The symptoms of a bad sway bar bushing
could hurt your vehicle or cause road accidents if left unattended. The bar bushings are often underappreciated and barely noticed, but their failure symptoms can be felt.
The symptoms vary from innocuous ones, such as rattling noises, to serious ones, like reduced stability. We’ll discuss the common signs of damaged sway bushing and how to solve them.
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7 Symptoms of a Bad Sway Bar Bushing
The symptoms of a bad sway bar bushing include bad vehicle handling, rattling noises from underneath the car, squeaking noises under the car, and uneven tire wear.
Other signs of a damaged sway bar bushing are steering issues, bumpy rides and extreme body roll.
Bad Car Handling
One of the major symptoms
of a damaged sway bar bushing (also known as stabilizer bar bushing) is when the vehicle doesn’t respond quickly when you negotiate a sharp bend. The bushing’s job is to keep the sway bar in place and allow it to pivot when you make a turn.
However, if the bushing begins to wear, it doesn’t do a good job of keeping the sway bar in place, hence the sluggish response. This is more evident when the vehicle loses its stability because bad sway bar bushings cause vibrations.
Bar bushings wear out very fast once the first signs of wear begin to rear their heads, which could lead to a dangerous situation. The car may become more prone to understeer or oversteer, which could turn the vehicle on its side, causing a road accident.
You may even end up losing control of the vehicle while cornering a bend. Thus, you need to check them immediately if your vehicle begins to lose stability or the handling becomes sluggish.
Rattling Sounds from Underneath Your Vehicle
Another of the bad front sway bushing symptoms is rattling sounds from underneath your vehicle, especially when the vehicle passes over bumps or uneven roads. The sway bar, also known as the stabilizer bar, joins the left and right of the vehicle’s suspension.
Its main duty is to prevent the vehicle from twisting or rolling during cornering and to keep it stable when it hits a bump in the road. Thus, when it begins to wear, you’ll start hearing clanking or rattling noises each time you pass a corner or drive over a bump.
Several noises can come from underneath your car that indicate other symptoms. Thus, one way to know the bar bushings sound is when it comes from the front of the vehicle. When the noises are loudest near the driver floor area, then the main culprits should be bad sway bushings.
We recommend you drive to the mechanic or tow the vehicle immediately after you hear the noise to prevent worsening the situation.
This is because if you continue driving, the entire sway bar might end up dropping, which would increase the cost of repairs. If you have the requisite DIY skills, you can prop up your vehicle and check stabilizer bar for damages.
Squeaking Noises Coming from Under the Car
When you hear squeaking sounds emanating from the front of your vehicle, then know that your sway bushings are beginning to go bad. However, note that squeaky noises or clanky sounds can indicate other faulty components of the vehicle.
Sometimes, the noises also vary, depending on the type and role of the component in the vehicle. However, mechanics generally use squeaking noises coming from the floor of the car to diagnose faulty sway bushings.
The bushings cushion the sway bar, which helps the vehicle maintain its stability when it negotiates a turn or hits a bump. When the bushings begin to wear, they lose their cushioning effect, allowing metallic-on-metallic contact with the bushings.
This contact causes the noise you hear while driving on bumpy roads or passing a corner. The squeaking noises can be avoided if you frequently lubricate the bushings to prevent drying and cracking.
Uneven Tire Wear
Faulty sway bar bushings can also lead to uneven tire wear as the body of the vehicle drifts to one side. The bushings help the sway bar to maintain the vehicle’s alignment and distribute its weight evenly.
However, when the bushings dry out and crack, the sway bar may not do a good job of stabilizing the vehicle, causing the weight to shift to one. The shift in weight puts extra pressure on the tires on that side of the car, causing them to wear out faster than the ones on the other side.
When this happens, you’ll notice that your vehicle tends to shift to one side, even when driving straight. This is because the sway bar isn’t distributing the vehicle’s weight evenly, forcing the vehicle to compress the suspension components on one side more than those on the other side.
Thus, the tires on that side experience more load and begin to wear out faster. You can tell which tires are wearing out when you observe the edges of all the tires on the vehicle.
