Outback broken stabilizer bar

Yesterday, while pulling off of a soft shoulder on the side of a dirt road, I heard a loud metallic "ping" noise. I checked the car out quickly, and saw nothing, and assumed some brush must have been caught in the undercarriage and snapped back when I pulled out. I drove quite a ways, over some rough terrain, and then on the freeway for a good 100 miles, and noticed nothing wrong with the car. This morning, I looked under the car and saw a metal bar with joints, hanging... it had snapped clean.

I drove over to work on my day off to use the office digital camera to take some shots, with the intention of picking the brains of this board to find out what the heck it was. Guys at the office said it was the front stabilizer bar... solid steel, something that should NEVER break, especially so cleanly, unless there was a serious defect with the metal.

This, I believe falls under "suspension" and probably precludes it from the

60,000 mile warranty, but I could be wrong. If there was a serious defect with the metal, perhaps I could argue it was a pre-existing defect to get it included in the warranty. I'm also curious to know how much this might set me back otherwise.

The car is a 2000 Subaru Outback, with 42,000 miles. I purchased it from a Rhode Island (USA) Subaru dealer in October 2003 right before moving about

2500 miles away (in other words, an unfamiliar dealer will be doing the work).

Check out the photos and have a look if you're curious. Any advice about warranties, cost, points to argue about should it come to that would be greatly appreciated. What is most surprising to me is how clean the break is.

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Thanks for any advice,

-Mike

Reply to
Mike Hardiman
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The rear sway bar is definitely part of the suspension, so it's not going to be covered by the powertrain warranty. The good news is that they generally aren't very expensive ( me back otherwise.

Reply to
David & Caroline

I'm a bit mechanically-uninclined, but is this the same as a rear sway bar? This was on the front end of the vehicle.

Reply to
Mike Hardiman

Please. search for this on

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- I think there is a trend developing - I've read of this (and seen photos) in at least 2 other instances. At least, printing out the thread and taking it to a meeting with the 'zone rep.' and your dealership might get a you 'good faith' repair/adjustment. let us know OK? Carl

1 Lucky Texan

Mike Hardiman wrote:

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Just did a really quick search, as suggested:

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Good lord! Scroll down to where another person replying to the original post put on some pictures. Looks familiar, eh? It's broken in the exact same spot, same clean break... and the original poster is also talking about a 2000 Outback.

When you say speak to the zone rep and dealership, do you mean the dealer where I bought the car? That's a couple time zones away. I'm now living in El Paso, TX (funny to hear from "1 lucky Texan") and the only game in town Subaru-wise is Crawford Subaru. Next closest dealerships are in Albuquerque, about 4-5 hours north of here.

Not sure what my angle should be, but I'll definitely lose some leverage in the "good faith" department since it is not the dealership I bought the car from. It looks like there is a design flaw. Warranty or no warranty, solid steel bars should not snap clean whether there is 15 miles on the engine, or

200,000.

I appreciate your suggestion to look this up on that web site. This should certainly help.

-Mike

Reply to
Mike Hardiman

Your claim is with SOA - any dealership that would normally do any warranty work is fine - after all, if it were a recall, your local stealersh...uh dealership would be doing the work. But they are gonna have to get the OK from the zone rep. - just go camp out in the repair managers office til they set up a meeting or get the OK. Let 'em know there are are 'thousands' of folks reading about this on the internet waiting to see how they handle this. Show them the thread OR, better yet, have them type in the search themselves - very effective I bet. You might get the part free and just pay for the labor - or they might comp. the whole thing.

let us know OK?

Carl

1 Lucky texan

Mike Hardiman wrote:

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Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Doh - sorry about that - if it's in front, then it's the front sway bar :-) same deal with the repair/replace cost, though.

Reply to
David & Caroline

This is not restricted to your model. We have a 1998 Outback and have had THREE of the front stabilizer bars replaced -- at no cost -- in 4 years. After considerable discussion with our (excellent) local dealer, it was concluded that a somewhat sharper than average turn plus a steep driveway near home may be the culprit, or the place where the bar is stressed which then leads to failure. In other words, folks, there is something wrong with the Outback's front (at least) stabilizer bar design/manufacturing. This driveway is taken at a walking pace. Our last replacement has lasted a year now, but we enter the area at a different point to avoid the (problem) drive. Silly and very irritating for an "outdoor" AWD wagon.

Reply to
Lloyd LeBlanc

Yikes, hope that doesn't happen to too many people.

The good news is that the local subaru dealership talked to their regional rep and I'll be getting the new sway bar paid for by Subaru. I'll have to pay for labor, however, which should be around $35 according to the dealer.

I'm considering myself very lucky, but am a bit apprehensive after reading about head gasket failures at around 40k miles being another common problem...

-Mike

Reply to
Mike Hardiman

Just got back from the dealership and the total cost was, as promised, $35.00 for labor. That would be a half hour of labor, but I was waiting for a bit over an hour. Props to Crawford Subaru's Service Manager for getting the part "good willed" and coming through with the labor quote.

Thanks to the folks on this board as well.

-Mike

Reply to
Mike Hardiman

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