Hi, I had the front sway bar fracture in my '00 OBW a couple months ago and was wondering if anyone else has experienced that? It fractured about 5" from the LH link while I was making a sharp right hand turn under nearly full throttle. It sounded like a gunshot going off.

 

Anyway, I ordered new OE bar and rubber bushings and nuts and stuff; replacement was pretty easy.

 

Actually in my inspection before I bought this car used, one of the rear sway bar links was broken, which the dealer replaced before I took delivery.

 

Thanks! Louis :-p

Yeah I've heard of a few people snapping the anti-sway bars before. Don't know if there was a manufacturing issue, or pitting and corrosion.

It appears to be a bad batch of parts (brittle steel). It seemed to be an issue on a cluster of OBW's built during a certain period.

 

I don't think there were any TSB's issued on it tho.

 

**** ******!

yeah, mine broke, I was taking the dog for a walk and was pulling back onto the main road off of the dirt road, rolling in first gear, probably 5 mph definitely under 10 and it snapped...I was pretty surprised.

Mine broke, 00 OBW, left side right where the sharp bend is where it goes into the bushing. It was Friday, we needed the car that weekend, no replacement available, so I welded it with Mr. Lincoln the Arc Welder, and some 6011 rods.

 

That would not have been my first choice as a fix, but it's held up OK for several years now and I have ceased to be concerned about it.

 

This is another known weak point of that generation car style, but it's not particularly critical, costly or prevalent.

I know this is an old thread, but I just thought I'd revive it to toss out that the front swaybar on my '00 Outback snapped too. The new one was $150 and a 1-2 week wait so I took it out, brought it to a local shop and had it welded. It cost $15 plus a $5 tip. If it breaks again I might buy a new one, but I'm not going to worry about it for now .

when i bought my 94 ss both sway bars where bent and broken-as well as both rear struts....someone jumped it....high:eek:

I can report that we see 4 or 5 of these a year, in winter, usually break first thing in the morning after a cold night... one suspicion is that some of these are more brittle than others, specifically impreza bars, and that over a cold night (under 20degF) this brittleness is worse and the first sharp load they see, such as a hard corner or pot hole, will stress them to the snapping point. We actually keep 2 in stock for impreza chassis during the winter season.

Presumably metallurgy has something to do with it, but so does age and wear history, at least from what I've seen.

Just my .02...from a shop view.

Well it's been over a year since I installed the new stabilizer bar. It hasn't broken again. I made up a page with pics in case anyone else has this happen. I've seen some posts on other boards with it fracturing on 2000 Outbacks also.

The front sway bar on my '99 broke in the same place. Although the Outback was redesigned between '99 and '00, the replacement procedure is the same.

Just wondering why people are installing another shot-in-the dark stock one when a Whiteline piece can be had for the same price? I assume Whiteline makes a sway bar that fits the Outback.

I didn't realize at the time that aftermarket upgrades were available. The new ones are probably ok. There was probably a bad batch hence the number of failures on the same era vehicles.

Thanks for the info on the weld job on the bar. Great idea. So disappointing that Subaru fails to stand by their product. Have been having lots of issues with my Subaru lately..and the dealer...at the BBB has not been able to help.

The stabilizer bar on my 99 OBW broke Friday when I was pulling out of a gas station. It broke right after the bend on the drivers side. I was turning right and gave it about 40% throttle to get into traffic. There was a drop from the parking lot onto the road and as the left wheel absorbed the bump and I accelerated, I hear a load pop and felt like something hit the floorboard.

 

In the pics, you can see it on the car and after I removed it. After removing it, the car sure wallows and rolls a lot!

 

I saw that someone had theirs welded. Has anyone else gone this route? I'm thinking of this, since I can't find any in salvage yards and I don't have $100 now.

 

 

Good pics! Wow it's amazing how little rust there is in those pics, you're definitely now in the salt belt hehe!

 

Some previous poster said something about Subaru 'failing to stand by their product'. Not sure what that's supposed to mean?

Some previous poster said something about Subaru 'failing to stand by their product'. Not sure what that's supposed to mean?

 

I think that they say this because this is a common issue with these cars and Fuji should issue a tsb or whatever and pick up the tab for replacing these due to defects in materials. After reading up on this issue, it seems like they had a bad batch cause so many people have this problem with cars near this year. Also note how the majority if not all have broken at the same spot.

Mine broke in the same spot at exactly 80K I lived without it a year just fine, but after getting in some snow on the interstate I decided it was time to replace it, got an aftermarket sway bar kit (front and rear) for 200$. Works dandy.

Mine broke in the same spot at exactly 80K I lived without it a year just fine, but after getting in some snow on the interstate I decided it was time to replace it, got an aftermarket sway bar kit (front and rear) for 200$. Works dandy.

 

Where did you get these from?

Uhmm... this is a 4+ y.o. thread... not sure you'll get much.

In any case, I would expect torsion bars to fail in torsion. From the pictures on this thread, not a single one has failed in torsion (it's a very easy to recognize failure). I guess the manufacturing process left some residual stresses at that particular point or something like that. Very interesting...

Uhmm... this is a 4+ y.o. thread... not sure you'll get much.

In any case, I would expect torsion bars to fail in torsion. From the pictures on this thread, not a single one has failed in torsion (it's a very easy to recognize failure). I guess the manufacturing process left some residual stresses at that particular point or something like that. Very interesting...

 

Yeah, I saw the dates after I posted. I did find a used OEM part at http://www.billsusedparts.com for $35 bucks cant beat that.

Subaru drivers are fiercely loyal. I think Brucey posts more over at Subaruoutback dot org though. For my '00 Outback, I think the new genuine bar was a bit over $100. carpart.com is probably a good resource for used ones.