Have you noticed that your car’s handling seems a little bit off lately? This could indicate a problem with the sway bar that is connected to your car’s suspension. Furthermore, it could be a problem with the sway bar links that are responsible for holding your sway bar and suspension together. If the issue does end up being with your sway bar links, the good news is that the sway bar link replacement cost is usually on the lower side. You can typically have sway bar links removed and replaced for somewhere between $75 and $150 per link, depending on which auto repair shop you take it to.
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But before you start considering the sway bar link replacement cost and deciding whether or not to pay to have your sway bar links replaced, you should learn more about the sway bar and the sway bars links and what they do. You should also find out more about the signs that will let you know your sway bar links have gone bad and get a better understanding for what might happen if you don’t take the time to do sway bar link replacement. Continue reading to have all your questions about sway bar links and sway bar link replacement answered.
What Is a Sway Bar?
It’s pretty much impossible to talk about sway bar links and the important role that they play in a car without touching on sway bars themselves first. So prior to discussing sway bar links and the sway bar link replacement cost, we want to spend a few moments talking about sway bars. Because without sway bars, your car would maneuver a lot differently than it does today, especially when you take turns and put your car into other situations in which you could potentially lose control of it.
Every car has at least one sway bar that’s used to bridge the gap between the left and right sides of a vehicle’s front suspension. There are also some cars that have one sway bar in the front for the front suspension as well as a second one in the back for the rear suspension. But regardless of how many sway bars a car has, a sway bar is an iron or steel bar that’s designed to stop a car from leaning too much when it’s out on the road. It works to stabilize the car at all times and works extra hard when a driver is trying to handle a corner or take a turn. A sway bar itself is very strong and durable and shouldn’t ever wear down and break, but the sway bar links that are attached to it can.
What Are Sway Bar Links?
Now that you’re familiar with what a sway bar is and why it’s such a vital part of your car, let’s move on and discuss sway bar links. Although sway bar links don’t get as much credit as sway bars themselves for helping to hold your car together and keep it safe, your sway bar wouldn’t be able to do its job without sway bar links. They’re the parts that are used to connect a sway bar to your suspension so that it can keep your car stabilized while you’re driving it.
Most sway bar links have two small ball joints on each of their two ends. One of these ball joints connects to the sway bar and the other connects to a car’s suspension. As long as sway bar links are able to maintain these connections over time, you shouldn’t run into any issues. But over the years, it’s not uncommon for the ball joints on sway bar links to begin to wear out. And when they do, it’ll force you to find out the sway bar link replacement cost so that you can have them replaced sooner than later.
How Long Do Sway Bar Links Last?
Sway bar links are, much like sway bars, typically made out of metal. This makes them every bit as strong and durable as sway bars are. But as we just mentioned, there is going to come a time when sway bar links are going to need to be replaced. Since the sway bar in your car rotates each and every time that you drive around a bend or take a turn, it tends to put a tremendous amount of stress on your sway bar links. This can put you in a position where you might have no choice but to replace them if they go bad on you.
Replacing sway bar links isn’t something you’ll need to get into the habit of doing very often. In fact, you might only need to do it once the entire time you own your car, if that. But there is a chance that you could experience problems with your sway bar links at some point, which is why you want to be prepared to confront the sway bar link replacement cost and pay to have your sway bar links replaced to avoid having to drive with bad sway bar links for any longer than you have to.
What Happens When Sway Bar Links Go Bad?
A short time ago, we spoke about how the ball joints on sway bar links will often wear down over time. That’s probably the No. 1 thing that happens when sway bar links begin to go bad. But it’s worth noting that that isn’t the only thing that might happen when your sway bar links are on their last legs. There are also so many other things that can take place to cause your sway bar links to go bad.
If you put enough stress on your sway bar links over time, it can cause metal fatigue and make them so much weaker than they used to be. Sway bar links can also rust and corrode over time, depending on what kinds of conditions they’re exposed to. And there are some instances in which sway bar links can snap right in half if you push them too far. These are all relatively common problems that people face when it comes to the sway bar links in their cars.
How Can You Tell When Sway Bar Links Need to Be Replaced?
