Can You Drive Without Sway Bar Links?

Sway bar links are important part of the suspension system and are used to keep the vehicle stable during cornering. But can you drive without sway bar links? 

You can drive straight without sway bar links. But if you remove the sway bar link, it’ll affect your driving conditions at high speed, while cornering or making tight turns. 

Though you can drive with a broken sway bar, these parts are fairly cheap. So you should replace the broken sway bar and enjoy complete control of the vehicle instead of removing it.

What Happens If You Drive Without Sway Bar Links?

The sway bar transfers energy from the vehicle’s one side to the other. This way, the sway bar keeps the vehicle level while cornering at high speed. 

However, you can drive the car safely without sway bar links or after disconnecting it. Even the cars invented before the 50s didn’t come with sway bar links. Considering the cornering, passenger cars aren’t set up for road racing or turning at higher speeds.

So front and rear sway bars aren’t necessary for the vehicle. However, if you drive the car without a sway bar link, you can experience various consequences and they are:

1. Loss of Control

If you drive the car without a sway bar link, you’ll lose the vehicle’s control significantly particularly at high speeds. You might not be able to change lanes or make cornering accurately. However, the vehicle wont become uncontrollable. 

If you want to get better control over the vehicle while driving without a sway bar link, you have to be more careful. You have to take corners at lower or legal posted speeds and change lanes on the highway carefully. 

2. Steering Softness

Sway bars links harden the suspension at the front of the vehicle to reduce rolling with soft springs. Some vehicles like the 1990 Suzuki Swift don’t come with a sways bars link. 

You can drive the vehicle safely with a broken sway bar link or after removing one. However, you may feel steering softness or the vehicle won’t steer correctly. You may also feel more rolling than normal when cornering. 

3. Damage Other Components

Sway bar links are a part of the suspension system and these aren’t as critical as tie rods and ball joints. So you can remove the sway bar links and continue driving the car. 

However, you must make sure it doesn’t bounce around and damage other parts like the CV shaft. If the sway bar links get damaged and you can’t fix it and need to keep driving, you can do so.

Does A Vehicle Become Uncontrollable To Drive Without Sway Bar Link?

Your car won’t become uncontrollable to drive after removing the sway bar link. However, it’ll make it difficult to drive the vehicle. 

A sway bar consists of bushings and linkages. These remains are attached to the sway bar and run perpendicular to the car. These components make driving smoother and cornering easier. The sway bar also increases the tire’s life and helps in the wheel’s alignment. 

But if the linkages and bushings wear out, your car will make a cracking noise. If you remove the sway bar, the car’s handling will become very sloppier. Removing the sway bar also brings some benefits. It’ll increase the off-road performance. If you remove the sway bar, it’ll allow your vehicle to have more articulation and allow the front wheels to perform independently.

Can You Drive With A Broken Sway Bar Link?

You can normally drive a car with a broken sway link. But you’ll have to avoid driving at high speed, interstate, or tight turns. The reason is that you’ll lose the vehicle’s control in these cases and may cause serious accidents. A broken sway bar link may also cause your vehicle to bounce, and the vehicle may lean too far in curves. 

But if your car drags or hits something while driving with a broken sway bar link, you should stop driving. You can also end up breaking the sway bar and failure of connectors and bushings. Hence you should replace the sway bar links before hitting the roads, particularly before going on a long trip.

What Happens if Sway Bar Breaks While Driving?

A sway bar usually doesn’t break down while driving unless an accident occurs. When you drive straight, the sway bar doesn’t carry any load. But when you turn the steering wheel, the car’s weight moves to the outside of the curves. Hence the car tends to lean that way. 

The sway bar performs as a sprig and pushes the vehicle back to keep it level. Though the sway bar rarely gets damaged, the link at the end of the bar may break easily due to wear out. 

The sway bar link may also break down due to making a turn and hitting a bump at a time. If this happens, your car will feel lean farther in the curve. If you drive the car too fast with a broken sway bar link, you’ll lose the vehicle’s control in the turn. Your vehicle will also take more steering effort to regain. 

But if you drive the car at normal speed, you won’t feel the link get damaged until it makes banging and knocking noise. Broken sway bar links don’t make the car undrivable. However, it makes the car dangerous to drive at higher speeds. 

Cost of Replacing A Broken Sway Bar Link?

Sway bar links are relatively cheaper and don’t need extensive time to install. The exact cost of replacing a broken sway bar link varies depending on the make and model of the car and the mechanic shop you visit. However, the cost of replacing the sway bar link ranges from $90 to $175. The price of sway bar links is around $20 to $100 and Lebor can charge $75 to $100.

FAQs

Final Words

You can safely drive your vehicle without sway bar links. However, you’ll struggle to keep the vehicle stable during cornering and your vehicle may tend to body roll. 

If you are a skilled driver, these issues might not hurt you. But sway bar link are considerably cheaper. So you shouldn’t make driving risky by removing sway bar links due to a few bucks.