Front Sway bar / suspension question..

[06PT]

I have an '06 PT that has about 34k miles on it. The wife had been complaining about squeeking noise in front when going over bumps. So the dealership replaced the lower control arm bushings. Upon explanation of the work being performed they had to disassemble the assembly to the wheel and reallign the car.

Since then we started noticing a clunking noise when turning and sometimes just when we would go over a bump. Yesterday I finally got the time to look at it and found what I think is the sway bar just hanging there UNBOLTED!

So my question is if this is unbolted and just hanging down, what else would be unbolted and how much danger were we in? Secondly, am I to assume this is directly related to the control arm work they performed?

[CREWZIN]

You can assume that YES, it was directly related to the work they did. Chrysler didn't sell any cars with the sway bar hanging loose. Don't think you were in any danger from that particular part, but I'd take a real good look at anything they touched to make sure nothing else was left "undone".

[06PT]

Thanks for your reply Crewzin. The thing is I remember looking under there after I got the car back to what clean/new parts they put on. I'm quite certain that I would have noticed that hanging down at the time but I didn't. So that leads me to believe they either didn't tighten it up to spec and it vibrated loose or maybe it's stripped and it vibrated loose that way?? Not sure.

I wonder if there are torque specs for that and they just didn't follow them. I would assume they would have the air powered tools that do that with ease.

My whole concern was if that bolt came off then what else? Or were there multiple "things" attached by the bolt that did come loose. So I'm just thankful nothing else did fall apart that would have caused an accident.

[Mean Green]

They had to take the sway bar off because the sway bar end links go through the lower control arm bushings.

[06PT]

Originally Posted by Mean Green

They had to take the sway bar off because the sway bar end links go through the lower control arm bushings.

Thank you for confirming that. I'm no mechanic but using my own 2 eyes and common sense told me it was directly related to the control arm work, but I needed some confirmation from you guys which is why I posted.

I just talked to them and they said the sway bar link broke and they are picking one up to replace it with. So what you just told me matches what they just told me. How cheap are those parts that it would break like that? I mean the work is only about 3 weeks old that they did on the control arm bushings.

[redbucket]

Hi...i actually just had the same thing done on my 2006 PT. I took my car in for the regular oil,filter stuff and they told my about the lower control bushings having to be replaced.
So they did that (under warranty) and two days later i was hearing the exact same thing. A very loud noise coming from the right side of my car. Every time i would go over any type of bump, i was really worried... it was a "sounds expensive" noise.

I came on here to see if anyone had any ideas what it could be as i just got new snow tires put on....

I just brought my car back in today and they are still working on it. No word on what the noise is. What was your end result ????

[06PT]

That is the beauty of these forums, you get to see what everybody else is experiencing and we all try to help one another out.

It did end up being the sway bar linkage. They replaced it under warranty as well. The service manager said it was just a defective part that broke. To me is seemed like the mechanic didn't put it on right but I will never know at this point. It's been running great since then. As a matter of fact I'm putting new tires on it Saturday.

Like I described in my earlier post it was a clunking niose when we turned (only one direction because it was only broke on the one side so that made sense after we found out what it was) and over SOME bumps (not all). I had mine towed back to the dealership because I figured if one thing was broken and hanging down what else in the suspension was broken too and there was no way I was going to take a chance driving it.

We're real close to our 36K so we're almost on our own although we've looked into the Chrysler extended warranty that Chrysler sent us in the mail.

Good luck with yours and let us know how yours turns out.

[redbucket]

Well.. i got the phone call from the dealership at around 5pm letting me know that it wasnt the front sway bar. As they couldnt find anything loose or missing.

Noe prepare to laugh.... The service advisor says that the are gonna take and educated guess and assume it could be the right strut. So after a long talk with him on the phone i showed and picked up my car...

i took a very bumpy road home just to make sure i wasnt hearing that horrible noise and everything so far is good.

Your right about the site... it came in handy last night when i posted. Its really great cause you definately get advice. Ive taken a read at some of topics dealing with 2006.

Thanks for your post! Cheers!!!