The other week I was taking my brother back to school and my car made a weird rattle and the steering seemed really loose. I thought the tires weren't inflated right and that the rattle was a twig or something caught under the car. It was only a 15 minute drive, so I figured I check it out when I got home.

I look under the car and my whiteline rear swaybar is resting on the support arm. The bolts on the right side came loose and the bar dropped. Luckily the bushing and bracket were stuck on (those would have been tough to replace). So off to Advance Auto Parts, I get the bolts, star washers, etc, and the bar is back in place. I'll check it in a few months to make sure this doesn't happen again. Oh, BTW, it's been about 8 months since I did anything with it, so the process is probably gradual.

Just FYI, you may want to give it a look.

later,
ac

 

I am confused.

You just got some replacement bolts and washers and it went back?

Something would have had to happen were the bolts came out.

threads on the original bolts or on the hole would have to be stripped.

 

Nope, just slowly vibrated out. I put them in at 20 ft-lb. My theory is that I should have replaced the lock washer when I installed the swaybar, since heat (near the muffler) and repeated tightening/untightening can make lock washers less reliable.

With the lock washer ineffective, it's only a matter of time before downward facing bolts subjected to vibration, will come loose. And you can't just crank these down, because (as I found out last year), you squeeze out all the grease from the bushing.

I'm hoping these star washers will hold it in better. If not, I'll just use loc-tite on the thing and be done with it.

ac