Are larger sway bars better?

Why Would a Sway Bar Link Break?

There are so many reasons why a sway bar link would break or gets damaged. It is important to maintain the suspension system of your car as its stability depends on it. If they get damaged and are not fixed for a long time, there can be an adverse effect on the rest of the system. The chances of car accidents will increase as the steering will lose their control. Here are the most common reasons which you can avoid to keep your sway bars long-lasting.

• Old shock absorbers or damaged ones can cause the sway bar link to break. When this happens, the weight of the entire vehicle doesn’t lay flat and instead moves in a particular direction (opposite to the direction of the turning point). This instability leads to a broken link or a damages bolt that holds the suspension together via sway bar link.
• The breakage of links usually occurs on rough terrains. The wearing out of Z-link that keeps anti-flip bars’ ends connected can also lead to extra strain on these links, which causes the breakage.
• When stabilizer bars go bad, themselves, it can also lead to the links breaking. With time, the rubber brushes on these bars wear out, which are responsible for reducing friction. When this happens, the links experience more friction and eventually break.
• The most common reason is rash driving. A bad driver who drives harshly on uneven roads can also cause the bars or links to breaking. Running over large objects, speed breakers, or even (minor to major) car accidents can cause the links to break.

What do Sway Bars do?

What exactly is it that an anti-roll or sway bar does? In essence, they help keep the vehicle flat during cornering by tying the left- and right-side suspension together with a spring.

When you’re turning right, the front left suspension is being loaded while the front right is being unloaded — the vehicle is rolling over. With a sway bar installed in that same hard-right turn, as the left suspension is being loaded, it’s twisting the bar. On the other side, the right suspension is unloading, trying to twist the bar the other way. Here’s another way to look at it: as one side is loading, it’s pushing up on the bar, while the side unloading is trying to pull the bar down. With the spring steel sway bar, the sway bar is able to help keep the car flat during cornering.

Driving With Your Sway Bars Disconnected

While on the trail, one of the key aspects of maintaining great traction is properly flexing or articulation. The Jeep’s solid axle design allows it to flex in a way that maintains incredible contact with most tires.

In order to properly allow for good articulation while off-road, the Jeep’s sway bar needs to be disconnected. The sway bar itself is designed to maintain a flat even stance and actually prohibit excessive articulation while on the road. During slower off-road conditions, articulation is key, therefore disconnecting the sway bar is critical. While driving with the sway bars disconnected it’s important to maintain a nice slow steady pace with minimal quick adjustments to the steering. A quick steering adjustment will offset the Jeep’s weight to one side and possibly result in a rollover if there’s enough speed built up and the angle is too great during the articulation.

While on the road and higher speeds, the sway bar should be connected. Although there isn’t a specific speed limit, road levelness and steering is more critical. If the road is un-level or you’re forced to make a quick steering adjustment, the faster you’re going, the greater the risk of a rollover. This is due to the Jeep’s inability to keep both sides of the wheels level when the sway bar is disconnected. The independent flexing of each side could also cause excessive bouncing and build up enough momentum to tilt the Jeep.

Symptoms Of Common Sway Bar Problems

During normal driving, your sway bar components are susceptible to wear and tear.  This wear is greater when the vehicle is driven on rough, uneven road surfaces.  As your vehicle ages the rubber bushings can get harder and wear quicker.  As the wear increases the symptoms will become more noticeable.

The typical symptoms include clunking and rattling noise when driving on rough or dirt roads.  On front-end sway bars you can sometimes hear the sway bar links squeaking when turning the steering wheel.  You may also start to notice a change in how the vehicle handles when cornering.  If any of these symptoms are noticed, you’ll want to inspect your sway bar components.

While under your vehicle it’s always a good practice to look around and check out other suspension components for signs of damage or failure. Another common component that needs to be replaced occasionally, and can cause clunking under your vehicle, is the shock absorbers. If in doubt, check out our article on “Shock Absorber Replacement” for more information.

How to Replace Sway Bar Link Step by Step Instructions

Replacing your sway bar links really is quite easy, just follow these 10 steps and you will be done in no time.

