I changed my rear brakes the other day. When I jacked the rear up, I noticed a problem. My Progress rear anti-sway bar is bent!

The center portion has bent up, towards the rear axle. Kind of like the St. Louis Arch (not that bad). It used to be straight with the axle.

What do you think caused this. I was going to remove the bar to see if it would straighten-up and/or flip the bar upside down.

What do you guys think happened?

 

Maybe you hit something in the road.....or maybe trying to do some crazy e-brake stunts that put a lot of pressure on the bar....lol

 

I think you hit something! I have used the e-brake to slow down. Especially when I'm hauling a$$ down the freeway and notice a CHP merging. So not to show brake lights, I used the e-brake.

Do you know if I can straighten the bar? Or do I need a new one?

 

At what point did you jack the rear up at???

IMO I'd just get a new one...

 

I jack the rear from the trailing arms (is that what they're called?). I can't jack from the rear axle, because of the sway bar.

So, I'll order a new one and not use the e-brake slow down.

 

WTF!!????

 

I am sure everyone would like to see this. Your car was never jacked up with the bar on from the rear beam causing it to get bent up. Sounds like if you hit something that hard you would remember, and the ebrake causing that sounds impossible. Is there any scratches where it is bent??

 

No scratches on the sway bar. I would've remembered hitting something that hard. Like the time I hit a large piece of metal on the 605 FWY in the L.A. area. Some poor guy had his oil pan punctured. I hit it after him and only the heat shield to my cat was damaged.

I've never jacked it up from the rear axle. I thought my rear struts maybe are sagging and may be the cause. I really doubt it. I'll take a picture and post.

 

I've been lucky when doing 80+ an have been able to see the California Highway Patrol cruiser hauling to merge with traffic. Since I'm in front of him, I slow down using my e-brake. I figure hitting the brakes and turning on the rear brake lights will bring attention to me. The times this has happened, the CHP cruiser will hang behind me for a while then punches to bust another speeder ahead of me.

 

how much of a difference would a rear sway bar make on a stock suspension setup? (soon to be on gr-2s and progress springs) i want to get a progress RSB before i get my suspension setup.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=468275