Hey guys, first time on here, what's up?
2017 Lexus ct200h
So about 6 months back mom called n said something was hanging off underneath the bottom of her car an wanted me to come look at it, thankfully she knew what she saw didn't look right. I go an check it out, an come to see that the actual front sway bar, passenger, end literally snapped off and was just hanging on by the end link itself. So at that moment in time all I was able to do was just disconnect the end link. Since then she's just been driving on it like this, and there is a couple other problems that have might have spurred from this, one is that is will veer right pretty hard randomly when going over 55-60, and the other one is 1 hard clunk or solid sounding tick when starting from a stop. Pretty sure that's the wheel bearing, but we replaced that about year n half or so ago, but this broken sway bar issue might have caused it to go bad again. Mom is about 65yrs old and has the same driving skills as someone with a mental handicap, never drives over the speed limit but doesn't pay attention to anything she might run over, curbs,potholes, debris, roadkill, animals or people.
​​​​​
Haven't bought a replacement oe part yet, stepdad is wanting to see if we can drill/tap both snapped ends to put a long enough stud on the inside. Once it's Jerry rigged back together, weld all around the area where it snapped... I don't know what to think about that, but we're just having to do it since mom can't wait 5 to 7 days without a car. if it dont work she might just be SOL for a week till a new one comes in. gonna try to re use the end links, but will jus get new ones if there no good.
Here are some pics to check out.
If anyone has any opinions or thoughts, I would love to hear them. Otherwise check this out for some good humor... Lol

 

Don't jerry rig that. just look for a used one on ebay. even brand new from the dealer shouldn't be much. the front may share with the prius/scion TC anyway so the parts are likely readily available cheap.

If the car is veering, obviously check alignment. most shops should check for free.

 

*voice of professor Farnsworth*
Good news everyone!!!

So I did a quick search an read up of how to replace the front LCA's once I realized the pass. Bolt won't come out due to the oil filter housing being in the way. Forcing me to decide between 2 laborious options. either drop the sub frame or zip the mounts an lift the motor so ever many inches. An as u see I chose the first.
I live in mn, msp area, ****ty roads, salty hwys. Rust is a way of life around here.
A few bolts were a lil sticky but came out eventually, 1/2" 28v Milwaukee impact worked very well. Only 1 bolt was trying to see fit to have permanent residency, all the rest came out just fine, no stripped heads.
the 1 bolt that was giving me problems, the one you can see in the picture, would just spin and not back out. I don't know if the nut on the other side is welded on and ended up breaking sometime ago or what because we ended up having to cut into the subframe just to be able to reach the nut. After that came off it was still very difficult to remove and would just spin inside the metal sleeve of the bushing. We ended up using a oxy torch try and cut it out but looks like it just got hot enough that the big pry bar finally was able to wedge it out, the metal sleeve wasn't cut into at all.
*We did leave sub frame w/ the window we made, didn't have a welder here to glue somthing back on. Pretty sure it's gonna be fine* lmk if not.
Oh well, we have the new OE replacement LCA anyways plus new bolt/nut.









Also we did find the sway bar that was lost somewhere in my garage, so mom will have a car tomorrow!
Re assemble sub frame w/ the new stuff, line it back up in position best I can, start the thread on all the bolts, double check, set torq wrench to tight enough, get done.

 

Yikes, looks like a lot of work. So did rust play a role in the breakage? Thanks for sharing the photos

 

I wouldn't be comfortable with the cut subframe, primarily cause it's responsible for managing front crash energy. How that particular hole you cut affects the subframe in a crash I don't know but yeah. Also rust. did you at least spray it with something? I'm not so sure it would pass inspection in the future and you should disclose to the next buyer that the subframe was cut.

replacements are cheap on ebay.

 

In my opinion, I don't think rust was the cause of the breakage, but it did make this way more work than it should have been originally. I don't know if Lexus welds the nut or it's held in place by some clip? Idk, poor design I guess.

 

N ya def copper anne-sieze the bolts when I put em back in. N as far as the sub frame, ya I would agree with a statement like that, but it's def way too small to cause more of a drastic difference if the car were to get in an accident than if it were uncut, I think. Also what's inspection? Mn hasn't had such non sense since before I was born...