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.
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.