Q&A for How to Change a Sway Bar Link

As a general rule, the stiffer the sway bar, the less roll. However, less roll is not always better. Make sure you achieve a good balance between sway bar stiffness and spring stiffness.

If its just the sway bars being done and nothing else is changed or damaged, then you shouldn't need to do an alignment.

Yes, yes you do. It is most important to have new sway bars on both fronts.

That can destroy your sway bar, yes. But tires pointing inward is a bad control arm bushing. Jack the car up and shake the tire top and bottom back and forth! There should be no play. If the tire moves in and out, then you have a bad control arm bushing or even worse, a bad wheel barring. Both should be fixed asap as these are very dangerous.

Remove the sway bar nut holding the sway bar to stabilize.

It's a good idea to replace sway/stabilizer bar bushings when you change the sway bar links/bushings (or vice versa, this will renew the entire sway bar assembly. This is also a good time to check for play or wear in your other front-end components such as ball joints, control arm bushings, tie rods, and struts. Just get in there and start trying to wiggle parts with your hands, this is best done if the car is jacked up. If your front end is really sloppy, then a front-end rebuild is recommended.

Yes, especially as speed increases. Consider a passenger van traveling at 60 mph with a damaged or worn out rear sway bar: if an abrupt lane change to the driver's side is made, the rear passenger tire and suspension compresses, rolling the top of the van to the outside of the turn. Without a functioning sway bar, the rear driver's tire and suspension tend to lift, allowing further roll of the top of the van to the outside of the turn. In extreme cases, the vehicle can skid out of control or continue to roll until there is no tire contact with the road service.

Yes, just get it fixed in a timely manner. That’s with anything: the longer you wait, the more problems you'll have.