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Has anyone replaced the front sway (stabilizer) bar bushings and sway bar links? I ordered the bushings and the links from ebay and will be installing in the near future. I wonder if anyone has any advice or experience with this. Dealer was trying to sell me the entire sway bar just to replace the bushings...
For a while I've had a front end rattle going over bumps. After checking I see my problem is the sway bar. Assuming the bushings are bad. I have the extended warranty and I'm wondering if this is covered or if it's a wear item that is not covered?
How did the bushings from eBay work out?
I'm looking for replacement front bushings for my '13 ML 350 and can find *nothing* other than some generic ones from overseas eBay sellers.
WIS doesn't list a part number for the bushings, sadly. This is how MB enables the criminal practice of offering to replace the entire stabilizer bar, bushings and links as the only choice.
With these models aging, I'm curious what other W166 / X166 owners are doing to repair these bushings. These are wear items that are typically replaced several times during the lifetime of a vehicle. Surely everyone isn't just paying $1000+ to the dealer or living with the rattles?
I'm hopeful we can uncover a cheaper aftermarket solution and have it clearly documented here on the forums.
The prices seem not too bad for a base non-Airmatic, non-Active Curve, using DIY labor.
Short answer is “I don’t know” whether or not the bushings are replaceable. Digging around YouTube or the forums would be the best option short of pulling one of the brackets off and looking at the bushing itself. These are so easy to replace on 99% of vehicles, it’s too bad MB made the poor choice they did on these.
@chassis agreed 100%. While it sucks to throw away a perfectly good sway bar for a few rubber bits, at least we are limited to $120 in parts.
For comparison, the bushings for W164 will run ~$35 / pair. I'm just glad I don't have the Active Roll Control that would make this a HUGE repair cost.
To recap where this stands (IMO) - W166 owners should skip the $35 eBay stabilizer bushings and just go ahead and get the new OEM assembly for $120.
Seems like Febest sell a brand new rubber bushing kit (Part #BZSB-166F). I assume once the end links are off, you could slide these new bushings onto the bracket. Here in Australia, you're looking at minimum 400 AUD for a new sway bar so I hope this option actually works.
Wow this is an old thread. But to answer your question it lasted the life of the car and I just sold it about a year and a half ago it did slowly over time start to shift again so I repeated the process and then I drilled a small hole in the middle of the housing and into the rubber bushing tapped it and put a #6 stainless steel screw to hold the bushing in place and it held. Unfortunately I don't have photos of that later part of the repair
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