Fixing clunk caused by sway bar.

[Racer X]

So, I've had this clunk up front that I've been chasing for a while. It turned out that the sway bar was moving around in the TPR bushings making a clunk, but I couldn't figure out why since the bushings were less than 1 year old.

When I pulled the bushings, I discovered that they were all deformed and out of round.



When I looked at the sway bar mounting boss, I realized that I might have a problem.



The solution? A couple of short lengths of flat steel I grabbed at Home Depot, a cut off wheel, and 5 minutes on a drill press:







Problem solved!

 

[ryein7]

wow nice fix!! pretty crazy damage though, do you think that was just purely from rust or also from some sort of extreme stress on the bushing? how far did you have to drop the subframe to get that good access to the front sway bar area?

 

[frosho]

Nice catch and fix! I'm trying to diagnose a front end clunk, and the car's rusty everywhere... should've taken a closer look at that while I had the subframe out last month. Oh well, I'm doing brake pads today so I'll give em' a looksie. :thankyou:

 

[Racer X]

wow nice fix!! pretty crazy damage though, do you think that was just purely from rust or also from some sort of extreme stress on the bushing? how far did you have to drop the subframe to get that good access to the front sway bar area?

I'm gonna guess rust. I noticed the mounting bosses last summer during a clutch job, but didn't realize that it wasn't supposed to look like it did until I saw someone elses subframe. Once I saw the bushings in the condition they were in, I put two and two together.

I dropped the subframe all of 1", tops.

Another quick note... this fix has to be performed on both sides, regardless of if it needs it or not. The sway bar needs to sit level, and just doing one side will upset that balance.