Sway Bar Bushings

A sway bar bushing is the split, D shaped bushing that wraps around the bar and sits inside the bracket holding it to the chassis. It lets the bar rotate cleanly as the suspension works while holding it in exactly one place.

Sway bar bushings are the most replaced bushings on any car, they cost very little, and they are the usual answer when the front end has started squeaking. You will also see them listed as stabilizer bar bushings, which is the same part.

What Sway Bar Bushings Do

A sway bar resists body roll by being twisted, and it can only twist if the middle of it stays put while both ends are pushed in opposite directions.

The bushings and their brackets are what keep the middle put. When one wheel rises relative to the other, the ends of the bar move relative to each other, the bar winds up along its length, and it pushes back against the movement. That resistance is the entire point of the part, and it depends completely on the bar being held still where it crosses the chassis.

Once the bushings soften, that fixed point stops being fixed. Load that should be twisting the bar goes into the bar shifting around inside worn bushings instead, so you get less roll resistance than the bar is rated for. The car rolls further in corners, takes longer to settle after a lane change, and feels less tied down without anything obviously being broken.

A sway bar bushing also has to do something slightly contradictory. It needs to hold the bar firmly while still letting it rotate freely inside itself. Too tight and the bar binds, too loose and it wanders, so the fit between bar and bushing matters as much as the material.

The Squeak That Changes With the Weather

If your car has developed a squeak or creak from the front end over speed bumps and driveways, sway bar bushings are the first thing to check.

The noise comes from the bar rotating inside a bushing that has gone dry, hard or worn, so the two surfaces stick and release instead of sliding smoothly. It is most noticeable at low speed because there is less other noise to mask it, and it very often changes with the weather, showing up on cold mornings or right after rain and fading once things warm up or dry out.

That weather dependence is the giveaway, and it is why people chase sway bar bushing noise for months. A fault that has disappeared by the time you get to the shop is a hard one to demonstrate.

Rubber develops this as it ages, hardens and loses whatever lubrication it started with, which is why the best sway bar bushings for a car that squeaks are not rubber ones. Polyurethane sway bar bushings hold their bore instead of opening up, and greased correctly on installation they stay quiet rather than wearing their way to a fit.

Symptoms of Bad Sway Bar Bushings

• Squeaking or creaking from the front over speed bumps and driveways, often worse cold or wet
• A dull clunk or knock over bumps at low speed
• Noticeably more body roll in corners than the car used to have
• The car taking longer to settle after a lane change or quick direction change
• A vague, loose feeling in the steering with no obvious cause
• Visible cracking, flattening, splitting or missing material in the bushing
• The bar visibly moving inside its bracket when pried by hand
• An aftermarket sway bar that never delivered the improvement you expected

Those last two are worth checking together. If the bar is moving in the bracket rather than rotating cleanly inside the bushing, you have found your problem.

Mount Bushings and Link Bushings Are Different Parts

This trips up more people than anything else on the subject, because both get called sway bar bushings and they sit at opposite ends of the same component.

The mount bushings are the D shaped pair at the center of the car, clamping the bar to the chassis or subframe. These are what most people mean, and these are the ones that squeak.

Sway bar link bushings sit out at the ends of the bar, where the link connects it to the control arm or strut. Plenty of links use small bushings at each end rather than ball joints, and sway bar end link bushings wear out too, producing a similar noise from a completely different location.

Telling them apart is straightforward. A squeak that changes with the weather almost always comes from the mount bushings. A sharper, faster rattle following small sharp bumps at low speed usually comes from the links. Since sway bar links and bushings are both inexpensive, doing them together saves going back under the car twice.

How Long Sway Bar Bushings Last

There is no fixed interval, because the answer depends almost entirely on climate and road conditions.

Factory rubber commonly starts making noise somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 miles, though cars in road salt states, hot climates or on rough pavement will get there considerably sooner. Heat, UV, salt and grit all attack rubber, and the sway bar mounts sit in an exposed position that collects all four.

They also fail progressively rather than suddenly. The noise is usually the last symptom to show up, which means the performance has typically been fading for a while before anyone notices, and it is why a car can feel softer than it used to without anything appearing to be wrong.

Match the Bushing to the Bar Diameter

Sway bar bushings are sized to the bar, not to the vehicle, and that is where most ordering mistakes happen.

If the car still has its factory bar, the original diameter is what you want. If the bar has been upgraded at some point, the bushings have to match the bar that is on the car now, and aftermarket bars are frequently a few millimeters larger. A few millimeters is the entire difference between a bushing that holds and one that does not, which is why people search for a specific size like a 28mm set rather than by vehicle.

Measure the bar where the bushing sits rather than guessing, and check front and rear separately since they are often different diameters on the same car. A bushing slightly too large will let the bar move from the day it goes on, and one slightly too small will not close properly in the bracket.

What Replacement Costs

Sway bar bushings are among the cheapest parts on the car and the labor involved is minimal, which makes this one of the best value repairs in suspension work.

Because the brackets are accessible and nothing needs pressing, a shop is looking at a short job rather than a teardown, and no alignment is required afterward. That is why sway bar bushing replacement cost sits well below most suspension work.

If you are already having the links replaced, doing the bushings at the same time adds very little. That combination is how most people tackle it, since the two parts wear at similar rates and cause similar complaints, and the cost to replace sway bar links and bushings together is barely more than either on its own.

How to Replace Sway Bar Bushings

This is one of the most approachable jobs there is. The bracket is held by two bolts, the bushing is split so it wraps around the bar without removing it, and on most cars the whole thing is done in under an hour with basic tools.

Expect resistance at the bracket bolts, since they live in a bad spot for corrosion and are usually the hardest part of the job.

The thing that actually decides whether the new bushings last is clamping. The bar needs to rotate inside the bushing rather than the bushing rotating inside the bracket, which means the bracket has to be clamped down firmly enough to hold the bushing completely still. People routinely under tighten these for fear of crushing the polyurethane, and an under clamped bushing spins in the bracket and wears itself out in short order. Torque to specification.

Grease the bore on installation with a lubricant made for polyurethane rather than whatever is on the bench, because a dry bushing wears its way to a fit instead of rotating cleanly and that is where the squeak comes back from.

Do both sides and torque them together so the bar sits square rather than being pulled to one side, and check the end links while you are under there since they produce similar symptoms.

Find Sway Bar Bushings for Your Vehicle

Sway bar bushings are the biggest single line in our bushings lineup.

Select your vehicle to see the front sway bar bushings and rear sway bar bushings available for it, and check the bar diameter each one suits. Every Whiteline component is backed by our warranty, a fitment guarantee and 60 day returns.