In a 2004 Saab 9-3 Arc I kept hearing a knock sound coming from the front of the car when braking to a stop. After looking over the car I concluded that the sway bar links needed to be changed and was the likely culprit. The car has over 120k miles with the original links so it made sense to replace them as I’ve observed most suspension components seem to fail sometime after 100k miles (fewer times it’s been sooner than that).
Fortunately this is a straight-forward job for most DIYers!
Tools you’ll need:
- New sway bar links
- Floor jack + jack stands
- Wheel chocks (recommended but optional)
- Wrenches, sockets + ratchets
- Torque wrench
- Impact wrench (recommended but optional)
- About 1 hour of free time
Ready to replace your sway bar end links?
The front sway bar links are connected to each front wheel.
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Head over to the parked car, ensure the handbrake is engaged and apply wheel chocks to the rear wheels as an added safety measure.
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Loosen but do not remove the front wheel bolts.
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Jack up both front wheels, position your jack stands, lower the floor jack and remove it so it’s out of your way:
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Remove the wheel bolts and set aside the front wheels. An impact wrench will speed this up!
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Remove the sway bar link using a counter hold to ensure you’re not spinning the joint as you remove the nuts. I’d be holding the wrench with my other hand if I weren’t trying to take the picture!
- Compare the old link (top) against the new link (bottom). The old link’s joints felt loose while the new link’s joints were stiffer as they are supposed to be.
Reassembly!
Installation is essentially the reverse of removal. Tighten the new link’s nuts using a counter hold like you did during removal to ensure you’re not spinning the joint. My new link came with new nuts so use them if it came with it. Torque the link nuts to 47 ft-lb. Some have said to torque these down under load but I tried it and couldn’t get any of my tools to fit onto the nuts while the wheels were on so this was the next best thing I could do. I understand that it’s more important for sway bar bushings to be torqued down under load anyway so I didn’t lose any sleep here since these weren’t that. More importantly, I didn’t experience any issues later anyway.
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Reinstall the wheels and hand tighten the wheel bolts.
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Raise the car using a floor jack to remove the jack stands and lower the car so the car is back on the ground. Torque the wheel bolts to 80 ft-lbs.
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Remove your tools, remove the wheel chocks from the rear wheels and test drive the car.
Enjoy years of restored sway bar link performance without knocks!
