05 STS front and rear anti-roll bar bushing replacement

[kevm14]

All pumped up from the trans fluid, I decided to tackle another hopefully satisfying job: the front and rear anti-roll bar bushings. Both I think were stretched out which is about right for the mileage/age.

I started with the rear just to give myself a little reward after finishing the trans stuff.

Damn, is that ever easy. I swear it was like 10 minutes.

I sprayed some silicone lube on the bushings and bar. Install so the slit is facing forward. Really nothing else to it.

Oh, but the front. THE FRONT. It was. The worst. Ever. EVER. I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant because it was a little tricky on the CTS-V. But I was not prepared for how much this sucked.

Get a load of this.

Closer.

Can you see the problem yet? Maybe this will help.

So here's the deal. The rear bolt wasn't that bad. A little tight but a regular 18mm socket worked fine. But the front bolt. Oh my god the front bolt. I have no idea what GM was thinking with this gem. Not only was it tight as hell in general, but there are FIVE lines in the way. Three of which are brake lines and those are, yup, directly over the bolt (???????????). The other two are some kind of hose...P/S maybe.

I was fighting with this for hours. Anyway, I ended up prying all 3 brake lines out of the way with a pry bar. Yeah I wasn't thrilled about it either but I had to do it. Maybe if this engine bay wasn't filled top to bottom with V8 and accessories, I could have gotten it from the top. As it was the A/C compressor was in the way and frankly I think the body was, too. After prying the brake lines away, it was still an unbelievable struggle to loosen that bolt. Just jamming the socket and ratchet in there while I tried different combinations of sockets and extensions. After breaking it loose, I was just able to use a U-joint to back it out the rest of the way but I'm telling you - I could barely even get my hand in there to get the socket off the bolt. Just unreal.

The manual said to disconnect the end links but I was not about to deal with that. There was no need anyway. Best approach is do both sides so you can flop the bar around as necessary.

How was the other side? Not as bad but still bad. Rear bolt, again, not terrible. Front bolt....no brake lines or other lines but....wiring harness!! Yup, a big ole' wiring harness in split loom was in the way but not OVER the bolt this time. Again, I could barely get my hand in there to drop the bolt into the hole when I put the new bushing in. Soooo tight.

This freaking job totally kicked my ass. I mean honestly...it was awful. Right up there with the power steering pump in the SRX. Though that took even longer and was even worse, but same type of thing. I think anything near the engine bay on a Sigma Northstar car is just a PITA no matter what. May be worth mentioning that I did not perceive the AWD to be in the way. Unless the bar mounting location is different in the RWD.

Oh, one thing to mention: I checked all end links while I had the bushings out and the bar was free. None seemed loose and the tightening I did on the left front upper seemed to be holding. FSM says those take 81 lb-ft. Damn. I mean I think I actually did that so that's good. Good thing, too - the dealer wanted like $92 each for front end links. Uhh...no thanks. The rears were priced properly at least. I did not buy any.

Road test: car feels great. I may have heard a clunk once but it is different and I'll figure it out some other time. It rides nice and tight and with the smooth shifting trans, it was not hard to picture this as a new car.

[kevm14]

This freaking job totally kicked my ass. I mean honestly...it was awful. Right up there with the power steering pump in the SRX. Though that took even longer and was even worse, but same type of thing. I think anything near the engine bay on a Sigma Northstar car is just a PITA no matter what. May be worth mentioning that I did not perceive the AWD to be in the way. Unless the bar mounting location is different in the RWD.

Actually I had a similar experience doing the stainless braided brake lines on my CTS-V. Access to the flare nuts was similarly crammed in a small space and of course I also had trouble getting them tight enough to not leak. These cars can be a pain to work on. True story.

[kevm14]

Drove car again today and there was no clunking I could detect. It's lucky I guess that the end links don't require replacement at this time.

This car is a pleasure to drive (not a pleasure to work on). Someday I will have to put Bob behind the wheel. I wonder if I could go as far as to say it drives like a distant relative to the CTS V-sport, which I have never driven.