table of Contents
What Is A Sway Bar?
A sway bar which is also known as the antiroll bar is a component in your suspension system that prevents the car from leaning from one side to another you may also say that the sway bar can be really helpful in stopping your car from swaying. A sway bar does nothing at all unless the vehicle is inclined to lean to one side, but when it starts to lean when the vehicle is turning, the sway bar applies force to the suspension on each side, upward on one side, and downward on the other, that tends to resist the leaning.
How Does A Sway Bar Works?
Your sway bar is an essential part of your suspension system that is the system of tires, tire air, springs, shock absorbers, and linkages that connect a vehicle to its wheels and allows relative motion between the two. In general, there are four types of a suspension system that are:
- Leaf springs
- Coal springs
- Torsion bar
- Air springs
A sway bar is a piece of metal that resists twisting force, it can be called a torsion spring. It is attached to the ends of both the wheels so that whenever one of the wheels is higher than the other, the other bar has to twist. Resisting that twist is necessary to keep the body away from leaning. That’s why whenever your vehicle is not leaning a sway bar does nothing if both wheels rise or fall at the same time, the sway bar doesn’t have to twist, so it does not affect.
What Are Some Bad Sway Bar Symptoms?
So now you know what a sway bar is and what function it performs in your car but what happens to your machine if your Sway Bar goes bad. How would you know that your sway bar is fine or not?
Here are some symptoms that you can check for
- If your car starts making Clunking or rattling noise.
- You start Knocking uneven noise road.
- If your car shows a Lack of stability while driving it means that your sway bar is unable to function well.
- Whenever you pass through a speed bump you hear an unusual noise in your car.
- While taking a turn you feel that your car is out of control and you feel that your wheels are out of alignment.
Sometimes your sway bar is not damaged but breaks away from the suspension system since a sway bar helps the car’s suspension to put more pressure on loaded springs, now that the sway bar is broken the car’s suspension can not handle corners as well, or as quickly.
Even if your sway bar is damaged you can easily drive your car but there are many possibilities that your car may go out of control and lose its alignment, driving with a car that anytime can go out of control is very dangerous, therefore you must need to fix your sway bar to ensure a healthy ride. But if you are compelled to drive with a broken sway bar in precaution you must not exceed driving speed especially on the turning points or the bumpers.
How Do You Fix Your Damaged Sway Bar?
Fixing your sway bar is not a difficult task you can perform it with some mechanical tools you can easily replace the damaged sway bar with a new one.
1. Identify The Broken Sway Bar Mount
First of all, take precautions if you are working under your car and diagnose the problematic zone. Since replacing the damaged sway bar is not a big task you can do the replacing task yourself if you have access to some mechanic tools and a few skills.
2. Examine The Problematic Area
Now you have to support the vehicle on a jack stand and remove the wheel on the upset side. As the vehicle is in the air and you are below it with no wheels around, you have access to the sway bar link. Start examining the area if the mount will actually be broken, as it was on this vehicle, then you may have to replace it.
3. Removing The Lower Sway Bar Mount Bolt
Remove the lower bolt using an Allen wrench and an open-end wrench. The Allen wrench will keep the bolt into its place and open it using an open-end wrench. The Allen wrench must be of the size of your bolt then the lower sway bar mount bolt will be easily removed.
4. Removing the Upper Sway Bar Mounting Bolts
Similarly, remove the upper sway bar mounting bolts using hex or Allen wrench of the size of your bolt hold the bolt in place, and using the open-end wrench start turning the bolt until loose and remove it.
5. Install the New Sway Bar Link and Hardware
Take your new sway bar link and adjust it properly as it was adjusted before tightening the nuts and now you are good to go.
But if you don’t have the tools to fix the sway bar link just go to a mechanic and ask him to do so for you.
What Is The Average Cost To Replace The Sway Bar?
Conclusion
In conclusion, sway bar plays an important function in your suspension system, it keeps your wheels aligned and the damaging of this part can cause a lot of problems while driving such as losing the car out of control and to prevent this now you know all the bad sway bar symptoms and how you can fix the damaged sway bar. If you are not comfortable doing that yourself call an automotive expert and ask him to do that for you, the average cost of replacing is also written above.
Any further queries from your side are most welcome, also comment done your opinion on this blog below.