Sway Bar Link Replacement Cost – Breakdown Of Expenses

Have you ever gone into a turn and felt the body of your vehicle tilting to the outside corner? This is a very common situation in vehicles especially when your car is hauling or even just driving your car. Thankfully, you can say goodbye to this problem by installing a sway bar link for your car. So whether it’s too expensive to equip a sway bar for your car. Every sway bar link replacement cost will be broken down in this article. Let’s follow with Car From Japan!

What Is A Sway Bar On A Car?

A sway bar link is a rigid metal rod that connects critical components that are susceptible to damage when the vehicle is cornering or moving on bumpy roads. Helping to increase body stability and reduce frame twisting. When turning into a corner, the body of your car tends to be tilted to the outside by centrifugal force. This creates a torsion of the chassis, causing the 2 wheels (front/rear) in the corner to reduce traction because the weight of the car has been put on the 2 wheels (front/rear) outside the corner. And if you drive at a high speed at the corner, the situation of overturning is quite possible when the large centrifugal force generates the overturning torque.

So what does a sway bar link do in that situation? As its name suggests, a sway bar will prevent your car from swaying. At that time, a sway bar will link two wheels on the same axle (front / rear axle) to reduce the difference in the wheels when turning a corner and improve the stability and handling by keeping the vehicle flatter to the road surface. 

Some Benefits Of Installing A Sway Bar For Your Car

• Installing a sway bar helps to support the suspension system to operate more stably and safely. Minimizing the chance of rolling the car or splashing the rear wheel after cornering.
• Besides, the sway bar brings rigidity to the body, strengthens the chassis, and reduces the tilt and twisting of the body. This gives a more confident and smooth driving feel, especially when the car moves on bumpy roads.
• In addition to the performance and safety effects, the choice of installing an additional front sway bar (usually painted or anodized) also enhances the aesthetic, making your car look stronger.

Now, you already know how important a sway bar link is to your car, especially for your suspension. But you also might be a little bit concerned about the cost to replace or install a new sway bar for your car. It’s the reason why we are here to make clear everything about the sway bar link replacement cost.

>> Related post: How to Lubricate Sway Bar Bushings

Sway Bar Link Replacement Cost – Everything You Should Know?

If you’re still slightly worried about this expense, you will feel relieved when knowing that it doesn’t cost too much for you to replace a new sway bar link. The sway bar link cost ranges from $55 to $110 depending on the model. Compared to other parts of your vehicle, the cost of the sway bar link is inexpensive. And the labor costs associated with the repair and replacement of the suspension system are usually lower than the cost of repairing other parts in your car. Generally, the average sway bar link replacement cost you must pay will be between $125 and $160 including labor and the part costs.

There’s the good news if you have a basic knowledge or mechanical inclination, you can install or replace sway bar links by yourself in the home garage, and at that time the only expense you must pay is the part cost and a little time. Logically, when one of the sway bar links goes bad, you tend to replace both of them. However, you don’t need to replace all of the sway bar links. If you replace both of them, you may have to pay up to $350 which includes labor costs so let’s make a well-informed decision. This will save you money and time especially when your budget is tight. However, you should follow the mechanic’s advice at the time of repair but normally, both sway bar links wear out evenly. 

What Are The Bad Sway Bar Symptoms?

Timely maintenance and replacement of the sway bar link is a good way to save you money. To make it, you need to detect early the symptoms of bad sway bars to avoid excessive wear of the sway bars and affecting other parts of the vehicle’s suspension system. Here we will learn about the signs that sway bars are going bad:

Unusual sound 

As you know, the sway bar link connects the suspension system with the body of the vehicle. So when this part fails, you will hear some strange noise: rattling, clunking, or grinding noise. You can easily notice these sounds when driving over potholes or speed bumps. Don’t ignore the squeaking sound from your car when driving over the bumps, and in some worsen situations, you can even hear strange noises once you travel on a flat road.  

Having trouble when handling or turning

If your car is unstable or swaying while driving, this is usually an obvious indication that the sway bar link is defective. Sway bar links do not have to be completely damaged, just small damage to this bar which you will feel a big change in stability and handling capability. And you will also notice the loss of traction when turning into a corner, your car tends to tilt to the side. In addition, your tires don’t grip well on the road surface when the sway links are loosened. This problem makes it difficult to corner.

Visibly worn out 

When the sway bar shows signs of wear and tear, you can easily see it visually. If you already know how to safely jack your vehicle, a visual inspection of the sway bar link may be the best option. You will easily notice the condition of the rubber seals and the damage to the sway bar itself and its links. Besides, you should try grabbing and moving the sway bar, if it’s sturdy and won’t move around it’s probably in good condition.

>> Read more: Watch Out for These Sway Bar Links Symptoms

How To Replace A Sway Bar Link?

If you go over bumps, you hear a lot of clunking noises that come from the front end, it’s time to replace your sway bar. It can save you an amount of money ($50-$70) when you can replace the sway bar at home by yourself. How can we do this? Let’s follow the steps below:

This a very important step before making a replacement process. You should consult your car’s owner’s manual for the size of the sway bar links you need to replace. The new one must have the correct parameters as the worn-out sway bar. 

• The first step you need to do in the process is to loosen the nuts of your wheel. You can use the wrench to loosen the lugs slightly but don’t remove them.
• You can’t reach the sway bar links if you don’t lift your vehicle. So in the second step, you will need to use the jack to lift your car. You need to find the right lifting point to lift the car up. Lifting points are the locations specified by the manufacturer to safely jack your car. Lifting points are different for each vehicle and can be found in your vehicle’s manual.
• Remove the wheel: when your car is raised, you will remove the lugs and continue to the tires.
• In the next step, we will identify the position of bad sway bar links. Usually, sway bars are usually located at the front of the vehicle and are bolted to your vehicle’s suspension.
• Remove lug nuts that hold sway bars: Two nuts bolt the sway link in place. Start by unscrewing the top nut first. This nut holds the most weight, so it tends to have the most problems. Note: For rusted lugs, you should soak the thread with WD40 or oil because the nuts can get stuck and are difficult to remove.
• Install a new sway bar: You should insert the bottom first, then the top. Make sure it is installed the same way – the bushings touch the bars – from the top. The lower link is simply a mounting point and nuts. Note that the upper bushing is not installed and all need to be tightened.
• The final step, install other parts back on your car.

Hopefully, the topic “How much is a sway bar replacement?” will give you useful information. If you have any questions, let’s write them in our comment section below.