There was a new noise…the kind you hear pulling out of a parking lot and immediately think, “That wasn’t there yesterday.” For Nena Murphy in Greensboro, North Carolina, that sound followed what should have been the most boring errand of the week: a simple oil change. During the service, the mechanic flagged a so-called needed suspension repair on her Infiniti. 

That’s where the headache started.

Murphy keeps close tabs on her car, including maintenance and repair needs

She notices new smells, new vibrations, new noises. So when a mechanic at the shop told her during that oil change that her sway bar needed attention, she listened. The shop replaced the part. Then she drove off and heard something that didn’t belong.

The car sounded wrong. Murphy brought it back. The shop inspected it and told her nothing was wrong with their repair. More than once. And While the issue seemed dulled, a squeak stayed. All the while, Murphy stayed unconvinced.

“I know my car,” she said. And she wasn’t letting it go.

After repeated denials, Murphy reached out to WFMY News 2. She also took the car to a second repair shop for another opinion. The results turned the denials into a big ole forehead slap.

The second mechanic put the car on a lift and recorded a repair inspection from underneath

The footage showed several issues, including suspension concerns and leaks that the first shop apparently didn’t flag. Then, one mistake jumped off the screen.

One of the sway bar end links had been installed upside down.

The mechanic pointed it out clearly on video, explaining how the parts should sit and how they were actually installed. WFMY shared that video with the original shop. The response was fast. 

Murphy received a full refund of about $800. Once the part was installed correctly, the noise disappeared.

What the sway bar and its end links actually do

A sway bar, also called a stabilizer bar or anti-sway bar, connects the left and right sides of your suspension. There are small rubber bushings that wrap around it, too. The bar helps reduce body rock when you turn.

The sway bar links are short rods that connect the sway bar to the suspension components at each wheel. You’ll find them underneath the car, near the wheels, bolted vertically or at a slight angle. They tend to make a tinny, rattle-knock sound when they’re worn out, similar to a loose shopping cart wheel.

The repair for any of these components usually involves lifting the vehicle, removing the old links, bushings, and bar (if applicable, keep reading for my note on this part), and installing new hardware with proper torque. Oh, and proper orientation matters. A lot.

According to RepairPal data for 2025, sway bar link replacement typically runs less than $200 per pair, including labor. Depending on where you live, though, I think that estimate might be slightly low. I’d guess under $300 total.

You can expect to more than double that estimate if the whole bar is needed, which brings me to my personal concern with the repair in the first place…

I worked the front counter of a repair facility for many years. We replaced thousands of bad sway bar links and bushings. When it came to the bar itself, though, unless there’d been an accident, the car was completely rusted underneath, or there was some other odd problem, we really didn’t need to replace many bars themselves. An $800 estimate, then, seems fishy to me.

Maybe the bar really was needed, I don’t know. And it’s an Infiniti, here, so the bar assembly is pricier than, say, a Honda.

But if all they replaced were the links, $800 is just…wow.

In any case, the big forehead slap hopefully resets the first shop’s inspection and repair processes. And if they can’t install a sway bar link right side up, I’d wonder about their oil changes, too.