Any mechanics here? Sway bar bushings

[500x]

Hi

Just took a couple of pics of my sway bar bushings. If there is any mechanics on here could you tell me visually how they look vs what you'd expect?

[normalbloke]

Looks more like an anti roll bar bush to me…

[LuS1fer]

Looks fine.

[Rough101]

Look fine to me, but then I’m not American

[andy43]

I’m not even sure if the Americans actually need their oddly named sway bars as they don’t tend to have any corners.

[500x]

OK then, anti roll bar.

[andy43]

Honestly that looks brand new.

[LuS1fer]

andy43 said:

I’m not even sure if the Americans actually need their oddly named sway bars as they don’t tend to have any corners.

British drivers - always pulling their hood....

[Lester H]

LuS1fer said:

andy43 said:

I’m not even sure if the Americans actually need their oddly named sway bars as they don’t tend to have any corners.

British drivers - always pulling their hood....

Looks fine: I wonder if we have to replace these more often in GB because of the absurd number of humps and bumps in our roads, as well as corners. These annoyances in our roads ( which idiots ignore, anyway) also result in replacements of drop links, shock absorber mounts , broken springs, etc. Whoever used to hear on a regular basis of broken springs?

[Dave Brand]

andy43 said:

I’m not even sure if the Americans actually need their oddly named sway bars as they don’t tend to have any corners.

Just two of the many twisty roads I've driven:

Coronado Trail

Deal's Gap

[andy43]

Dave Brand said:

andy43 said:

I’m not even sure if the Americans actually need their oddly named sway bars as they don’t tend to have any corners.

Just two of the many twisty roads I've driven:

Coronado Trail

Deal's Gap

Well done you

[andy43]

Lester H said:

Looks fine: I wonder if we have to replace these more often in GB because of the absurd number of humps and bumps in our roads, as well as corners. These annoyances in our roads ( which idiots ignore, anyway) also result in replacements of drop links, shock absorber mounts , broken springs, etc. Whoever used to hear on a regular basis of broken springs?

I think there’s also a quality issue with stuff like springs and bushes nowadays - springs rusting to the point of failure within a few years shouldn’t be a thing.

[500x]

Thanks folks for the replies. I suppose they might look worse than they actually are then. I'm not a mechanic.

Just got another question. my car has a knocking sound from the front passenger side. Does anybody know if it's necessary for a strut dust cover to be firmly affixed top and bottom? Mine is fixed at the top but just hangs at the bottom when the car is jacked up.

I'm visiting a kwik fit tomorrow and it's going on the shaker plates, I hope this leads to something.

[500x]

I think I may have finally established what the problem could be.

I lifted the dust cover while the car was in the air the other day and the gap between the strut housing and the bump stop was maybe 10cm, perhaps 12cm?




But then I thought today I wonder if under load with the car on the ground what this looks like.

Just tried sticking my "relatively thin" fingers in the gap and I can't quite fit 2 in side by side. Doing a measurement the gap is somewhere between 2.5cm and 3cm....or an inch and a bit. Reading around this does seem far too low. FYI the car is a DS9 saloon so expected to major on comfort and not be a low riding sports car.

I think it's riding on the bump stops too much.

[E-bmw]

If that is the case, did you check the spring hasn't lost it's "tail" as in, snapped?

[500x]

Hi

I didn't check but one observation I did take is the car is running about the same on both sides.

I measured again yesterday and both sides only seem to have about a 28mm gap, which just seems too low?

[Krikkit]

If there's a knocking the most likely culprit is an ARB droplink or ball joint.

If you're worried about the ride height pop down to a Stellantis dealer with another one and see what that looks like

[500x]

Thanks.

There are a few issues with that suggestion. I'm finding my local DS dealer very poor at acknowledging there is a problem at all and the car is a DS9 and they dont have another one. My car was an early spec ICE (only about 40 in the UK) which they discontinued and all the newer hybrid ones have adaptive dampers.

I did email the DS guy there yday asking him to ask the technicians what gap they would expect for my car (without mentioning mine's about 28mm). No reply. Not surprised at all.

At the moment the car is in at a Kwik Fit for a Shaker plate test. I'm hoping even if it isn't the bump stops then that test can point me in the direction of the problem.

[JoeMk1]

500x said:

Thanks.

There are a few issues with that suggestion. I'm finding my local DS dealer very poor at acknowledging there is a problem at all and the car is a DS9 and they dont have another one. My car was an early spec ICE (only about 40 in the UK) which they discontinued and all the newer hybrid ones have adaptive dampers.

I did email the DS guy there yday asking him to ask the technicians what gap they would expect for my car (without mentioning mine's about 28mm). No reply. Not surprised at all.

At the moment the car is in at a Kwik Fit for a Shaker plate test. I'm hoping even if it isn't the bump stops then that test can point me in the direction of the problem.

28mm is a perfectly reasonable gap. That kind of bump stop is a completely different thing to the short stiff rubber bump stops of the past. It's long with a very progressive stiffness, made from a polyurethane foam material. The initial engagement will be very soft, and at 28mm won't actually be engaging as much as you might think in normal driving.

[500x]

That may well be the case, it just doesnt feel that way driving the car.

The way it bottoms out though is jarring. On say smooth speed humps at low speed it glides over with the suspension maybe not under a lot of force, i don't know but lets say it drops 10mm?? But then if it's a short speed hump, drain cover etc in the road it just sounds and feels to bottom out on very little travel.

It's due for its first MOT at the end of June. I will do it a month early for sure.