Broken rear sway bar (1 Viewer)

[TTO5]

Guys and gals check your rear sway bars. My 2000 just broke the rear sway bar today. Heard all kinds of scraping sounds. Looked under and see this. It broke at the bushing mount on the driver side (not the link). The diameter of the bar where it broke is super thin.looks like 19 years of rust and salt (thank you northeast) caused this.

 

[FxFormat]

This is the first time i've seen this, did it break at the link or in the middle of the bar itself? Not sure why the link wouldn't break first.

 

[TTO5]

It broke at the mount on the backside of the axle housing. I will get more pics tomorrow and update. Funny because I have been waiting for my front one to break off at the mount on passenger front due to rust (a common thing around here). Truck sees 95 percent street duty and is driven carefully. You never would have seen this because the bushing covers it.got to be careful not to back up and let the bar dig into the pavement. At least no worry of that when moving forward

 

[Kabanstva]

That’s very common. Happened on my 2001 ES300 a few years ago (rear sway bar). I see this happening all the time on 100s but with the front sway bar. Haven’t seen reports of the rear one breaking yet.

 

[sammybones]

Happened to me at HIH8. Back at camp some dudes welded it together for me. When I got home ordered the extended one from Trail Tailer.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Here comes the hyperbole. Very common and all the time? It's threads like this that throw newbs into a panic that their swaybar is on the verge of breaking any second. Yes, good item to inspect. Epidemic? No.

 

[AimCOtaco]

I broke my rear sway bar last year, it broke just outboard of the mount on the axle on a trail.
Looked like corrosion and flex had done it in.

 

[Kabanstva]

Here comes the hyperbole. Very common and all the time? It's threads like this that throw newbs into a panic that their swaybar is on the verge of breaking any second. Yes, good item to inspect. Epidemic? No.

Idk what state you’re from but I’m from the IL/WI area.... trust me when I say his happens A LOT more than you hear about on 20 year old daily driven cars. Nothing is safe from rust up here, especially these Toyota trucks which really have either crappy metal and/or metal treatment from the factory. It’s still surprising that Toyota can build such a great machine but skip on rust protection...

The Lexus dealer my brother works at has LX’s and GX’s sitting in the back lot in an area they refer to as “the graveyard” because they were totaled due to rust. So much rust you can’t tell where the hardware is let alone try to break something free to do maintenance. Holes in the frame, etc. I was just there and it’s a nightmare to look at. A broken sway bar mount is literally peanuts and a cheap fix compared to what salt does to some of these cars.

I wish I was making this up.

 

[TTO5]

I fully agree. I am a service manager at a toyota dealer here in nj and we see some pretty crusty vehicles here. My next one will come from Texas or Arizona or Cali. I am done with rust

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Didn't say anything about rusty 100's, just don't think sway bars are breaking that often. If it were, we'd be hearing about it a lot more here in the microcosm of Mud where problems get reported.

 

[Kabanstva]

I fully agree. I am a service manager at a toyota dealer here in nj and we see some pretty crusty vehicles here. My next one will come from Texas or Arizona or Cali. I am done with rust

I agree with that. I bought my LS430 from SoCal last year and that thing did not have an ounce of rust or corrosion anywhere.

Didn't say anything about rusty 100's, just don't think sway bars are breaking that often. If it were, we'd be hearing about it a lot more here in the microcosm of Mud where problems get reported.

Sway bars breaking are 100% result of rust. Unless you have some trail damage that somehow breaks them off.

 

[nissanh]

Seen broken links. When taking a picture, get the full picture.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

And didn't say those that were breaking that rust wasn't a contributing factor. Just taking exception to your comments of "very common" and "all the time". It's phrasing like that that makes new comers here think issues are much more commonplace than they really are. Just like MY 2000 transmission issues and 98/99 diff problems, etc.

 

[TTO5]

Here you go