Rear Sway Bar Bushings? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

***projektvertx*** · 10-01-2009, 02:05 PM

I'll make this short. The car is a '95 V6 LE with 214,000 miles. Struts where changed about 35,000 miles ago. I'm hearing a slight clunking/thumping(very low) noise from the rear passenger side wheel. It doesn't happen all the time. It doesn't sound like it's a strut that's gone bad, I know very well what that sounds like. Upon further investigation, it seems to be coming from near the wheel itself, not up top where the strut is. When I jack the car up and pry at the wheel at 9 and 3 o'clock, I hear a faint creaking noise. I also checked the exhaust system, more specifically the muffler, for any excessive play(i thought it might be simply that

since the muffler is right behind that wheel) and found none. Based on the what I was able to find in a search on TN, I'm thinking it's the sway bar bushings. Anyone have any opinions or alternate diagnosis? Any specific brand I should buy? Since it's getting cold around here and I've never changed bushings before, how much should I expect to pay labor (roughly)? I'm also asuming I need an alignment afterwards? Thanks in advance for the help!

1jGuu

jtex2717 · 10-01-2009, 02:33 PM

The bushings is exactly what its sounds like.......if you are familiar with hand tools or have some yourself.......I would highly suggest u save your money and do it yourself. Go get some Moog bushings, (THEY ARE BLUE) then..... All you do is take the wheel off, look for the bushings and unbolt the one bolt holding the bracket on. Remove the old bushing. Get some light greese and lube the inside of the new bushing, slide it on, then bolt it back into place......Boom Done......30 min tops if u have never done this from start to finish......

Retrospekt · 10-01-2009, 02:53 PM

Jack the car up again, slide under and shake the sway bar up and down. If you hear it clunking or see it moving inside the bushing, they're bad.

If you don't want to wait for shipping, you can get bushings from your local Napa auto parts. I recently used those, they look to be pretty good quality.

***projektvertx*** · 10-01-2009, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtex2717

The bushings is exactly what its sounds like.......if you are familiar with hand tools or have some yourself.......I would highly suggest u save your money and do it yourself. Go get some Moog bushings, (THEY ARE BLUE) then..... All you do is take the wheel off, look for the bushings and unbolt the one bolt holding the bracket on. Remove the old bushing. Get some light greese and lube the inside of the new bushing, slide it on, then bolt it back into place......Boom Done......30 min tops if u have never done this from start to finish......

Well, if you say it's a matter of one bolt, then I'll attempt it. I have the tools. I guess it can't be more comlicated then some of the things I've done before... I was just worried that it was more involved than that. I called up my local O'Reilly's and they have some MOOG bushings for 15.99$, which seems very resonable! I can get them by tommorow morning. But the guy I talked to mentionned that they offer then in 15/16mm or 17mm. How do I know which size is in my car?My car's frame is an MCV10 frame if that helps...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retrospekt

Jack the car up again, slide under and shake the sway bar up and down. If you hear it clunking or see it moving inside the bushing, they're bad.

If you don't want to wait for shipping, you can get bushings from your local Napa auto parts. I recently used those, they look to be pretty good quality.

I'll give that a shot, thanks for the advice! Did you have to align the tires after changing the bushings?

Retrospekt · 10-01-2009, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by projektvertx

Well, if you say it's a matter of one bolt, then I'll attempt it. I have the tools. I guess it can't be more comlicated then some of the things I've done before... I was just worried that it was more involved than that. I called up my local O'Reilly's and they have some MOOG bushings for 15.99$, which seems very resonable! I can get them by tommorow morning. But the guy I talked to mentionned that they offer then in 15/16mm or 17mm. How do I know which size is in my car?My car's frame is an MCV10 frame if that helps...

I'll give that a shot, thanks for the advice! Did you have to align the tires after changing the bushings?

I did my bushings the day before I went to get new tires and allignment.

New rear sway bushings shouldn't mess with your allignment though.

***projektvertx*** · 10-01-2009, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retrospekt

I did my bushings the day before I went to get new tires and allignment.

New rear sway bushings shouldn't mess with your allignment though.

That's conforting

I was worried that because of 16$ bushings I would have to get a 50$ alignment

As for the bushing size, I solved the problem by ordering both, and o'reilly's told me I can simply return the one that doesn't fit

Is there a specific torque value for any of the bolts I'll be taking off? I wouldn't want to leave it a tad bit loose and have my suspension fall apart mid freeway or something...

***projektvertx*** · 10-11-2009, 10:08 PM

I realized I forgot to update this thread! Well, I took things apart and the bushing had indeed shrunk, obviously enought to cause play in the swaybar. All expected. Taking this apart was easy, it was putting things back together that was a real b**ch. I could not get the 2 bolts for the bushing bracket to line up, no matter how hard I tried pusing the sway bar up. I ended up having to dremel off the screw attaching the sway bar to the endlink (which was probably neccessary from the beginning

), and by that very token, ruining my endlinks

For the record, the sway bar diameter for the V6 is 15mm. At the end of the day, my rear end is noise free

Thanks for the help guys!!

whip_cracker · 10-11-2009, 11:03 PM

I must say...

If there's a sports version of the Camry there, the size would more likely be 17mm size. I have the Touring Series Camry here and that's what size the swaybars are.

Good on ya for doing it yourself mate

***projektvertx*** · 10-12-2009, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whip_cracker

I must say...

If there's a sports version of the Camry there, the size would more likely be 17mm size. I have the Touring Series Camry here and that's what size the swaybars are.

Good on ya for doing it yourself mate

I can honestly say that I'm surprised it turned out to be 15mm. When I was at the parts store they had 15mm or 17mm listed for my car so I bought both. I was thinking that maybe the I4 had the 15mm bushings, but I guess not

Now the I4 guys have something to be happy about, they have bigger sway bars than on the V6's

Thanks

All in all, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, despite me having to replace the endlinks along with the bushings. Thank jtex2717, I tackled this myself upon his encouragment

But I must admit, it always feels good to do things yourself. Not only do you know it was done right, but who else will take the same care with your car as yourself, right?