1. Loosen the wheel nuts but do not remove yet.
2. Jack up your car or truck under the suspension arm so it pushes the suspension up and relieves pressure on the link, so it is easier to remove.
3. Now remove the lug nuts and wheel.
4. Next you want to remove the nut holding the sway bar link to the sway bar. Use some vice pliers on the top and a socket wrench on the bottom to make it easier.
5. Remove the old sway link.  If you have difficulty, you can simply cut it as we do not need it anymore.
6. Install the new sway link exactly the same as the old one.  From the bottom, you should have nut, mounting point, smaller nut, then metal washer, bushing, sway bar, bushing, metal washer and nut at the top.
7. Tighten the nuts again, same as in step 4.  If you have difficulty, you can use the jack to further compress the sway bar to give you more room to tighten the nuts.
8. Replace the wheel and lug nuts.
9. Remove the jack.
10. Tighten the lug nuts and the job is done.

As you can see from this video (sorry about the intro), replacing your sway bar link is not a hard job and can be done quite quickly, so why not save yourself some $’s and give it a go.

However, you don’t need to replace the sway bar bushings if they are not worn out. These have their own rate of wear and should be treated as separate parts that have to be replaced when they start showing their own signs of wear.

What Does a Sway Bar Link Do?

Sway bar links are an essential part of a vehicle. When the car turns, it feels that tires, including the whole car body, is moving in the opposite direction (of the turning direction). Not only the external but internal parts of a car experience the same influence. For example, if you take a turn into the street on your right, the inner parts of the car will get a push towards the left. If the same is done at a higher speed, the tire lifts slightly above the ground, which forsakes the car’s stability.

The main function of best sway bar links is to maintain the stability of the car. The links are points of attachment between bar-like structures that keep all the internal parts of the vehicle in their place and, in coordination with each other. The bars hold the tires together, which in turn keep the whole body intact too. They prevent the body from the influence of the turning thrust, which is meant for a skid in the opposite direction of the turn.  As all the internal machinery of the vehicle remain low and flat because of the sway bar link, the weight is focused in the lower middle section, which prevents the car from flipping over even when it turns at high speed. The sway bar is also known as:

• Anti-roll bars
• Stabilizer bars
• Anti-sway bars

The toppling or flipping over of vehicles occurs when the weight on the outside of the car goes higher than the weight on the inside tires. This lessens the traction and increases the chance of a flip over. Usually, the center of gravity for a vehicle remains lows due to these stabilizer bars as they keep the tires in their place and the car’s parts in their places. However, in case of a broken sway bar link, they get free, which results in a loose steering wheel and unstable drive.

Sway Bar Bushings Pricing

• Under $20: In this price range, expect sway bar bushings that are maintenance-free and very easy to install. They are mostly made of rubber or thermoplastic material and they are efficient. However, they may not withstand extreme stress and they may not be very long-lasting.
• $20-$50: Here you can expect bushings made of urethane and polyurethane materials. Due to their high-quality construction, they can withstand heat and excessive usage. They come with small brackets and can hold grease to reduce noise.
• $50 and up: In this price range, bushings are mostly made of specially formulated polyurethane compounds to ensure the highest levels of street performance. Here, the bushings reduce noise considerably, improving handling and cornering. Also, you can expect them to be durable and to withstand extreme abuse.

Why Do Sway Bar Links Wear Out?

It’s important to know why the links wear out before delving into what are the symptoms of a bad sway bar. You will be surprised to know that bushings and links can sometimes get damaged within 60,000 miles.

The suspension of an engine, especially the front unit, endures extreme stress and pressure when the car is running. Being a part of this suspension system, a sway bar also withstands this strain. As sway bar parts are made of steel or iron, they can wear out, crack, or snap under immense pressure.

Bad sway bar links can make driving a difficult and unsafe experience. Worn out bar links can lead to anything, from slight swaying while driving to outright wiping out your car’s stability. Without a fully functioning sway bar, a vehicle can go out of control in an instant.

We know that a sway bar is there to help reduce body roll, so, why would you want to disconnect a sway bar?

Updated January 28 2021

Being able to disconnect a vehicle’s sway bar(s) will be nothing new to four-wheel drivers but for, say, a Mustang owner, the idea of disconnecting their vehicle’s sway bar(s) would be madness. So, let’s start at the beginning with a description from ‘Explaining what a sway bar is’. We’ll work back from there.

