An anti-roll bar (roll bar, anti-sway bar, sway bar, stabilizer bar) is a part of many automobile suspensions that helps reduce the body roll of a vehicle during fast cornering or over road irregularities. It connects opposite (left/right) wheels together through short lever arms linked by a torsion spring.

front

Your vehicle can have a sway bar on just the front suspension, or it can have it on the front and the rear. Many older vehicles did not come with sway bars, but most modern vehicles have them installed on the front and the rear. These all are for movement with the suspension.

Warning signs of a broken or bad sway bar link include clunks and squeaks. Over-steering or excessive lean through turns are also symptoms of worn sway bar links, but they can also be signs of larger problems with your vehicle’s suspension system.

The sway bar link maintains the camber angle of the inner wheels to control motion. Like many automotive parts, over time the sway bar links will wear out. Water intrusion that leads to rust, age and lack of lubrication all contribute to deterioration over time.

If you suspect that a sway bar is broken, you can still drive the car, but you must use caution. It will feel “looser”, particularly when driving at high speeds. It’s very possible that this will cause you to lose control of the car, resulting in a serious accident if you’re not prepared for it.

Driving without sway bar end links can be dangerous because as you’ve noticed, the vehicle will not steer correctly. Sway bar end links are meant to stabilize a vehicle when turning and at high speeds. You can have your sway bar end links installed by YourMechanic for 97.00.

Actually if you want to get technical… if your car’s chassis is designed correctly, you won’t need a sway bar. The roll center will be much more close to the center of gravity and you won’t get nearly the body roll as normal. Tim, if you set it up without sway bars and it drives well for you, more power to you.

The good news is that most owners will only need to replace their stabilizer bar links maybe once during their ownership, unless you’re one who really puts their car through its paces on a regular basis (racing, tight corners at high speeds, etc.).

Signs and Symptoms of a Bad Sway Bar Link They can be found at the end of the sway bar and help support a stable ride and limit body roll. If the sway bar link breaks and loosens, it can make a rattling or clunking sound as it taps other parts of the suspension.

No, but in many cars an old sway bar link could be extremely difficult to remove without damaging it, as the threads could be rusted. Because of this, sway bar links are often replaced whenever a component (a strut or control arm) that the link is connected to is replaced.