We moved backward in time when we needed a new car and got an early 2000s Toyota.
Mainly was for ease of repair, due to what electronics and dealer costs are these days.
But also the new vehicles all have telemetry and sell your data to advertisers and insurers.
Anyhow, good mechanically sound car and mint condition inside and out, but wear parts wear. And this rusted link popped its top.
Easy fix though.
Many online videos suggest putting cat on jack stands and using a jack under the control arm to get the new link in place.
I found you can just use the jack point and lower the car till its just close enough to connect back in, and use a 4 inch c clamp to bring the sway bar down once you have the link inserted. A very easy repair that the dealer wants $220 an hour to do.
Nice! It’s a good day when suspension work doesn’t turn into a whole weekend of swearing at one stuck and rusted bolt
😀 I have been there…with a drill and bolt extractor.
The hardest part was taking the old nuts off, but I sprayed them the day before with WD40, so it wasn’t too bad
Might I suggest PB Blaster in the future for soak and WD40(or better yet anti seize) for reassembly?
For reassembly they have nylock inserts so I usually just leave it bare metal so as not to mess with the anti slip of the nylon.
The original lasted 22 years, so I shouldn’t need to replace them now :)
Unless you got genuine Toyota parts, I wouldn’t bet the shop on 22 years unfortunately. And even then, sometimes the new parts are still shittier.
Happy you got it fixed in an afternoon.
I went with genuine parts. There were some a quarter of the price but this is our last car till maybe we ndbup full electric
Good shit! Hope you enjoy the car.
A very easy repair that the dealer wants $220 an hour to do.
Admittedly I’d be paying that to know what the problem is and how to fix it.
I mean thats totally valid.
This was an easy one to diagnose. We hit a pot hole and then heard clunking right after, especially when turning one direction and not the orher. (As the body rolls and sway bar wants to hit axle) No noise when driving a steady rate and straight.
So a quick visual inspection showed the problem. And I’m glad it was that and not a CV joint acting up :)
That’s part of what terrifies me about how complex modern cars are and how ‘densely’ constructed they are.
Old cars have room to see what’s gone wrong :-)
The density and complexity isn’t terrifying, that’s rage inducing. I shouldn’t need to disassemble half the car to fix or service it.
Well, had one go in an almost brand new to me car over a set of tracks in the dead of winter as a naive kid and didn’t figure it out for quite a while. 😛
Even went autocrossing with it like that and couldn’t figure out why the hell I was sliding into every corner. Was probably losing about 3 seconds over each run it was so bad.
I took off the valve cover of an old Toyota the other day while chasing down a slow oil leak. All I found was a bunch of loose bolts ruining engine compression (the search for the leak continues).
I’ve never fixed a sway bar, so I guess I’ll have to locate it and check in on it now. Thanks!
You’ll know the swaybar is fucked after your first go over a speed bump at speed and you get a weird sideways bounce.
Nicely done.
