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The weigh in on sway bars bushing "shimming" and control arm bushing sleeves to take up play in the rear bushings.
A sway bar can be omitted from a vehicle entirely and was sometimes an option! J body Cavaliers/Sunfires comes to mind. It is not a major safety issue, if the vehicle handles well enough with slop in a bushing set or if the links meet spec for play, but still rattle.
Adding electrical tape to a bar where the firewall/front subframe mounts hold a sway bar can help reduce clunking and help restore some function to a well worn or even corroded setup. It is a bandaid, but stands to reason that it is not a major safety issue.
If using some loops of Teflon tape on a bar stops the infamous squeak, then it is performing the same function that the white grease that ships and is directed for use with poly parts to metal, was intended to do.
Control arm bushings that get weak and whether from actual separation or just weakening of the joint, allow the control arm to move outside it engineered movement path, you have a dangerous situation!
Ever watch a wheel that feels like it is brakes locking it up at a front corner, as it rolls and then reduces speed as it is coming into a shop to be lifted? I've seen wheels "sway/shudder" and exhibit 2-4 inches of free play under these loaded circumstances It's unbelievably scary to think a vehicle will instantly exhibit almost zero caster on one corner just by hitting the brakes, when the opposite front wheel is still 2-3 degrees positive ! That is unsafe, and will cause a pull or worse. That fails minimum road worthy standards anywhere you go, I am sure.
Thank you for typing out the long explanation of my reasoning Tim, I didn't have the patience nor will to do so.
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seriously though, electrical tape on swaybars is a bad idea
Wrapping self vulcanizing rubber tape to take up slack in a rubber bushing on a
rear sway bar that sees very little load on a 17 year old car is not the end of the world. Would I do it on the front sway bar of my Colt? No. Would I use any kind of tape to take up slack on a control arm bushing? Definitely no.