juror

I took the car to the dealership recently to get the Takata airbag recall taken care of. They replaced the inflator and also noted that my sway bar links were worn. They wanted $600 bucks, so naturally I did it myself. I got the parts on Rock Auto for $100, shipping included, and did it today. Altogether, about what I expected, but on the longer side of my guess.

I mean it's 16 bolts, but they're on the underside of the car and kind of rusty. I figured if they weren't too bad, I could have done it in about an hour an end, running up to three hours if things didn't come apart readily, which they didn't. All in, I was probably under the car for about 5 hours, with a really short lunch and a run to the hardware store (more on that later). Lessons learned for Future Juror.

Dear Future Juror:

It's time to replace the sway bar links again. Congratulations. Here are some things you should know:

1) You aren't getting things apart with the car on ramps. It just isn't happening. You can't get both wrenches in to get the nuts off. Don't waste your time. Instead do the following:2) Buy a ****ing floor jack you cheapskate! There doesn't seem to be anywhere good to stick jack stands on the back, apart from the suspension mounting points. If you're as sketched as I am about supporting the car on parts that are meant to move that you're wrenching on, you're going to have to put the jack stands on the side jack points and jack the car from the recovery point.

Honda, in their infinite wisdom gave you this shrimpy-*** little jack that won't lift the car high enough to get jack stands under the jack points. I put it on 3 layers of blocks, and the jack kicked both raising and lowering the car. No damage to me or the car, but it was sketchy. Also, find a decently non-rough surface to work on - a floor jack isn't going to roll very well on that driveway. That was my excuse for being cheap and deferring the floor jack purchase yet again. No more excuses!

3) I replaced the 17mm combination wrench that Past Juror lost. What an idiot.

4) I also bought another set of ramps to replace the ones that Past Juror didn't want to move. What an idiot. They've gone up in price by 50% since Past Juror bought them. Don't ditch this set.

5) I also bought you a couple more cutoff wheels for the grinder. I only used the grinder to cut off the links at the front. There isn't enough room for the grinder in the rear and even if there was, the gas tank is RIGHT THERE. I may be a safety third kind of guy, but even I'm not that dumb.

6) Buy a new hacksaw blade, or better yet, get a hack saw that isn't from the orange home improvement store. That hacksaw sucks and I didn't do it any favors cutting off the links in the rear with it.

7) The rear sway bar is both worse and better. Worse because it's harder to get tools around the LCA and brakes to get the links off, but better in that once you have that, you can pull the whole bar and get the links off of the bar with it out of the car.

8) Mark which end of the bar goes where before you pull it. In case you forget to do so, Majestic has a diagram here.

9) I bought the Moog links that don't have the idiotic ***-clown 5mm allen wrench hollow in the end like the OEM ones do. Who thought that was a good idea?! You're welcome.

10) I also replaced the bolts that hold the rear sway bar bushing clamps on. You're welcome. Buy more stuff at your local hardware store, because they had class 10.9 metric JIS flange bolts.

11) Local auto parts stores are ****ing killing themselves by stocking only cheap stuff. Nobody locally had a decent grease gun, so I bought you a Lincoln Lubrication one on Amazon. Also, that one dude at the nearest orange auto parts store doesn't know has *** from a hole in the ground. Quit going to that store.

Sincerely,

Present Juror

ezone

For some reason I laughed too hard at this story. Good job.


Note: Antiseize on underbody fasteners can be quite helpful later on.

onetwoothreee

It's actually not that hard. $600 is outrageous though. My car had the front sway bar and end links just cut off!

Slumpertcivic

onetwoothreee

I mean they're not expensive parts and I'm not a mechanic. I bolted a used one on there with everything else (had to go hunting for bolts) for <$100. Car has a state inspection sticker! Completely worthless. LMAO

Wildcat445

When I replaced the struts on both of our '09 CR-Vs, I tried something on the sway bar links on the front. I hit the threads with a wire brush in the drill and cleaned them up good. I have ratcheting box end wrenches, so I am able to hold the center with a good long allen wrench or hex bit in another ratchet. I also hit the threads with a penetrant to help loosen them, then before I started turning, I put a small amount of anti-seize on the threads. By alternately loosening and tightening them in small amounts, I was able to get the nuts off successfully, at least the ones that attached to the strut.

On the other CR-V, though, they were too far gone, and after messing around for 15 minutes, I went to that Big Orange Home Improvement Box Store and bought some expensive reciprocating saw blade, brought it home, and cut those things right off in no time at all. Much faster than the cutoff wheel.

When I had to redo the front struts on my CR-V (the top mount and bearing were crap, and I replaced them), I was able to use my electric impact driver on those bolts and they came right off, and went right back on snugly. Anti-seize does wonders.

Alistair Wallis

Yeah I did mine recently. 2007 civic which was garaged and only done 64000km, so the links were not corroded at all. In fact they didn't even need replacing but I was trying to fix a handling problem and since they only cost me $50 equivalent, I gave it a go. 20 min per side. Now I have a good set as spares :-)