Car Collector Corner By Greg Zyla Seeking help for broken sway barsQ: Greg, I own a 2002 Chevy Avalanche and have just experienced a rear broken sway bar. I have priced the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) part, but am wondering if an aftermarket brand would be a better way to go. Thanks much and I enjoy your interesting car and truck columns. Brad L., Ohio.A: Brad, you are now the second reader who has written about breaking a rear sway bar on a Chevy Avalanche. You are also correct in your assumption that looking at an aftermarket brand may be a better choice. I recommend Eibach Springs as the company you want to check out for a much better sway bar kit. This company produces many parts, most notably its performance springs, but they also make some fine anti-roll sway bar kits, and its sway bar business is booming. You can check all of Eibach’s suspension kits, suspension springs, engine valve springs, industrial and other offerings for cars, trucks, snowmobiles, motorcycles and more on its Internet home page on at www.eibach.com. Additionally, I also want to point out that Eibach’s rear sway bars, which I’ve seen in person at the Performance Racing Industry trade shows, are very strong solid units, unlike the real tubular (hollow) units that came on the Avalanche from the factory. This could be the reason the rear sway bar broke under stress after years of use. Eibach, however, does manufacture beefier tubular sway bars for the larger bardiameter applications that need some weight reduction, and for the Avalanche in question, the front bar is tubular, while the rear is solid. Also, check out what an Eibach suspension kit did for a Ford F-150, not only helping handling but also improving gas mileage at http://eibach.com/cgi-bin/start.exe/eibach/index.html?entry=y&thid=122). Finally, and quite the coincidence, one of my mechanic friends recently broke a rear sway bar on his Chevy Avalanche, and he’s installing an Eibach front and rear sway bar anti-roll kit, which we’ll report on it in a future column. Thanks for your letter, and if you don’t have internet, contact Eibach at 1-800-507-2338 for more information and a dealer near you.(Greg Zyla writes regularly for Auto Roundup publications. Contact him at 303 Roosevelt St., Sayre, Pa. 18840 or email him at extramile_2000@yahoo.com.
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