Extreme Evasive Maneuver Snaps Sway Bar Link!

[xccter]

So I'm driving to our home on the Chesapeake Bay yesterday, and just getting on the ramp from the Dulles Toll Road to the DC Beltway...

Some girl on a cellphone lurches over into my lane and I make a 60* (+/-) evasive turn to the right at 60mph, but am sure she's going to hit me right in the door anyway.

She must have come to within 8 inches of nailing me. All 4 tires are screeching, lots of body roll, banged my left shoulder against the door glass, but the truck ('99 Mountaineer V8 AWD) does great and a normal recovery follows. The whole event is over in about 5 seconds from start to finish.

The rest of the trip I hear an intermittent clunking sound from the driver front suspension that occurs on contact with irregularities in the road surface like seams or potholes.

Come to find out today that the hard turn at speed snapped the top right off the driver side Sway Bar link to the lower control arm.

$20 for an end kit and 25 minutes to fix. I consider myself extremely fortunate.

Anybody else ever have one of these fail like this?

 

[MustangP51]

Yea the stock end links are not that strong. I broke one by hitting a rather large pothole, on my Explorer. Had one break on my Expedition as well. I replaced mine with Moog parts, and haven't had one break since.

 

[PalmettoXLT]

I just replaced mine on the drivers side as well. Have no idea when or how it happened but I heard that clunking sound too when driving. Did my rear brakes the other day and saw it. 30 minutes and $25 like you said. It could of been worse though. Glad to hear you are ok.

 

[millerman23]

Mine broke while i was checking out my hunting stand one day. Interesting how weak they are... 10 bucks later for 2 new ones from carquest and all better but now for some reason i have to keep tightening it every time i go off the road for 2 seconds...

 

[Blee1099]

I think someone needs a explorer express sway bar Actually its very common for those things to break. On my old 97 it was just a bolt and I assume the same. Think they were grade 5 bolts or similar so they were meant to break instead of bending. Supposedly from what I heard the Explorer Express bar is alot stiffer and doesn't deflect as much when its put under stress.

 

[barneyrubble318]

Sway bar link broken

I swear I had the sway bar links replaced on my 1997 Eddie Bauer AWD a few years back. I think mine broke on a big pothole too. I think there was a recall and they were fixed for free.

 

[Rusty]

ours broke the day before we got married but we didnt notice it until our 14 hour drive to Tennessee for our honeymoon.. drove all week then back up to then fixed it.. it was a little scary on the highway.. it would bounce one side and sway alot!

but 20 bucks from advanced, a jack and a few minutes and it was all better!

 

[techieman33]

I think someone needs a explorer express sway bar Actually its very common for those things to break. On my old 97 it was just a bolt and I assume the same. Think they were grade 5 bolts or similar so they were meant to break instead of bending. Supposedly from what I heard the Explorer Express bar is alot stiffer and doesn't deflect as much when its put under stress.

The EE sway bar wouldn't help him on the front, the 98+ bars on the front are already pretty good. It does work miracles on the rear though

 

[millerman23]

No thanks on the EE sway bar. Rear is already disconected. I now remove one side in the front when I go offroad... Trails what trails... I got 5000 acrs to play with..

 

[justin146]

not sure the years it was for, but there was a recall on early 2nd gen Explorer swaybar links.

 

[xccter]

Well the passenger side finally failed yesterday. I was going around a right-hand turn and heard the top of the link pop off and ricochet off the inner fender shield.

Talk about poor design.

 

[Thallarsen]

Yea the stock end links are not that strong. I broke one by hitting a rather large pothole, on my Explorer. Had one break on my Expedition as well. I replaced mine with Moog parts, and haven't had one break since.

+2 on the Moog link (K7275 for '99). At first glance, this aftermarket part looks inferior to the oem Ford part that it's replacing, but unless Ford re-engineered this part, the Moog is a more substantial replacement.
Really there's not much to it: a 10+" collared steel bolt with a slip-over spacer, 4 bushings (poly?) bushing washers & a nut.
The oem looks stouter, as it has an hourglass shape to the body of the link, but where it fails is at the bolt ends which are actually a thinner diameter steel than the Moog.
Unless Ford has revised this design, I'd stick with the aftermarket $18 part over the oem Ford part.

 

[96eb96]

+2 on the Moog link (K7275 for '99). At first glance, this aftermarket part looks inferior to the oem Ford part that it's replacing, but unless Ford re-engineered this part, the Moog is a more substantial replacement.
Really there's not much to it: a 10+" collared steel bolt with a slip-over spacer, 4 bushings (poly?) bushing washers & a nut.
The oem looks stouter, as it has an hourglass shape to the body of the link, but where it fails is at the bolt ends which are actually a thinner diameter steel than the Moog.
Unless Ford has revised this design, I'd stick with the aftermarket $18 part over the oem Ford part.

The ford tech that did mine in the recall said they fall victim to corrosion, even the new design. He put a ton of anti-sieze on mine when he reinstalled it in the sleeve.

 

[Thallarsen]

The ford tech that did mine in the recall said they fall victim to corrosion, even the new design. He put a ton of anti-sieze on mine when he reinstalled it in the sleeve.

...and a Ford tech in Albany would certainly know about parts that fall victim to corrosion.
Mine's at 200k and has never spent any extended time in a corrosive environment (no rust anywhere....original exhaust). So I'm not too worried about corrosion, however I'd certainly welcome some AWD-testing weather!

 

[TonysOrangeCapri]

Mine broke as well, (125k miles) I replaced both sides. After being replaced I dont even worry about it anymore. I used to work in the parts department at a Ford Dealership. I knew the end links were a horrible designed part. I used to sell tons of replacements.

 

[texyank]

The passenger's side broke on mine on the way home from work a couple nights ago. It was almost midnight and snowing. When I looked underneath the next morning I could see nothing wrong.

I took it down my rough driveway and back and then was able to find it. Apparently it was seated in its proper place the night before. The bolt head popped off. From the looks of it, it was barely hanging on for some time.

I wish everything I fixed on this truck was as easy as this! $15 and 15 minutes did it.

 

[Thallarsen]

I thought it was a broken shock when I first heard it, however it wasn't consistent over bumps during compression/decompression like a shock would be.
In my case it was easier to identify the broken link than Texyank's, since the link bushing had moved away from the seat of the swaybar when I first crawled under the truck. There was obviously a separation. When I moved the car, it seated and the broken link wasn't nearly as obvious. Jacking it would make the bad link show up, but many people go up on ramps & it would stay compressed.
I heard the same sound in a buddy's '98. He attributed it to bad shocks after a brief crawl-under.
$100's later, my guess is that his mechanic found the broken link while replacing the shocks and the problem was solved....but for $100's more than it should have.

 

[emberswzd]

sway bar link

My right side link just broke, are there any special tools i need to change link?? Is it an easy job?? Thanks

 

[techieman33]

My right side link just broke, are there any special tools i need to change link?? Is it an easy job?? Thanks

no special tools needed just your normal everyday wrenches, it's a pretty easy job you might need a jack to get everything to line up.

 

[Thallarsen]

Believe it or not, it's an easier job to replace a broken link than one that's still in tact. I just did upper & lower ball joints & outer tierod ends. Replacing a link is a walk in the park compared to ball joints.