When you see the outer edges of one set of tires wearing out quicker on one side, know that the stabilizer bar bushing could be faulty. Also, the extra rolling of the vehicle caused by the bushing’s wearing can affect the vehicle’s alignment.
Misalignment of the wheels can lead to uneven tire wear patterns such as feathering or cupping. Several issues can also cause the tires to wear out unevenly; thus, you’ll need to check out the sway bar bushings to ensure they are the culprits.
Steering Issues
Faulty bushings result in steering issues
because they affect the vehicle’s stability and suspension. As we’ve already discussed, the sway bar and the sway bar links stabilize the car during turns and maneuvers by connecting the left and right sides of the suspension.
However, when the sway bar bushing is damaged, the vehicle begins to roll or sway excessively, which affects its stability. Excessive rolling means that the vehicle sways more to one side during a turn, which might cause it to topple over.
The excessive sway shifts the vehicle’s weight to one side, compressing the suspension components on that particular side. All these can affect the steering inputs as the driver struggles to keep the vehicle from toppling over.
This is because the vehicle may respond slowly to the steering inputs due to the overly compressed suspension components. The steering will begin to feel more vague and eventually cause the driver to lose control.
The compromised steering means that the driver will struggle to maintain a straight line while driving and may require constant correcting. Also, negotiating a curve will be problematic as the vehicle is slow to respond to steering inputs.
All these can lead to driver fatigue, as he has to exert a lot of energy in keeping the car in a straight line or during cornering. Thus, you should check them and replace them as soon as they begin to wear out.
Excessive Body Roll
When you turn a curve and your vehicle rolls excessively to one side, almost toppling over, suspect a faulty sway bar bushing and sway bar links. This happens because the worn-out bushing isn’t properly cushioning the sway bar to help stabilize the vehicle.
During the negotiation of a car, the vehicle transfers a little more weight to one part of the vehicle to ensure a smooth turn. However, the sway bar, also known as the stabilizing bar, evens out the weight to keep the vehicle from rolling over.
Excessive rolling can be uncomfortable, especially for passengers in the vehicle, as they are usually on the receiving end. It can also affect the vehicle’s handling, making it difficult for him to steer it safely.
The rolling effect also puts extra pressure on the tires and causes them to wear out unevenly. The tires may even lose their grip, which may result in either oversteering or understeering.
Bumpy Rides
A bad stabilizer bar bushing can cause bumpy rides due to decreased suspension control. The bushing plays an important role in stabilizing the vehicle’s suspension system.
They support the sway bars during turns and maneuvers, allowing them to pivot as necessary. However, when they are worn, they may allow excessive movements in the sway bars, thereby decreasing the suspension control.
Also, damaged stabilizer bar bushings can cause inefficient shock absorption when you hit uneven roads. The sway bar is connected to the shock absorption system, which protects the vehicle from damage due to the rebound of the springs and suspension.
Thus, if the bushing is worn, it will affect the shock absorber’s ability to dampen the rebounds from the spring, which results in bumpy rides.
Conclusion
We’ve seen the symptoms that indicate a bad bar sway bushing and the effects they can have on a car if they’re ignored. Here is a recap of all that this blog post has discussed:
- One of the major symptoms of damaged stabilizer bar bushings is bad car handling, making it difficult to negotiate a turn.
- Another major sign of a bad sway bushing is rattling sounds from underneath your vehicle, especially when the vehicle passes over bumps.
- Faulty sway bar bushings can also lead to uneven tire wear as the body of the vehicle drifts to one side, putting extra pressure on the tires fixed on that side.
- Faulty sway bar bushings result in steering issues because they affect the vehicle’s stability and suspension, slowing the vehicle’s response to steering inputs.
- When you turn a curve, and your vehicle rolls excessively to one side, almost toppling over, suspect a faulty sway bar bushing.
A worn sway bar bushing can cause bumpy rides due to decreased suspension control because the bushing plays an important role in stabilizing the vehicle’s suspension system. Note that attending quickly to these symptoms would prevent exorbitant bushing replacement costs.
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