What is a sway bar?

A sway bar connects your vehicle’s suspension components (one side of the vehicle to the other) and is mounted to the suspension control arms. It’s worth noting that sway bars run through bushings to ensure they don’t move up and down and can only twist in response to action on one wheel or the other. A sway bar works by resisting the twisting force applied to it when one wheel moves down or up compared with the other wheel and weight transfers from one side of the vehicle to the other – when you’re turning a corner, for instance. And, in that resistance, the bar tries to keep the wheels as level as possible.

So, as the vehicle turns a corner and weight moves from one side to the other (in the case of a right-hand turn the vehicle rolls over to the right. As the wheel begins to move up towards the body, the sway bar twists which forces the weight to transfer back across to the other side of the vehicle. The result of this action is that the vehicle begins to level out, thus minimising the roll action when cornering.

The point of a sway bar is that it improves your vehicle’s on-road, at-speed, performance by reducing bodyroll and thus improving grip and control. Depending on how stiff or soft the sway bar is in your vehicle you can dial in or out either under or oversteer. Sway bars are incredibly important bits of your vehicle.

Why disconnect your vehicle’s sway bars?

We need to point out here that this relates to four-wheel drives only. There’s no reason at all why you’d want to disconnect the sway bars on your road car. And, for a four-wheel drive you only want to disconnect them when driving at low speeds off-road.

Sway bars are designed to ensure your vehicle’s wheels don’t move too far up or down independently of the opposite wheel. But when you’re off-road and negotiating rough terrain, you want your 4×4’s wheels to be able to travel as far as possible independently of the other side to maintain contact with the ground and that’s what being able to disconnect the sway bar means.

How does a sway bar disconnect work?

While sway bar disconnects are available for a range of 4x4s as aftermarket options, the best-known factory sway bar disconnect is the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. This is an electric sway bar disconnect and is activated via a button inside the vehicle. It operates on the front sway bar and can only be disconnected in either 4-high or 4-low.

Once you press the button to disconnect the sway bar the light on the dashboard will blink. This tells you the electric motor is, via some mechanical jiggery pokery separating the two sway bars. Once the light is solid you’re good to go. And, as you can see in the image below which shows the old model Wrangler Rubicon, disconnecting the sway bar can give you a lot more wheel travel then when it’s engaged as it would be for road driving.

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Most Fatal Consequences:

Poor Handling or Loose Handwheel

When steering of your vehicle becomes difficult, know the foremost likely cause could be a deteriorated bushing; this is because they carry more of the workload than the opposite parts, thus preventing the deterioration of the metal parts. When grease or other scrap get stuck within the anti-sway bar, it causes disintegration, and if the anti-sway bar links start to deteriorate, steering and maneuver becomes difficult. The repercussions of those issues are that the vehicle is more difficult to handle than it once was. The handwheel may feel loose, and also the car may swing sideways due to the worn-out bar links and bushings.

The Beauty of Wheeling

If you have ever watched videos of people going off-roading, you have probably seen some pretty crazy things. One thing you see a lot is some of the crazy poses Jeeps can get in while flexing. Usually one wheel on top of a huge rock and the others planted on the ground.

When they do this, it gives you a great view of their Wrangler’s suspension, but it also helps them maintain as much traction as possible when crawling over things. When it comes to going off-road driving, one of the most important things is keeping as much tread on the ground as possible and the best way to do this is by increasing articulation.

Other Considerations

• Ease of Installation. Despite the fact that you need a mechanic for proper installation, you need to consider the ease of installation before buying bushings. This will save you time and money. Therefore, make sure the bushings you buy are easy to install and come with a clear installation guide.
• Maintenance Required. Although maintenance-free does not necessarily mean long-lasting or reduced noise, it is important to know how easy it is to maintain your bushings. Ensure you buy bushings that do not require constant greasing and changing.
• Durability. This is an important factor to consider with any bushings you buy. Since they cost money in both buying and installation, you want to consider bushings that will last you for some years. Consider the coating, material, and warranty to determine how durable your bushings are.

Types of Sway Bar Bushings

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Metal Bushings 

These bushings are made of metals such as iron and steel. They are commonly found in old car models and heavy trucks. They are preferred in heavy equipment due to their stiffness and ability to withstand stretching and abuse. However, they are prone to fast wearing and you may need to lube them constantly for enhanced performance and extended lifespan.

