How to: Remove Sway Bar 2012+

**Safety Warning: perform this modification at your own risk. Removing the sway bar or "anti-roll" bar may alter the safety against rolling the vehicle in emergency maneuvers or sharp/fast cornering**

When searching for a "how to" on removing the sway bar for any 2012+ model, I couldn't find anything. Apologies for the pictures being taken after the bar was removed, not during.

These are the steps taken for a TRD Off Road. Other models may require fewer steps. When removing the sway bar, be careful to not tear the CV boot.

Tools Needed:
-5.5mm Allen wrench
-12mm socket
-13mm socket
-14mm socket
-18mm socket
-17mm wrench
-Rubber hammer
-WD40 (Optional)

Step (1): skid plate - there are two 13mm and two 12mm bolts holding up the skid plate. Skid plate weighs roughly 20 pounds. Can be held up with forearms, or another person if not strong enough. The two bolts furthest under the truck have 2 collars on the interior of the skid plate (can't be seen), don't lose those.

Pictures were hard to get so I'll use one of it being off also.
The 12mm are the front most bolts circled in red. And the 13mm bolt location is circled in blue





Step (2): removing driver side end link - when working on the driver side, turn the wheel full lock to the right, this allows for a bigger area to work in. Insert the 5.5mm Allen wrench into the whole at the end of the end link connected to the sway bar. Use the 17 mm wrench to loosen the nut (I loosened the nut by holding the wrench and hitting it with a rubber hammer to get to to budge. Some people say spraying with WD40 helps also). Once the nut is loosened, you can hold either the wrench or Allen wrench, and loosen with the other. Once the nut is off, hit the bolt with the rubber hammer until it pops out of the spindle.

Red circle shows where the Allen wrench inserts, and around this bolt would be the 17mm nut



This picture shows where the end link connects to the spindle. The big hole is obviously where I removed the end link bolt



Step (3): removing passenger side end link - repeat step 2 on the passenger side. Turn the wheel full lock to left and repeat steps.

Step (4): Loosening the cross members - once you removed the skid plate, you may of noticed 2 members that go from the frame to the front bumper part of the frame. These two members inhibit you from removing the sway bar. You can either completely remove these two (one with 3 bolts, one with 4 bolts) with the 18mm socket, or you can remove all the bolts except the bolts furthest under the frame. If you choose to suspend the members, you remove all the bolts except the furthest bolt on each member. This bolt you want to loosen until there is a 3inch gap between the members and frame where they bolted to. This allows for enough space to remove the sway bar, but takes a little more finess.

Here are the pictures of the two members, the bolts circled in blue are the ones I used to suspend the members, but can easily be removed for it all to be out of the way.






Step (5): loosening the sway bar - there are two U shapes plates that are holding up with sway bar. There is a rubber piece between the plates and the bar, with two bolt per plate. Remove these 4 bolts with the 14 mm socket, this will allow the sway bar to fall free, so be aware the sway bar weighs roughly 40 pounds.





Step (6): removing the sway bar - with all the bolts removed and the sway bar loose, and the cross memebers either removed or suspended, the sway bar can be removed. I'm guessing if you completely removed the cross members, the bar just full off. If you left them suspending, work the sway bar outwards through the gap. Again, be careful of the CV boot, won't want to tear that.

Added note from another member DoorDing;

Drop the IFS skid and both "Brace Sub-assembly, Front Suspension Members" (Part #51403A & 51404A), then remove the stabilizer bar. It's a lot easier than dicking with it flailing around. To reinstall, lay the stabilizer bar on the floor, rotate the end links into position, and loosely attach them to the steering knuckles. Pivot the bar on the end links to get it into position, and mount it to the frame. Brackets are side specific. Install the braces. Best data I could find indicates the bolts should be torqued to 60 ft/lbs.
(See Steps 5 & 9).



Step (7): Reattaching - resecure the cross members to the frame, then resecure the skid plate (do not forget the collars). You can either resecure the u shaped plates to the frame if you want, that way you always know where they are. That is what I plan to do.

The sway bar is now off and you can enjoy!

With a 3inch bilstein lift from shocks, OEM springs, and Fabtech AAL in the back, I didn't notice a big difference around town handling wise or too much body roll (but I like the feeling so my word may not be the best). But when it came to pot holes, smaller bumpers, speed bumps, or steep entrances, the truck feels a lot softer and absorbs the hits better. Tested it on the highway and still love the feeling, the only change is at 60+ mph, sharp maneuvers the truck has a good amount of roll, but nothing I feel like that would really put my life in jeopardy. If someone who didn't know the truck was driving at those speeds and made a sharp move, it may be a little startling, but warning the driver and showing them the feeling would fix that.

Overall a great mod to my truck and I am keeping the sway bar off.

 

Just for clarity, when you say "remove...tie rod" you are actually referring to removal of the sway bar end links.

 

Perfect thanks. Didn't know what they were called so tie rods seemed appropriate

 

Will do!

 

Did this on my regular cab about a week ago. No excessive body roll in normal driving and much better ride quality on anything that only catches one tire at a time. Should be the first thing people do when they buy their trucks.

 

This may be a dumb question but do you need an alignment after doing this?

 

Exactly...if you just removed the sway bar there is no alignment needed. This is because the sway bar just creates a relationship between the oscillation of the left and right front suspension, has nothing to do with the alignment.

 

Awesome thank you

 

removed mine and never looked back.... stock TRD OR coils on 5100's @ 1.75

ride is so much better on and off road

 

Mine's had a 5x5 round bale of hay in it already (~900lbs) with no problems and still no excessive body roll.

I will say that I've had previous experience with removing sway bars on Jeeps and they had substantially more roll than the Taco and still didn't bother me. Maybe I'm more tolerant than most.

 

Agreed, it's really up to the owner, and in 90% of tacomas who have aftermarket suspension it is a plus. Some people don't like it, some peoples application of the truck just doesn't make it worth while. But in the end it's how the owner wants their truck to feel

I really wish TRD would make the off road have that extra step, or even offer a quick disconnect. KDSS may be an over kill for the off road because of what everyone likes to do with their truck with mods, but at least offer it!

Had a wrangler with teraflex quick disconnect system and loved it. Had the disconnect break and drove with extreme body roll for a couple weeks and it's true, solid axle is a whole different ball game

 

I know this is an older thread. I just removed my sway bar and was wondering if you guys covered the holes that the end links came out of on the spindle? If not, have you had any issues with rust? Mainly asking in case I decide to put it back on in the future.

 

I didn't cover them, saw no need for it! But I'll check right now for you! The trucks been through snow, rain, mud... You name it! So if it would have rusted, I would see it by now! So let me check

 

Might need a little metal brush polish before you reinstall but nothing major! I can't tell if it's just dirt or rust, but when I have time I'll wipe it off and let you known

 

If my 2015 DCSB TRD OR (8000 miles, Eibach 2.5" coils, 0.5" top plate spacer, Bilstein 5100's set to 0.0) is beating me TO DEATH at low speed on potholes, gaps in road (ie bridge), and other general road imperfections would most agree removing the sway bar would improve that?

 

Yeah that's the exact reason I removed mine! The town I was in had pot holes and bumps all over and felt like I was in a rattle can. Once I removed the sway bar I never looked back and loved it! It also feels even better off road too

 

Night and day difference or just somewhat improved?

 

I would say night and day, but it's been so long I kind of forgot what it used to be like

 

Awesome thanks!

Nice write up by the way. Didn't see it until after I was done but it's spot on

 

Thank you!! I like picture and detailed write ups, so I tried to make the same haha