The sway bars operate based off the difference in height between the linked wheels. If you only have one side jacked up, there will be a difference, and the sway bar will be wound up. If both wheels are on the ground, they will not be under load, or only a slight one due to the bushings.

 

Didn't know that. Thanks for the info!

I will see if I can slide under the car without the jacks. It would be least work that way

 

How did you first determine the noise was coming from the sway bar links & bushings? Everywhere else I've seen people are saying rattling on our cars are fixed with replacing struts and mounts.

 

I started off with replacing the sway bar bushing. Since that did not work, it left me to look at the struts, mounts and the links.

Upon examining the links, I saw that I could easily wiggle the link about its long axis .. likely sign of link gone bad. Took a decision to replace those. Seems to have worked so far.

NB: This doesn't mean the clunking noise couldn't be due to somthing else, I am reporting what changed with links R&R.

On a similar note, it seems like the car's front strust mounts may need to be replaced. However, since the front links also seem to be in a similar wiggly shape, I am going to replace those as well and see how far that R&R takes. If I still get noises, I probably will go on with replacing the struts and strut mounts .... we shall see.