[Cosmicflash]

My passenger side has to be replaced. I forget if these should be replaced in pairs or can be done individually.
One dealer said individually another in pairs.

Refresh my memory

 

[aerojon]

drop link arm with the 2 ball joints on..

personal preference i think..but to be honest if one side is feeling worn the other can't be that far behind

i've just replaced springs & struts/shocks and fitted 2 new drop links cheap enough to do so...

 

[Silver0393]

Change them in pairs. I got mine done about three months back and there was a pretty big difference. I would not change them out yourself, get a mechanic to do it. I took my car to Midas and took like 20mins.

 

[rabbit]

it's super easy and they cost like $20/ea. Why wouldn't you do both? And DIY it too. If you can take the wheel off, then you can do this.

 

[Cosmicflash]

So are there aftermarket parts available for these?

Don't have the tools nor the facilities to DIY. Plenty of shops though...

 

[bogdi1988]

go to your saab dealer, they have them for pretty cheap.

jack up the car, take off the wheel, you will need a second jack for this:
place it under the control arm and lift it until the bolts of the sway bar link seem to be parallel to eachother (or perpendicular to the sway bar link)

unscrew the bolts - it will be tough to unscrew them... u need a wrench for the nut, and another one to hold the 'screw' of the link, right behind the nut.

replace the link, and when you screw back the nuts, make sure not to twist the 'screw' of the link...drop the jack, put the wheel back, and drop the second jack and you are done.

it'll take about 1 hour if you take your time...

all you need are a couple of wrenches... you will need some of 17, 18, 19 metric size i believe.. they are cheap at autozone.


another way to do it if you don't have the 2nd jack, is to place the wheel or a block right under the control arm, and slowly lower the car, but that is not as safe, i think.

 

[Cosmicflash]

Nice write up bogdi. Perhaps it should go into the stickys.

I went to the dealer this afternoon. Charged $30 for the part and $50 in labor for each one so total $160 for both--not a bad deal.
It does seem a bit tighter and certainly no more rattle/clunking from the front end.

 

[xp3]

I've had mine done by a local guy and paid $200 including alignment.

 

[Autotechnica]

alignment isn't affected by a sway bar link change. Anyways, I've done them myself on lots of cars, these ones look just as easy. They are so long?! What's the deal with that?

I've seen some aftermarket ones on ebay and on FCPGroton, but you won't get any performance out of them. It's always the ball joints that wear out due to contamination. You can increase the effectiveness of the front sway bar if you lengthen the sway bar link or make the link thicker. I think the car understeers and is stiff enough in the front IMO. There's no need for such a modification. If anything, I had custom endlinks made on my previous cars by using tie rod ends which have much stronger balljoints with less movement. They last forever!

I haven't really checked, but are our sway bar links moutned to the front struts or the control arms? It's more effective to have them mounted at the strut. There's more leverage. If they are mounted to the control arms, you can have tabs welded to the strut and mount the endlink to the strut instead. This is a common practice on track cars. I've done this to my previous M3 as well.

Bry

 

[saabsmooth]

Is this the stabilizer link ?

that makes that creaking noise in the winter?
OR whats the difference between the two ?
Dealer and an indie quoted 300 for the fix either side ?
pics would be helpful

 

[saabsmooth]

Nevermind search is working

 

[bogdi1988]

alignment isn't affected by a sway bar link change. Anyways, I've done them myself on lots of cars, these ones look just as easy. They are so long?! What's the deal with that?

I've seen some aftermarket ones on ebay and on FCPGroton, but you won't get any performance out of them. It's always the ball joints that wear out due to contamination. You can increase the effectiveness of the front sway bar if you lengthen the sway bar link or make the link thicker. I think the car understeers and is stiff enough in the front IMO. There's no need for such a modification. If anything, I had custom endlinks made on my previous cars by using tie rod ends which have much stronger balljoints with less movement. They last forever!

I haven't really checked, but are our sway bar links moutned to the front struts or the control arms? It's more effective to have them mounted at the strut. There's more leverage. If they are mounted to the control arms, you can have tabs welded to the strut and mount the endlink to the strut instead. This is a common practice on track cars. I've done this to my previous M3 as well.

Bry

they are mounted straight into the strut if i am correct.

if you guys want, you can modify it and post it in stickys.

 

[TroyAndEddie]

It's as easy as these guys say. Mine were found faulty when I was getting an alignment, so the guy did the job for a decent price. $125 for the sway bars, alignment and some other stuff. Not too shabby, but I watched him do it - if you can change your oil, this is just as easy.

 

[armandjones82]

Try to really search in for a good and best Sway Bar Link Kit that will be a good replacement for your car. Sometimes you might be getting impatient because it will take you time for that to find one, but if you did get a good part, you will have a good performance for your vehicle.