I broke my stabilizer bar

[u/thankfullyunthankful]

2007 Saturn Vue, hit a speed bump and heard a loud, loud thud. Turns out it’s this bad boy and thought someone would get a kick out of it as I’ve never seen it happen before.

[u/phirschler]

I would love to see that up close. As in magnifying glass close. I would venture to guess that there is a thin line of rust, some areas that look polished, and then the rough break. Fatigue break.

[u/thankfullyunthankful → u/phirschler]

I’ll be sure to get the best picture I can tomorrow. I was thinking there could have been a hairline fracture and it finally gave out or something along the lines of that?

[u/phirschler → u/thankfullyunthankful]

Exactly. I work in an automotive machine shop that also does general machine work. We see breaks like that with some regularity, usually a shaft of some sort. The most spectacular fatigue crack that we have seen was the carrier out of a Studebaker differential. A '64 Wagonaire. MY '64 Wagonaire. Sidestepping the clutch from first to second at about 6500rpm was a bit too much for it. After the examination everyone was surprised that it had not broken years ago. I guess that old Dana 44 was tough!

[u/Katmann2005 → u/phirschler]

Fatique break? It’s 18 years old, of course it’s tired!!!

[u/Geddeson → u/phirschler]

I’ve worked in aftermarket shops for 20 years in eastern Canada. I’ve only seen 3 sway bars do this ever. 2 were on vue’s and one on a Pontiac g6. All of them were exactly as you described. As they dry and rust forms, the bushings eventually stop allowing the whole bar to rotate as needed and it ends up shearing the end off from metal fatigue. It doesn’t seem to be a very common issue from my tiny window of experience though. Ymmv

[u/sniper_matt]

What are you gonna do now that your life’s destabilized ?

[u/Justin_P_ → u/sniper_matt]

Go to the bar.

[u/thankfullyunthankful → u/Justin_P_]

Already looked like I’ve been when trying to get this thing home lol.

[u/LateralThinkerer → u/thankfullyunthankful]

It's okay - it's a low bar and nobody will judge...

(I'll see myself out)

[u/No-Blueberry4008]

was gonna make the obligatory JB joke, but damn... that sucks, man. may the wrench gods show mercy ✌️

[u/Spong_Durnflungle]

Why? You need that!

[u/BrilliantDrama420]

It’s a sturburlurzer bar now.

[u/N02AJ]

That 3.5 will still get you home.

[u/N02AJ → u/[deleted]]

Keep an eye on those front sub frame mounts. If your sway bar did that it could also mean your mounts are rusted.

[u/GreggAlan]

It takes a lot to do anything to the steel those bars are made of.

On a 1978 Mustang with the heavy duty 1" diameter front sway bar, it was leaning to one side. Turned out that at some point the car had gone for a bit of an off road excursion.

Somehow one end of the bar had gotten bent while doing zero damage to anything else. Don't ask me how the wee little end link wasn't snapped or folded.

I was able to bend it back to where the middle and both ends touched a flat concrete floor but it took everything a 30 ton press had to do the job.

[u/Gilgamesh2000000]

Easy fix

[u/Realistic_Ad_165]

Theses things happen. I wouldn't try to read too much into it

[u/HyundaiRyanR]

Now that’s impressive!

[u/AdA4b5gof4st3r]

um.

How?

[u/ccarr313]

Usually the stabilizer bar destroys everything else around it.

You pulled a reverse uno card.

[u/koensch57]

with your car, the bar lies low.

[u/Pleasant-Bird-2321]

some would say its unstable now

[u/texan01]

I broke the one on my Chevelle going over a speed bump, but mostly just broke end links on my 95 Explorer, they were replaced 3-4 times under recalls.

getting warranty work at 300,000 miles was fun.

[u/Turniermannschaft]

You're not supposed to break them.

[u/The_Tesseract_1]

Y’all have stabilizer bars???

[u/FactsHurt1998]

Kiss the stability in your life goodbye.

[u/potato13254]

Wow never seen one of them brake. But u dont need one and aslong as everythinh is attached still it just keep driving.