I have had a cluncking in the front end for a week or so now with my 2002 PT cruiser and I took the car to the shop Friday. The tech. nailed it down to the sway bar bushings. It is the bushings that connect to the frame as he put a big prybar between the frame and sway bar and there is quite a bit of movement from the sway bar within the passenger side bushing. The other bushing seems a lot tighter but there is still knocking on both sides. The end bushings at the wheels appear good. Anyways, they want $79 to replace both bushings ( parts and labor). This seems like a good price to me to not deal with the aggervation. Anyways, if I did want to attempt so I know do it in the future can anyone advise how hard it is to do and the steps to do it. Do you have to take the whole bar off to slide the new bushings on or are they split? Thanks for the help.
Happy you found out the issue. It wasn't the links after all. The bushings certainly didn't last long on your vehicle. Sounds like a very fair price considering the bushings are probably worth $30. If you still want to try it and save a few dollars toward your next oil change I found this link that could help, but personally for the reasonable amount of money in labor they want to charge you, and for any unforseen problems you could have in installing the new ones I would let the shop do it for that price.
Sway bar bushing
The sway bar bushings are very easy to do as long as the bolts dont break. They usually are rusted and do break often. If you still have a noise these cars have a big issue with control arm bushings and those cost alot more than $95 to fix. Make sure they inspect the lower control arm bushings.
Tags: sway, bushing, control bushings, sway bushings, they want
