Chrysler knew they had an issue with the third-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee. Vehicles sold with a V8 were absolutely eating stabilizer bar bushings, especially once the Hemi engine was offered as an option. Chrysler attempted to rectify this situation on their subsequent generations of Jeep Grand Cherokees by creating a one-piece stabilizer bar with the brackets and bushings bonded to the bar.

However, while bushings are inherently maintenance parts on most vehicles, these Chrysler products require special attention. They’re known for taking a beating, which is not surprising, as some variants can test the vehicle’s pavement operating envelope, and others are meant to be tortured offroad by willing owners. These factors mean the stabilizer bar and bushings work very hard, necessitating durable bushings. Chrysler tried to address the problem their way by making the bar forged and super strong, in addition to bonding the bushings to the bar and making them captive by swaging the halves of the brackets together.

Swaged bracket prevents removal

Swaged bracket prevents removal, Chrysler OE.

However, in our research we found that this solution did not properly resolve the problem. That’s because the bushings will likely fail long before the bar needs to be replaced. The way the OE is designed, the entire stabilizer bar assembly needs to be replaced just to replace the consumable rubber items. That’s an expensive and time-consuming two-hour job just to replace worn bushings!

Suspension Sway Bar Bracket Kit

928-581

928-581: Jeep Grand Cherokee 2021-16, Jeep Grand Cherokee WK 2022

With all this in mind, we created our 928-581 stabilizer bar bracket and bushing kit for 2016 to 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokees with a 39mm diameter bar. This kit allows you to revert to a conventional, non-bonded bushing setup and just replace the failed bushings and brackets on the front stabilizer bar for these vehicles. Simply cut the old bushings and brackets, wire-wheel the bar and paint, and then reinstall. For starters, our kit is a fraction of the cost of the OE’s full assembly. In addition, if the bushings need to be replaced again in the future, our kit allows you to just replace those failed parts again in an estimated half-hour, without having to take a full two hours to replace the full assembly. We also have future SKUs on the way for different year ranges and bar sizes, bringing our OE FIX to more applications.

Like many of our OE FIX parts, our 928-581 stabilizer bar bracket and bushing kit is simply reverting Chrysler’s design to a more traditional design where the bracket and bushings are replaceable. Instead of using a bad joke that doesn’t work, why not employ an old design that does?