Here you can find information regarding repairs to the Chevy Sonic rear end system. These repairs include the
rear control arms installation, the rear swaybar information and bolt torque specs,
the rear diff fluid change procedures, and the rear end watts system installation. All of these repairs and
procedures include in depth details on how to perform the replacement and or repair. They
also contain all the detailed torque specs needed for each bolt involved in the repair.
Rear Wheel Hub Installation
To install the new wheel hub you must first remove the old hub from the vehicle. To do this you must first
jack the vehicle up and remove the lugnuts and tire from the car.
Once the tire is off you will need to remove the bolts from the brake bracket on the steering
knuckle. These bolts will be rather tight so you may want to use an impact or find some
leverage. Once removed you can move the brake assembly out of the way and move the brake rotor from the vehicle.
Next you will have to remove the 4 bolts which hold the wheel hub onto the steering knuckle. These bolts can be accessed from the
rear of the knuckle and are best done by moving the steering wheel to aleviate more room. Once the 4 bolts have been removed you can then
remove the old wheel hub from the vehicle and place the new onto into the same location. Now hand tighten up the 4 bolts before torqueing them
down to 43 ft-lbs. After all 4 bolts have been torqued down we can then reassemble the braking system
and install the wheel before going on a test drive.
The rear suspension of the Chevy Sonic consists of shock suspension that has a single shock per side and then a series of control arms
that hold the rear wheel knuckle to the vehicle. To remove the rear shock you must first jack up the vehicle and remove the tire. From here we
can remove the lower bolt which holds the bottom of the shock to the knuckle. With that removed we can then remove the upper bolts which hold the
top of the shock to the vehicle frame. With both set of fasteners remove the shock can then be removed from the vehicle and replaced by the new part.
From here we can hand tighten up both the upper and lower bolts and then torque down the upper bolts to 43 ft-lbs and then the single lower bolt to
74 ft-lbs and then an additional 90 degree turn. From here we can then reinstall the tire and go for a test drive.
Chevy Sonic Rear Stabilizer Link Torque Spec : 33 ft-lbs
Rear Control Arms Torque Specs
On the Chevy Sonic rear suspension there is a series of control arms which help support the rear hub to the vehicle. The
rear control arms have 2 fastener locations being the frame of the vehicle and the knuckle itself. At both of the locations the bolts with nuts
need to be tightened down to 135 ft-lbs. I recommend using some blue or red loctite to ensure these bolts do not loosen up and cause problems.
Chevy Sonic Rear Control Arms Torque Specs : 135 ft-lbs
Rear Swaybar Installation
The rear swaybar on the Chevy Sonic consists of endlinks that connect the rear shock to the rear stabilizer bar. The endlinks have 2 joints which
connect through the use of nuts. These nuts need to be tightened down to 33 ft-lbs.
Chevy Sonic Rear Swaybar Endlinks Torque Specs : 33 ft-lbs