Rubber Bushings

These are the most common types of bushings found in cars today. Rubber is preferred in making bushings due to its ability to withstand friction, heat, and cold. Additionally, rubber bushings are cheap and maintenance-free—no need to lubricate them. However, rubber tends to stretch when put under too much stress, leading to suspension alignment problems.

Urethane or Polyurethane Bushings

Due to the fact that rubber compresses, flexes, and stretches, it may lead to handling problems. For this reason, manufacturers have come up with a stiffer material for bushings—urethane and polyurethane. These types of bushings are almost as rigid as metal bushings but they do not wear as much as their metal counterparts, and they do not wrap around like the rubber bushings. However, they are a bit more expensive compared to metal and rubber bushings

Greasable or Non-Greasable Bushings

Sway bars can either be greasable or non-greaseable. Greasable sway bar bushings feature specialize channels that allow the lube to flow to all the surfaces of the bushings, hence reducing friction and noise. They are long-lasting and provide a very quiet and smooth ride. 

On the other hand, non-greasable bushings do not need any grease to function. They are cheaper and maintenance-free as compared to their greasable counterparts. However, they are not very durable and do not offer a very silent ride.

Top Brands

Energy Suspension Inc.

This is an American international company that has been in the manufacturing business for over 30 years. With its plant in San Clemente, Calif., the company has established itself in the world as the leading manufacturer of bushings and suspensions kits. The company uses modern technology, state-of-the-art equipment, rubber, and polyurethane materials to make high-performance, durable, and efficient accessories. One of its best-selling sway bar bushings is the Energy Suspension 9.5161G 1″ SWAY BAR BUSHING SET.

PROTHANE

This is an international company that is based in Ontario, Calif. The company, known as Dee Engineering, has been in existence since the 1970s, when it was involved in the marketing of aftermarket automotive parts. In 1991, it launched its PROTHANE division, which had only 100 products at the time. The company now has more than 5,000 products to its name and has made an international name as one of the world’s leading brands. It manufactures automotive suspension kits such as rear sway bar mounts, front suspension kits, end link bushings, rear suspensions, control arms, and other suspension kits using urethane compounds. Some of its best-selling sway bar kits include the Prothane 18-1115 Red 26 mm Front Sway Bar Bushing Kit and the Prothane 4-1138 Red 34 mm Front Sway Bar Bushing Kit.

MOOG Parts

Moog is an international American company founded in 1919. The company then extended to Europe in 2001. From there, it is now known as a world leader in manufacturing trusted steering and suspension kits as well as high-quality chassis parts. The company takes quality very seriously and therefore it does all it can to manufacture parts that ensure safe and comfortable driving. For this reason, the company backs all its products with a three-year warranty. Some of its best-selling sway bar bushings include the Moog K8657 Sway Bar Link Bushing Kit and the Moog K3171 Sway Bar Bushing Kit.

Why Bad Sway Bar Links Cause Vibration?

Steel torsion bars are formed in a very U shape and are placed facing the bottom. The underside end of the U is joined to the frame by bushings, and then the ends are joined to the control arms of the lower opposing wheel. When turning sharply along with your car, the outside side of the bar is pushed downwards toward the road, and also the interior side is pushed upwards. This is often usually called the” roll,” which occurs 10 to 30 degrees to the outside.

This happens because more of the weight is placed on the outside of the tire, and a small mass is placed on the inside tires. This thereby decreases friction, thus interfering with the steering. A stabilizer works by keeping the car’s body leveled because it turns sharply, thereby evenly dispensing the mass of the vehicle to any of the four tires. Inspecting them for rigidity is significant. If they are rigid, it may cause the car to maneuver from side to side, therefore, affecting the steering and maneuver comfortability of the vehicle, also causing vibrations and treacherous driving conditions. Poor maintenance of sway bars may cause the wheels on the outside to lose its touch with the road, thereby causing bad steering and management of the vehicle.