Unless you spend a lot of time under your car tinkering with it, you’re probably not going to come into contact with your sway bar links very often. They’re not one of the parts that people worry about, so they don’t get a ton of attention. With this in mind, you might not notice that your sway bar links need to be replaced right away when they go bad. But if you drive around in a car with bad sway bar links day in and day out, it shouldn’t take you too long to spot the signs that’ll show you need to replace them.
When your sway bar links are in need of replacement, you will, first and foremost, usually hear a clunking or rattling sound coming from underneath your car when you’re driving it. The noise will be very prominent and easy to hear when you’re driving over bumps at slow speeds. When you have bad sway bar links, you’ll also feel as though your car isn’t as stable as it usually is when you’re driving, especially when you’re driving around corners and taking turns in your car. Your whole car will seem as though it’s leaning at times when your sway bar links aren’t functioning at a high level and helping your sway bar to keep everything stabilized.
How Much Does Sway Bar Link Replacement Cost?
By now, it should be clear to you how important sway bar links are to your car and, more specifically, to your car’s suspension. It should also be clear to you that you shouldn’t allow bad sway bar links to linger any longer than you absolutely have to. But you might still be slightly concerned about the sway bar link replacement cost and how much it could set you back. We’re here to tell you that you shouldn’t be worried.
Replacing the sway bar links in your car is usually only going to cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of $100. The sway bar links themselves aren’t very expensive, and the labor costs associated with making suspension repairs are also on the lower end of the spectrum when compared to the costs of other auto repairs. As a result, the sway bar link replacement cost is very affordable for most people.
The cost of an entire sway bar replacement, on the other end, could be a different story. If an auto repair shop finds that your whole sway bar needs to be replaced, you could be looking at a bill for anywhere from $100 all the way up to $300 or more. But fortunately, replacing sway bar links is usually all you’ll need to do to extend the life of your sway bar. Many times, a sway bar will stick around for the entire time that a person owns a car without needing to be replaced.
Should Sway Bar Links Be Replaced in Pairs?
Every sway bar has two sway bar links connected to it. One of them is used to connect the sway bar to the left side of a suspension, while the other is used to connect the sway bar to the right side. This might make you think that you’re going to need to get both sway bar links replaced if there is something wrong with one of them, which will drive the sway bar link replacement cost up. But in reality, you don’t have to replace sway bar links in pairs like you have to with some other auto parts if you don’t want to. Just because there’s something wrong with one of your car’s sway bar links doesn’t mean that there is also something wrong with the other one.
With that being said, though, we should mention that most sway bar links will wear down at about the same rate over time. So if you have one sway bar link that’s starting to give you fits, it likely won’t be too long before the second one follows suit and experiences issues as well. It’s why many mechanics will recommend that car owners replace sway bar links in pairs if they can afford to do it. And given the low sway bar link replacement cost, it’s feasible for most people to pay to have both of their sway bar links replaced at one time.
What If You Don’t Replace Bad Sway Bar Links?
If you have bad sway bar links in your car and you choose not to do anything about it, you could very well be asking for trouble. At first, bad sway bar links might do little more than make a lot of noise and cause you to struggle to get a handle on your car when you take tight turns. But eventually, they could lead to more serious issues with your sway bar and your suspension. You can prevent costly repairs down the line by having your sway bar links replaced as soon as you can.
Is Sway Bar Replacement Worth the Cost?
Have the sway bar links in your car gone bad? As you’ve seen here, the sway bar link replacement cost should be more than manageable for most people. In the grand scheme of things, replacing sway bar links is one of the least expensive repairs you can have done to your car. But there are certain cases in which paying to have sway bar links replaced won’t make sense for car owners.
If, for example, your bad sway bar links are just one of the many problems that you’re having with your car at the moment, you might want to consider selling it as is for cash as opposed to replacing your sway bar links. You might also want to skip sway bar link replacement and sell your car for cash if it’s on the older side and has an entire suspension that is on the verge of conking out on you.
Cash Cars Buyer can make you a cash offer for your car if you don’t want it anymore after you provide us with a little bit of basic information about it. We can prevent you from having to do things like sway bar link replacement and other repairs. Touch base with us today to discover how simple it can be to sell a car for cash so that you can move on to something that’s a whole lot safer.