Outback broken stabilizer bar

[Mike Hardiman]

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.

http://www.vtphoto.com/tmp/bar_broken.jpg
http://www.vtphoto.com/tmp/bar_broken2.jpg
http://www.vtphoto.com/tmp/bar_unbroken.jpg

Thanks for any advice,
-Mike

 

[David & Caroline]

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 (<$100 for the WRX, so I imagine yours will be
similarly priced), and the endlinks look to be fine. It probably was a
defect of some sort, but I doubt the dealer will do much about it (you might
have had a shot with the dealership that sold you the car, but to any other
dealership, it's just another Subaru out of warranty...)

 

[Mike Hardiman]

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.

The rear sway bar is definitely part of the suspension, so it's not going

to
<snip>

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

Please. search for this on www.usmb.net - 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]

Just did a really quick search, as suggested:
http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7436&highlight=stabilizer+bar

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

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

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

 

[David & Caroline]

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

 

[Lloyd LeBlanc]

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.

 

[Mike Hardiman]

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

 

[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