How To Replace Anti-Roll Bar Links

Volvoboy

Last Friday night i've been hearing knocking from the back of the car, so it was about time to replace the drop links on the roll bar, i did the front ones about 30,000 miles ago so i went and got the complete four corners came to€60.

You will need:

A Jack
A Stand
Torx Set
Spanners 10mm-21mm (Recomended)
Angle Grinder (I did anyway)
Pry Bar

Step 1 Jack up the car and support it with the jack and the stand

Hub and rear suspension assembly

Anti roll bar drop link


Step 2 Loosen off the droplink, insert the torx into the eye of the thread and loosen off the 14mm nut with a spanner


Old drop link vs the new one

This is the 1st one i took off, as ya can see the gaiter is burst and weaping grease.


Step 3 Refitting the drop link, screw the bottom of the wishbone in hand tight, then with the pry bar jemmy the roll bar to meet the top of the anti roll bar link, and then once its hand tight on both ends tighten up
Best place to pry off, the subframe dont try and pry off sumps or petrol tanks!


Tighten up and put the wheel back on and your done!

However in my case its the actuall bushings on the roll bar, didnt need to test that they were past it visualls alone tell me the've had it.


Shall be done before the NCT test in April.

colm_mcm

here are my pics of doing the the front ones (on an FTO)



Jacked up the front of the car and sat it on axle stands.

Removed the front wheel

Sprayed the droplink and bolts on bottom of the suspension strut with WD40

Removing the droplinks

Type 1, allen key & spanner

once WD40 has soaked in, hold the threaded section still with the allen key, and turn the nut counter-clockwise to remove the droplink. supporting and adjusting the wishbone with a jack will make your life easier.

Type 2, 2 spanners

Using as thick a spanner as possible, hold the threaded section in place using a 14mm spanner near the joint, use another 14mm spanner to remove the nut and then the droplink.



Cutting off the old droplinks is probably quicker if they're old and rusted.

PS love the Celica wheels on the Carina E

Volvoboy

Hmm does look a bit rusty on that FTO, one of the bars on the front was rung, so out with Mr Angle Grinder, bit ropey taking them off with CV joints and Brake lines within milimeters.

colm_mcm

Cos I fitted lowering springs.


Full guide here:
http://www.fto-ireland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9819

Matt Simis

Its amazing how much of effect on handling and noise these little guys have. Here is a guide I made ages back on replacing the Phaeton Drop Links (aka Sway Bar end links):
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4431966&postid=62432693

Should be suitable as a guide for its sister cars, the A8 and Bentley Flying Spur.. :cool:

alias no.9

Volvoboy wrote: »

Step 3 Refitting the drop link, screw the bottom of the wishbone in hand tight, then with the pry bar jemmy the roll bar to meet the top of the anti roll bar link, and then once its hand tight on both ends tighten up.

It's not clear from your post but any time I've had to undo and refit drop links I find that having both sides on axel stands makes refitting much easier. When you have one side of the axel on the ground and the other on an axel stand, there's a torque on the anti-roll bar which makes it a b!tch to get the bolts to line up.

O.A.P

Thanks for that Volvoboy I'v been putting off replacing the drop links but there in trouble now

Avns1s

Volvoboy, I would have said that your rattle was coming from the bushings rather than the droplinks. In my experience, the droplinks on toyotas generally outlive the bushings by a fair margin and your bushing in the pic is well gone. They are cheap, last ones I replaces were something like €6 each trade price.

A great informative post though, well done.

JHMEG

Good post, well done. Altho your bushes aren't worn, they're gone.:eek:

A couple of things worth noting is a lot of cars don't have rear ARBs, and therefore won't ever have this problem (some don't even have front ARBs!)... and also that Toyotas are known for having worn drop links/bushes.

Row

Great How to Guides lads...:)

daveharnett

Fair play lads. Love to see useful threads like this on motors.

Wonder if the admins would consider a sticky with links to the various DIY how-to threads? Mind you, moving this stuff to the proposed motors technical advice forum might make more sense.

deaglan169

great guide have this job to do on my leon shortly but as JHMEG said its my bushings that are gone not the arbs gonna be a total pain as subframe needs dropping i think rear are gone also but i havent even looked how to do them

Pdfile

colm_mcm wrote: »

long post

i pay a polish lad 10 euro an hour to do whatever i need...


why would i bother doing it myself at them rates ?

colm_mcm

Because you'll never learn anything if you get Polish people to do everything for you.

GubMan

I've a rear link gone on a mazda 626, went before xmas, meant to get to it but didn't get around to it. When the frost and ice was bad it made a real banging noise if I as much as went over a slight bump. Now its milder, its back to just a knocking sound. Have i done damage? Its only gone maybe 10 miles since xmas.....

JimmyCrackCorn!

Thanks the kind of thread that should be in a motors section.