Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years!
Hi, everyone. Sue here from 1A Auto, and today on our '06 Honda Element, I'm going to show you how to remove and replace the rear sway bar links from 1A Auto. If you need that part or any other part from your car, click on the link below and head on over to 1aauto.com
19 mm socket and we're going to break free the lug nuts. You got the pressure of the vehicle on the tire still, so it doesn't turn. I use the two-post lift. At home, you can a jack and jack stands. I'm going to take all the lug nuts off and remove the tire.
I'm going to the spray the rear sway bar links, nuts, rusted nuts. 15 mm wrench, and I'm going to break free the lower sway bar mounting nut. And then the actual stud for the sway bar links, that's to spin. So what we have to do now is get a allen socket, and it's a 5 mm. I'm going to use a ratchet wrench, and then I'm going to put my 5 mm allen head socket on there. Holding it the opposite way, I'm going to start ratcheting that. It will get harder as it gets towards the edge of there, 'cause it's trying to push that rust out on the threads. So don't get discouraged.
And hopefully, that doesn't happen. So if the allen head falls out, sometimes that might get rounded. Let's see if we can get it to go back in. I'll take hammer, see if I can get it to go in there a little. See if I can hopefully get it to hold. If your allen head strips out, you're going to have to use some locking pliers and hold the back of the stud from spinning so you can get that mounting nut off. There you go. Okay.
We're going to do the same thing for the top. We're going to use a longer wrench to see if I can break it free. There you go. I can put my allen head in there with a ratchet wrench, see if we can get this to go a little faster. There we go.
Now we can just discard that. And then, here's your rear sway bar link. Here we have the new rear sway bar link from 1A Auto, and here we have the one we just removed. The new one from 1A Auto comes with self-locking nuts. It does have the allen head inverted so that you can tighten it. And they're both sealed, same length. If you need this part or any other part for your car, click on the link below and head on over to 1aauto.com.
Now we're going to install the rear sway bar link. We're going to put the top in first and then line up the bottom. Put them right through the mounting hole. I've got two self-locking nuts. 15 mm wrench, I'm using a ratchet wrench.
The nice thing is that the 1A Auto link comes with the allen head. So once that starts to spin, I can use it to hold it. Some of the manufacturers come with allen or a Torx bit, or they have the cutout of a hex, like a nut, on the back. And then you have the ones that have nothing, and you have to put a pair of locking pliers back there. That's great if you're taking it out, the old one. But to replace it like that, I don't know, I'm not a fan. You could damage the boot.
So there are no torque specs for this rear sway bar link, so I'm just going to snug it. Going to use my extra long ratchet, get a little bit better leverage, bottom that right out. Going to do the same with the bottom. Same size 15mm and 5mm allen head. I just don't want this to rattle and bang, the suspension to make noise. So it's important to make sure that's really bottomed out.
Let's put the lug nuts back on. It's a 19mm socket. Just going to tighten them all down, then I lower it down and torque it. So I'm going to torque the wheels to manufacturer's spec, which is 80 foot pounds. And to always do it in a star pattern. Double check.
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