I’m somewhat of a shade tree mechanic and over the years, I’ve noticed an arm of sorts behind the front wheels that isn’t attached to anything. The arm moves a little bit up and down pretty freely. I only notice it when I’m working on the brakes every 2 years and I always mean to find out about it, but never have.
I just had the car in for new front struts and they said my sway bar was missing (they said sway something, I think it was bar). How could I have lost it, and do I really need it? I have 150k+ miles on it, 100k of which I’ve put on myself. I’ve gone this long without it, so do I really need it?
I wonder in the previous owner removed it. For it to come off by itself at the minimum would be to remove the end links on each side, plus the two bushings in the center of the bar held with two u-clip thingies to the frame. That would take a lot of rattle for it to happen by itself.
Without it, you have more body roll in your turns and less weight to the inside wheels of the turn, and less traction to those wheels. A sway bar will try to evenly distribute the weight to the tires so no one side is taking all the force.
You could get by without it in the rear for smaller cars, but you must some massive body roll without it in the front. Unless someone put a strut tower bar under the hood… do you have something like that at all?
I agree that it just didn’t fall off (Unless you are the most brain dead driver ever)
AS ParentalAdvisory said, a sway bar is to decrease body roll in a turn. Some cars have just a front bar, some cars have just a rear bar, some cars have both.
In general as you increase the size of the front bar, you increase front roll stiffness. This decreases understeer. Understeer is the tendency for the car to continue in a straight line after the front tires have been turned.
Increasing the size of the rear bar increases rear roll stiffness which increases understeer.
While you would see a improvement in handling if you reinstalled the bar, after 150K of driving without out it, you can probably continue.
This unconnected arm you mention, does it run across most of the width of the car? If so that’s your sway bar ( = stabilizer bar/arm = anti-roll bar), and it’s the links that are missing. Each side has a link that connects the bar to a control arm. This diagram shows a typical arrangement. Sway bars seldom break, but the links often do. If the broken links aren’t just hanging there, probably someone removed them rather than replaced them.
Obviously a functioning sway bar isn’t necessary, but it’s certainly helpful, which is why it’s part of the original design.
As I look at the picture in the link above, I think what I’m missing is the sway bar link. The sway bar in the diagram looks like what I’m refering to on my car, it’s bar extending outward with a definite hole in the end of it.
And to answer an earlier question, no I don’t have a strut tower bar.
Note that there are two sway bar links, one on the right and one on the left. If you need both, and do it yourself, make sure you get two (they may come two to a box, or one to a box).
True, but I was going with the assumption that the previous owner may have taken the sway bar off and may have incorrectly tried to use a strut bar as a substitute.
Looks like you’re good to go OP with just getting the end links for each side and hooking it back up.