Picking the Right Quick Disconnect for Your Wrangler

If you plan on taking your Jeep off-road an important step for maximum clearance and articulation involves disconnecting your sway bar. Rubicon sway bar disconnects have a built-in electronic disconnection module that electronically disconnects the sway bar by the push of a button. This avoids the need to manually disconnect the sway bar links. However, fellow Jeepers have been reporting problems with the Rubicon’s sway bar disconnects. Should they get too wet, the electronic units can fail. Either you can replace the units with factory Rubicon units, or you can forgo the electric push-button for stereotypical quick disconnects.

Nonetheless, despite if your Jeep has an electronic disengagement or requires a manual disengagement of the sway bar links, the length is critical for optimal performance on and off-road. If you plan on lifting your Jeep, the correct length of sway bar links will put the sway bar slightly raised past a flat level. About two degrees higher than a flat plane. This ensures the best performance on the road for both an electronic and manual disconnection system. Off-road this length is critical for a Jeep electronic sway bar disconnect system because the system disconnects the sway bar in the middle and not on the ends. That means the sway bar links themselves remain attached to the bar.

If the length is too short, you run the risk of having the link drop down too far during articulation, wrapping around the other end, and bending in half. The same can be said if the sway bar links are too long and could cause the bar to go in the opposite direction. This scenario isn’t a concern with manual disconnection systems, but the ability to easily disconnect/re-connect a sway bar link is important for a manual disconnect. The sway bar links should have a large opening with a secure and heavy gauge attachment link to ensure that the links are held in place when engaged on the road and easily removable when off-road.

Boosting Wrangler Articulation

When talking about off-roading, articulation is how much flex you have. This means if one of your front wheels drives over something, you see how high up you can get that wheel without lifting another wheel off the ground. The easiest way to boost your articulation is to disconnect your front sway bar links. This can typically be done in just a few minutes with just a few tools. Doing this will greatly boost your Wrangler’s flex and it will make the ride on the trails smoother. Just be sure you reconnect them before you go back to driving on the road, otherwise it can be very unsafe. Vehicles with solid axles like Wranglers will see the greatest increase when your sway bar is disconnected. Vehicles with independent suspension systems will see a slight gain, but it will not be as drastic as on the solid axle systems.

Starting

Before Sway can be started, it needs access to your hardware devices such as your keyboard, mouse, and graphics card. The collection of these hardware devices is called a seat, as mentioned in .

On Arch Linux, Sway can get access to your seat using either

• and , or
• , which will be installed alongside Sway as a dependency of

If is already installed on your system, Sway should automatically get access to your seat.

Alternatively, if is not installed on your system and you want to use instead, add yourself to the user group and enable/start , re-log and pick one of the following methods to start Sway.

Automatically on TTY login

Similarly to X, Sway can be started by adding the following to your shell initialization file (see ):

if  && [ "$(tty)" = "/dev/tty1" ]; then
  exec sway
fi

For more details, see

From a display manager

The sway session is located at . It is automatically recognized by modern display managers like GDM and SDDM.

Also you can use text-based session manager, see .

Most Common Symptoms

The most common symptoms of a foul sway bar bushing or the evidence that they are going bad are:

• Thudding sound

• Clattering sound

• Noise when driving on uneven road

• Sound when moving over speed breakers

• Badly-off steering when turning

You may be able to drive your car whether or not your sway bar ends links are broken. The difficulty is also the uncontrolled body spin when turning at speeds over 30 mph. This could cause the vehicle to be unsteady. Take the car home or to a mechanic after you see evidence that they are broken.

When you see evidence of this, move your car with caution and, above all, slowly turn when longing a highway exit ramp. This could be after you notice the uncontrollable body spin. You’ll not feel the evidence that they are missing when driving leisurely or merely cruising around the neighborhood.

Sway Bars And Off-Roading

You certainly know that keeping your steel monster balanced and able to anticipate how it will react to obstacles when out off-roading is critical.

Too much sway can leave you with enough lateral movement to unbalance your off-roader while driving rough trails, up and down hills, and over other types of obstacles.

When your truck or Jeep with its steel bumpers is unbalanced due to sway, rolling over becomes a definite possibility, so a sturdy sway bar can give your truck the additional balance you need to drive those trails and obstacles.

Interestingly on the other side of the fence, as you get more extreme with your off-roading activities the more your front sway bars can interfere with wheel articulation, which is why a lot of experienced off-roaders suggest disconnecting the sway bars for this very reason.