Have you ever notice that your car’s handling seems like it is off. This could be an issue with the sway bar that is attached to your cars suspension.
Additionally, it could be an issue with the sway bar links which are responsible for holding your sway bar and suspension together.
If it turns out that the issue is related to your sway bar links, you probably do not have to worry; sway bar link replacement costs are normally the least expensive.
On average, sway bar link replacement costs between $150 to $500 per axle, including both parts and labor. For a single sway bar link, you might expect to pay $75 to $250 for the part and labor, depending on your vehicle.
However, before you start thinking about the sway bar link replacement cost and whether you want to pay to have them replaced, you should find out more about the sway bar and spark bar links and what they do.
You should also learn more about the signs that will alert you that your sway bar links have gone bad, and a basic understanding of what will happen if you do not spend the time on sway bar link replacement.
It’s almost impossible to discuss sway bar links and sway bar link replacement cost without first discussing sway bars.
What Is a Sway Bar?
Because without sway bars, your car would handle very differently than it does today, especially when you take a corner and/or put your car/vehicle in potential areas of control loss.
Every car will have at least one sway bar that attaches the left and right front suspension sides of the vehicle.
Some cars have one sway bar in the front for the front suspension, and some have another sway bar in the back for the back suspension.
However, many sway bars a car has, a sway bar is an iron or steel bar that is designed to keep a car from leaning to much when it is on the road.
The sway bar will always work to stabilize a car, but it will work even harder when a driver is negotiating a corner or turning the car.
A sway bar itself is extremely strong and not intended to wear out and break, sway bar links that attach to it, on the other hand can.
What Is a Sway Bar Link?
After understanding what sway bars are, and all of their features, let’s shift gears and look at sway bar links.
Sway bar links may not receive the same recognition as the sway bars they are connected to in helping hold your automobile together, however, your sway bar would quite can’t do its thing without sway bar links.
Sway bar links are the parts used to attach a sway bar to your suspension so that it provides your vehicle stability when travel.
In most cases sway links will have two small ball joints at each of their two ends. One of the ball joints attaches to the sway bars and one attaches to a car’s suspension.
Assuming you have sway bar links with no defects and they can maintain these connections over time – it should be smooth sailing from there. However over the years it is not uncommon for the ball joints on sway bar links to wear out.
And in this situation, it may be time to weigh how much sway bar link replacements are so you can get them replaced sooner than later.
How Long Do Sway Bar Links Last?
Sway bar links, like sway bars will mostly be made out of metal. So, they will be just as tough and strong as sway bars. But, as we’ve already stated, there will be a time when sway bar links need to be replaced.
Since the sway bar in your car rotates every time, you turn or drive around a bend, it stresses out your sway bar links.
This could put you in a position where you may need to replace them if they go bad.
Replacing sway bar links is not something you’ll need to make a habit of doing. If at all, you may only need to do this once in the lifetime of the car you own.
However, there is a chance that somewhere down the line, you may experience sway bar links going bad, which is why you want to be prepared to face the sway bar link replacement cost, and pay to have your sway bar links replaced as to not have to drive with bad sway bar links longer than necessary.
What Happens When Sway Bar Links Go Bad?
Recently, we discussed how angle friction style couldn’t operate properly without ball joints on sway bar links confining their angles. Eventually these ball joints wear, and wear eventually leads to failure.
That is likely the number one failure you’ll experience when sway bar links become defective, but it is worth mentioning that not only can the ball joint completely wear out over time, but there are many other things that can cause sway bar links to go bad.
If you stress the sway bar links enough over the years, they can suffer from metal fatigue. And if you leave them to the elements long enough, they can rust and corrode depending on the conditions they are faced with.
It’s not uncommon for sway bar links to snap right in half, and this is not the weirdest thing you could find yourself in a scenario where you are stressed and the sway bar links weren’t even close to the breaking point.
All of these things are not so odd occurrences people will face with the sway bar links of their car.
How Can You Tell When Sway Bar Links Need to Be Replaced?
Unless you mess around under your car a lot, you may not have to worry about your sway bar links, as they are usually forgotten about and not a part that most people worry about.
That being said, so it might not be as easy to identify that your sway bar links are bad immediately.
However, if you’re driving around a car with bad sway bar links every day, it won’t be lost on you when you need to replace the sway bar links.
When your sway bar links need to be replaced, you will first of all, usually notice a clunking or rattling noise coming from underneath your car when driving.
This noise can be easily identified when you are going over bumps and driving at slow speeds.
In bad sway bar link circumstances, you will always feel like your car is not as steady as it usually would be, this is especially notable when you are driving around corners, and taking those turns.
Not only this, on some occasions, your full car will feel like it is leaning, or noticeably, with bad sway bar links the sway bar is not functioning properly to help stabilize you.
What’s the Cost of Sway Bar Link Replacement?
By now, it should have become very clear that sway bar links play an important role on your car—and, more importantly, to your car’s suspension system.
It should have also become obvious to you that you should not let bad sway bar links linger around your car any longer than absolutely necessary.
But you may still be a little worried about the cost of sway bar link replacement and just how much it could cost you. We are here to tell you: you should not be worried!
The cost of sway bar link replacement, on average, will range between $150 and $500 per axle—which includes parts and labor. For a single sway bar link, you can expect to pay anywhere from $75 to $250 for the part and labor, depending on your vehicle.
Sway bar links themselves are not very expensive; labor rates and costs associated with making any type of suspension repairs are lower than the costs of other auto repair jobs.
Hence, sway bar link replacement costs are very reasonable for most people.
The costs for replacing an entire sway bar, on the opposite end, may be very different. If an auto shop determines that your whole sway bar has to be replaced, then they could charge you $100 (or likely even more) up to $300 or more to do so.
But thankfully, sway bar links are usually all you will need to need to replace, to prolong your sway bar’s life. Often, a sway bar will last, and not need to be replaced, for the entire time you own a car.
Should You Replace Sway Bar Links in Pairs?
A sway bar has two sway bar links. One sway bar link connects to the left side of the suspension, and the other connects to the right side.
This is why it makes sense that if you have an issue with one sway bar link, you’re going to have to replace both sway bar links contributing to the sway bar link replacement cost.
However, unlike with some car parts where you have to replace both parts, you do not have to replace sway bar links in pairs if you don’t want to.
Just because there is something wrong with one of your sway bar links does not mean that there is something wrong with the other one.
With that said, most sway bar links will wear down at about the same rate over time.
So, if you have an issue with one sway bar link, it won’t be too long before the second sway bar link does too.
It is why many mechanics may suggest to car owners to replace sway bar links in pairs if they can afford to do it. Because cost to replace sway bar links is relatively low, many will find it acceptable to pay to have both of their sway bar links replaced at the same time.
What If You Don’t Replace Bad Sway Bar Links?
If you have bad sway bar links in your car and you do nothing with it, you could be asking for trouble.
At first, bad sway bar links may only be a nuisance because they’re making noise or you can’t get a good handle on your car because it’s swaying when you go into a tight turn. Eventually, though, you could do actual damage to your sway bar or suspension.
You may save yourself money in extensive repairs in the future by replacing your sway bar links sooner rather than later.