About how much should I pay to have the front stabilizer bar bushings replaced on my '94 Grand Marquis?
Judith
Call around to a few local shops, that will give you the best idea.
Thanks, I had one quote for $200-300…I will check some others. Was just wondering if that was a good price.
You should pay about as much as your friendly local independent mechanic charges.
Maintenance and repair charges vary greatly from one area of the country to the next. It’s hard for us to put a number on it.
If you have a relationship with a good independent mechanic you won’t have to worry about paying too much.
If, on the other hand, you take your car to a national chain repair shop (bad idea), or a Mercury dealer (Mercury ceases production at the end of this year), you will probably pay more.
I’ve dealt with several independent mechanics in my area, most of whom have been recommended by friends, family members, coworkers, etc, and I have never felt overcharged.
Consult your network of friends and acquaintances. Find out where the good mechanics are, then go there.
Fifty dollars plus parts. It takes about fifteen minutes to replace the front stabilizer bar bushings on your vehicle.
Tester
Thanks for all your answers. I will call around as my mechanic says it will take about 2 hours, so now I will ask him, “Why that long”?
FYI you will not find any shop anywhere willing to do the job for 15 minutes of labor pay. Most every job on every car has an industry standard amount of labor time assigned to it and that is the price you’ll pay unless you go to a tiny mom and pop that just makes up labor times as they go.
I did not realize that, thanks so much for the FYI!
There may be more to this story…The sway bar is mounted to the frame of the car with two large rubber bushings that will take more than 15 minutes to change…Then at each end of the bar there is a another set of bushings that connect the bar to the lower control arms. It’s at least an hours labor using a lift and power tools to change them all…It is likely there will be other problems in the front end of your 16 year old car…What symptoms brought the sway bar to your attention?
squeaking noise when going over little bumps. The mechanics noticed it while they were working on the car, I didn’t mention the squeak, they did, so they did some bouncing the car and checking everything they could to find the problem and came to the conclusion that it was the stabilizer bar bushings…they greased, oiled or something and said it would be ok for a while but not to take long trips, which I will be doing in a couple of weeks, so they said it shouldl be done before that
Fore the record, squeaking from stab bar bushings usually comes from those two “frame” bushings that Caddyman described. The bar twsts within these bushings as the wheels move up and down and the resulting wear combined with the rubber shrinking makes the hole enlarge. Grooves will even get worn into the bar from the twisting.
It isn’t dangerous other that its slightly adverse effect on handling, but the bushings should be replaced if the bar has become loose in the holes.
Thanks so much again for all the info. I’m at least more knowledgeable when I go back to my mechanic. I do know a lot about my car but this subject I knew nothing so I really do appreciate all the feedback…
Yeah, those are split bushings so just replacing the centers is wicked easy. The end links are only $10 for the set so you might as well replace them too while you’re in there. No sense messing with rusted hardware, just cut them in half and replace w/new. You could do the entire operation in 15-20 minutes IMHO and get charged for 1/2 hour of labor. YMMV.
A squeak from the sway bar bushings is normally not something that should alarm you. It’s caused by the sway bar rubbing on aged and hardened rubber is all.
If they applied some lubricant and it shut them up then I wouldn’t even worry about it; not even on a trip. The only time to really worry about sway bars is when the end links break and this is not the cause of the squeak.
The control arms are also mounted to the frame with bushings. They will make a lot of noise when you hit a bump with the wheels turned… After 16 years, if the car is in otherwise good shape, it’s worth the money to pull the front end apart and replace ALL the bushings and any other worn parts found. Expect to pay $850-$1000 for this repair, but your car will once again drive like brand new, track perfectly without any annoying “road wander”… These things creep up on you slowly so you don’t notice the handling slowly degrading…
Thanks so much Caddyman, I do appreciate it. The car is in great shape almost looks new and runs extremely well. I bought it new and have taken very good care of it, inside and out, plus it only has 150,000 miles on it. Thanks again!