Hi all,

I’ve been wanting to tackle this one for a while and thought what better than a 39 degree day in the garage. My 2007 RRS TDV8 has had that classic light front-end knock over uneven roads. I’ve already done the lower control arms and that fixed the other classic knock.

I’ve searched but wasn’t able to find many how-to’s on this job, I had some time so decided just to get into it. The workshop manual of course stipulates a special tool which, of course, I don’t have.

1. Raise and support vehicle. Place your stands as far rearward as you can (but forward of half way, obviously) so you’ve got wiggle room without hitting your head on them.
2. Remove wheels.
3. Undo bottom sway bar link nuts so the sway bar is free to move. You may need a 7mm hex to stop the joint from spinning.

I started on what I perceived to be the easy side (right, drivers side in Aus). Bolts are all 15mm. I was prepared with a ratchet spanner, offset ring spanner, socket and a couple of open ended spanners, one of which had a very convenient 15-20deg offset. I needed to use another ring spanner at times to do the old leverage trick where room was an issue (quite often).

4. For the front bolt, swing the sway bar up all the way, this gets all the ACE lines out of the way and you can get a socket on the bolt. I found if you approach this one from the front, there’s enough room to get enough swing out of the ratchet. Once this one is out, swing the sway bar down so you can get at the middle bolt.
5. Middle bolt is easiest to get at from the wheel arch, with the ratchet and socket to break it, then the ratchet spanner.
6. Rear bolt is a bit of a pain. Best access is from the rear, over the crossmember but even then there’s not much room to swing, slow and steady.

Push up the bracket, enough to get the old bushing out. I eventually jimmied it around enough to remove completely and clean it up.

Over to the left side.

7. Support the front diff with a suitable jack. I used a bottle jack as it had the smallest profile to not get caught on other bits as I raised it. Remove the 3 front diff support bolts (24mm I think?!) and raise the diff as far as you can which will only be around 3cm. This is required to be able to remove the middle bolt of the left sway bar bracket.
8. Front bolt is accessible from the wheel arch with the ratchet spanner. You could also attack it from other side (middle of engine bay).
9. Middle bolt I found the easiest. You can get at it from the front as there are no ACE pipes in the way. The only concern is if you use the ratchet spanner, make sure you stop early enough to not get yourself stuck between bolt and driveshaft. Recommend to keep a finger on top as you drive it out to mitigate against this.

At this point I spent a good 45 minutes agonising over the rear bolt, not sure why it was so much more difficult than the right side. But it doesn’t have to be. I figured it out eventually

10. Once you have the front and middle bolts out, remove the crossmember! This gives you ample access from the front, to the rear bolt with the ratchet spanner.

With all bolts out, remove the old bushing, clean up the sway bar where required and fit the new bushings. The bushing split faces forward.

Support diff..


Remove support bolts x3..


After removing crossmember..


Leaves plenty of room to access rear bolt..


Old bushings and brackets out..


Took me about 5 hours all up but hopefully with the above directions it’s a little quicker. Or if you’re really lucky you’ll have the special tool! 2007 L320 RRS TDV8

That's a great write up, I will no doubt have to do this at some point in the future.

Many thanks

Craig 2010 RRS 3.6 TDV8 HSE Galway Green

Just had my mate do mine

Lrstaylor, did you undo a driveshaft ?

Many thanks

Craig 2010 RRS 3.6 TDV8 HSE Galway Green

Yep that's the last picture makes it much easier

Ah right, was that instead of lifting the diff as in ellzeez's description ?

Many thanks

Craig 2010 RRS 3.6 TDV8 HSE Galway Green

Yep soooomuch easier took a couple of hours both sides if that

That's great, thanks, much appreciated

Many thanks

Craig 2010 RRS 3.6 TDV8 HSE Galway Green