Of Sway Bar Bushings and End Links

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by Richard, Mar 27, 2006.

  1. Richard

    Richard Guest

    When my 01 PT Cruiser started clunking down the road at about 50,000 miles I
    picked up new bushings and sway bar links. It was a very easy job and not
    too expensive.

    Now my 04 Town & Country started clunking down the road at about 55,000
    miles.

    Chrysler sells an improved front sway bar bushing for about $6.00 each.
    Unlike the Cruiser getting to the single nut and bolt on the driver's side
    was a killer. It took much longer to change than it should have but I got
    the job done.

    I picked up a much improved pair of front sway bar links at NAPA. They were
    expensive ($44 each). But getting the OEM set off the vehicle was worse then
    I could have guessed. The nuts turn the bolt so you have to hold on to the
    bolt. It has a Torx female area on the end which is quickly stripped out
    (and you can only get to the one on the top). The is little room to hold
    onto the back of the bolt. I wound up drilling out and sawing off the bolts.
    There has got to be a better way to design these vehicles and its parts.
    (All the replacement link sets abandon the Torx fitting for a place you can
    grab onto with a lockwrench, etc).

    I sure wish Chrysler considered ease of repair when the design these toys.
    How do the repair guys do this job?

    Richard.
     
    Richard, Mar 27, 2006
    #1
  2. Richard

    L, not -L Guest

    My 01 PT Cruiser Touring (45,000 miles) is doing this; sounds like the
    rear-end is going to fall out when I go over even a modest bump and, in warm
    weather, squeaks like an overloaded hay-wagon. Not much noise from the
    front, yet.

    What brand replacement parts did you use, where did you get them and at what
    cost? What are we talking, a couple of hours labor to replace?

    Thanks
     
    L, not -L, Mar 27, 2006
    #2
  3. Richard

    Richard Guest

    One of my Cruiser's rear sway bar links actually snapped in half. Only OEM
    parts are available for this application and that is what I used. I replaced
    the front links and all the sway bar bushings with Energy brand parts. These
    were ordered off the web and were not very expensive. $18 + $12 + $12

    http://www.autotrucktoys.com/ptcruiser/Chrysler-PT-Cruiser-Bushings-Links-C625.aspx

    At most a couple of hours.

    Richard.
     
    Richard, Mar 27, 2006
    #3
  4. Richard

    RCSnyder Guest

    This is going to be a really silly sounding question but why did you change
    both bushings and links? Wouldn't it have made more sense to replace one
    and see if the problem was solved?

    Bob
     
    RCSnyder, Mar 28, 2006
    #4
  5. Richard

    Richard Guest

    Not a silly question. The clunk was caused by worn out front sway bar
    bushings at 55,000 miles. My experience with previous Chrysler mini-vans and
    with a rear link on my PT Cruiser, is that the OEM sway bar links tend to
    break. Thus, while I was going at it I picked up all of these parts. The
    better NAPA front links looked so far superior to the OEM parts that I
    thought I would change them out as long as I had the wheels off anyhow. If I
    knew how difficult their removal would be I likely would have given this a
    pass until they broke. The front PT Cruiser links came of as easy as pie,
    but not the mini-van links.

    Richard.
     
    Richard, Mar 28, 2006
    #5
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