What are these black plastic half-circles on my 23mm sway bar?

Disassembling a lot today to get down to the subframe. Took off the 23mm sway bar bushings and mounts and behind there on the bar are these black plastic half circle do-dads. They almost feel/sound like ceramic. What the heck are these? Old poly bushing mount parts or something? 10mm socket for scale. I can't find anything in the Bentley about them so I'm assuming its just old crap that got pushed back onto the bar at some point? I took off rubber bushings/mounts that were in need of service.

They almost look like the remains of the inner race of a sealed wheel bearing. Were they just sitting on the frame or were they installed somewhere?

Nero Morg said:

They almost look like the remains of the inner race of a sealed wheel bearing. Were they just sitting on the frame or were they installed somewhere?

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They were around the sway bar towards the center of the vehicle right next to the installed rubber bushing/mount. They fit perfectly around the sway bar. They're not installed really, just on there. I plucked them off of it.

Got the failed skidplate rivnuts out of the subframe too today. All kinds of discoveries.

Looks to me like you found a previous iteration of the sway bar bushing. Hardened with age, and finally cracked into quarters. They were already in half - noted by the fat side and then cracked halfway to the other side of the bushing.

Cheers,

PH

I was junkyarding because my existing sway bar is super rusty and had some flats worn into it and I wanted a better condition one. I found several sway bars all with the same black round thing around them right behind the bushing/mount, but some were intact and really on there.

I then found an ECS tuning link for a genuine 23mm sway bar and you can see them pictured here. I think these are stops on the sway bar either for install to locate the busing/mount or to prevent left/right movement of the bar while driving.

Anyone know if these are necessary, as in, if your sway bar has these cracked off, it could be bad? Some other sway bars don't have these, but they have a different bend style where there isn't a straight run of rod right behind the bushing. Could my bar jump left/right without them?


edit: Found further info, apparently lateral bar movement is possible and negates the stabilizer bar's effect. The stops on the factory swaybar are an integrated part of it. An aftermarket solution exists here


edit2: Aftermarket stops DO NOT FIT this bar, do not buy them. Clearance on the subframe is too tight for anything else, but the integrated factory original stops. I had to go to a few more junkyards before I found a complete, intact sway bar on an '06 new beetle ($15). Many bars will have no rust, but the stops are starting to separate in half when you take it off and look. Some have 1 stop left that looks great, but the other has fallen off. My car feels great now that everything is on there and fully functional. I wonder how many people are driving around without the sway stops and whether it matters or not?