replacing my sway bar bushings in back, should i have them do the front as well? Options

[saleeka]

Thursday my car is going to get it's rear sway bar bushings replaced to stop the now infamos wobble sound many of us have had, and the Cv boots as well. i was wondering if i should have them replace the front sway bar bushings as well? My car has 115,000 on it now, and i was thinking mabey it would help the handling of the car? Anybody know if this is wise to do or just a waste of money? Also, anything else they should replace at this time that you guys can think of so i can get it donr at once?

[Junior]

carefull getting your bushings done. your sway bar links are probably seized and when you take them off, they're either gonna have to cut them off or they're gonna be stripped. In other words expect to buy new links. I would suggest you consider what you're paying in parts and labour and maybe consider getting a set of ST sway bars while things are taken apart.

[bufferdan]

You dont have to take off the end-links to replace the sway bar bushings. You can get those end-links off without destroying them too. Take a wirebrush drill bit on a drill and get all the rust off the end of the endlink bolts.. spray them really good with some pb blaster or something and then with a allen wrench and normal wrench work the nut back and forth off the bolt.

[presure2]

i gotta do mine too, im getting this strange "chassis roll" type of feeling, somthing new i definetly DONT like.
im not absolutly sure thats my problem, but i *think* it is...anyone care to add somthing?
manny

[bufferdan]

I noticed no difference in handling when i swaped my bushings out. The reason i changed mine is because the sway bar was clunking because the bushings had some play in them.

If your talking about the end-links then i dont know whether or not that will make a difference.

[saleeka]

im having the dealer do this, and to do the rear pair they told me 120 bucks all said and done. So instead of just going new bushings should i do the end links too? I would gladly do so if it coulud make the car handle better again...

[Defgeph]

I just did my links and noticed nothing. but its a good idea to change them, getting rid of that noise was nice.
I put them in myself it took 20 mins each side. I cut the bolts off and put the new links in

defgeph

[bufferdan]

120$ to do the sway bar bushings??? You can do it in about 5mins and they only cost 4$ at advanced auto parts. There is two bolts on each bushing bracket and you just side the rubber bushing over the sway bar. I swear it will only take about 5mins...

[Jeremy1210]

bufferdan is correct. I changed my bushings and put new ones in. Its so damn easy. Jack up the car and get a 15mm(maybe 12 or 13) socket and bam you are done. Very simple.

[97GTinKC]

"I would suggest you consider what you're paying in parts and labour and maybe consider getting a set of ST sway bars while things are taken apart. "


I'm curious, why would you want what I think is the smaller diameter, softer ST sway bars?

After checking the parts microfiche, there are 2 sway bars for the FRONT:

48811-2b090 AT200 not sure of diameter, could someone measure?
48811-20840 ST204 20MM diameter (I used a dial caliper, but the easy
way is to see what open-end metric wrench size
will slip over the bar in a straight section of bar)


bushings are 48815-20030 - AT200 and 48815-30040 ST204, brackets are the same, so only diff would have to be inside diameter of bushing? or stiffness of bushing material?

both take the same end-links, though left and right show 2 diff part numbers
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOR the REAR: you would want swaybar part no 48812-20820 which fits early 9/93 thru 8/94 production models WITH sport suspension package AND ALL 9/94 thru 8/99 models AT200 AND ST204,
The only difference I see is the early model (built 9/93 thru 8/94) ST204 and AT200's WITHOUT SPORT Suspension had a diff rear bar. Is this where the confusion came in? did we originally swap a late (post 8/94) ST bar for an early non-sports package GT, thus thinking all ST's had better sway bars?

This post has been edited by 97GTinKC: May 7, 2004 - 1:18 PM

[mikew04]

st = suspension tech.

[97GTinKC]