My truck rocks ... in a bad way :(

I think I need a new front sway bar. This side to side rocking motion is really pssing me off. I have an SR5 which I understand has the small sway bar. What's a good aftermarket sway bar? Is Helwig any good? Addco?

 

sub'd because I want to know how this goes. Sorry I'm no help at all.

 

Rocking under what circumstances? It probably needs new shocks.

 

Front shocks could be toast

 

Like Oz and Smd3 said probably shocks or end links are broken

 

Just normal driving. Seems to me it's always done it to some degree but maybe has gotten worse over the years. I guess it didn't irritate me as much until I bought my car. Then the difference in ride made me dread driving the truck.

 

The shocks are Bilstein 5100s with about 10k on them. Besides the side to side rocking motion the ride is good.

The endlinks is a great suggestion. I'll check those.

 

Could be the rubber bushings where it mounts to the frame are wore out too.

 

I'm going to check those too. I'll get down under the truck and have somebody rock it while I figure out exactly where the slack is.

 

Stay away from Helwig. They are overpriced and extremely poorly made.

Addco, Whiteline, and Cusco.

Whiteline and Cusco will be harder to find. You have to search for sway bars for an FJ cruiser. www.frsport.com has them listed.

They are not cheap though.

 

it could be something as simple as tire inflation.

Is this a new issue that you've noticed? Also, just because the bilstein's are new, doesn't mean they're not broken.

It's the shock's job to stop bouncing of the vehicle. The sway bar is essentially just another spring that transfers energy from one side of the truck to the other, keeping it flatter on corners. While I suppose it helps eliminate some bouncing vs. not having one at all, it's probably not the culprit.

 

I'm not really having a bouncing issue. It's a rolling side to side. The suspension seems to amplify the side ways rocking motion. Tires are fine. I keep them at 33 lbs front and rear.

 

Follow up post.

I finally got around to replacing my end-links and sway bar bushings. It is definitely an improvement.

When replacing the bushings I tried to look up the torque spec for the bracket bolts. All I could find was this link saying 19 lbs. I thought that sounded kind of low. That kind of torque spec is usually for aluminum.

 

Love the Cusco products, top notch quality I wonder if the Cusco and whiteline sway bars for the FJ cruiser will bolt up to Tacoma? Or require modifications?

 

I have Whiteline rear trailing arm bushings on my bmw. They are imo an excellent product.

For the Tacoma's sway bar bushings I went with Moog Problem Solvers and also for the end links which are really heavy duty and have grease zerts.

 

Found out while doing the replacement that the SR5 does NOT have a small sway bar. It has the full size 30 mm bar.

 

eh.. did you doing lot of sex in that truck? no wonder you rocked your shocks out. LOL

 

When I put my Bill 5100's in a few years ago, I just left the sway bar out.. to see how it would drive with out it. Never did put it back in.. it never felt any different to me. Never had any rolling motions and 95% of my driving is on the highway.

 

I might be really sensitive to the sideways rocking motion. My other vehicle is a beamer. After driving it the first time, I never wanted to drive the truck again.

 

My sway bar links on my 4x4 ranger rotted off. I never did replace them made no difference at all.