Rear Sway Bar Thread (stock springs and dampers)

GodSquadMandrake said:

Do the rear swaybar only. If anything you want to remove the fsb on a front wheel drive car. You have to remember that a swaybar doesn't increase your overall grip, all it does is transfer it around. Putting a bigger front swaybar on will decrease bodyroll at the expense of lifting the outside front tire in a corner. This is going to give you less grip in the front end, more in the rear, and less body roll. Essentially it'll feel tighter and maybe respond faster in a slalom but overall it'll be slower on an autox course for sure.
The reason you want to do a rear swaybar on a FWD car is because there is so little weight on the rear and the rear tires barely do anything to begin with. So it isn't a problem to sacrifice a little grip in the rear end because you are increasing the grip in the front end.
Pretty much everything you do to the suspension of a front wheel drive car is going to be working towards the goal of eliminating understeer. It's just basic tuning philosophy.

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Yes, I know you want to get rid of understeer, but to have that much roll in a car is still not that helpful. Because these sway bars also help control camber right? with the car not rolling as much, the tire is staying more flat. And the outside tire in a turn is a lot more important than the inside tire. So wouldnt it be better to have the outside tire more flat which should provide more grip right? See I thought of what you are thinking but then I also thought of this, so thats why I'm a ltl confused as to which way is the best way. The best test is to test it out on an auto x course, first with stock then a bigger FSB but thats not gonna happen. Well at least I cant since I'm not auto'xing yet.

OK Well I've not had time to throw together a full post.

But for short, awesome. I still have more body roll than I'd like, but it's a HUGE change in the handling. I'm actually able to steer with the right foot in some corners that I used to push the whole way.

Looks like I'm probably in the market for some springs with a higher springrate and bilstein sports. But not for now, I'm going back to school and can't afford such things.

I'll make a full writeup with my impressions in a more detailed fashion very soon

Glad to hear it autobahn. The RSB is a great mod.
GTICrazy90 yeah I hear you on having to test it out. I've done everything from 28mm in the front to nothing and the same on the rear so I've just developed my own personal preference. Some people just love having big bars on the front and rear because it makes the cornering super flat, and lightning quick lane changes/slalom.

Glad to hear it autobahn. The RSB is a great mod.
GTICrazy90 yeah I hear you on having to test it out. I've done everything from 28mm in the front to nothing and the same on the rear so I've just developed my own personal preference. Some people just love having big bars on the front and rear because it makes the cornering super flat, and lightning quick lane changes/slalom.

GodSquadMandrake said:

Glad to hear it autobahn. The RSB is a great mod.
GTICrazy90 yeah I hear you on having to test it out. I've done everything from 28mm in the front to nothing and the same on the rear so I've just developed my own personal preference. Some people just love having big bars on the front and rear because it makes the cornering super flat, and lightning quick lane changes/slalom.

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I see, yea it is probably a preference on what the driver likes since no driver's the same. I would not want to go big in the front but a little more width I would like to try out.

^
Yep that's why adjustable swaybars are the best because you can tune it to exactly what you want.

I had the H&R 24mm for 2 years and now I have the BSH RSB still on stock endlinks. I noticed the difference between the two autox'ing. The H&R does make less noise though, but the slight noise is worth the extra performance of the BSH IMO. And I'm not saying everyone will have noise using the BSH. Mine just happens to (I think it's the endlinks).

So a f ew weeks ago, I installed the H&R 24mm RSB.

WOW. Amazing. handling went through the roof. Turn in was sharper, mid corner required no steering correction, and off ramps were my playground.

A week after, i noticed some noise comming from the back... went through all the bolts again, tightened it all, very tight, and noise gone.

Now 3 weeks later, the noise is terrible, every bump in the rear it squeaks/creaks. I don't know what the heck it is! I tightened the endlinks and they are fine! Could it be the bushings???

HELP!

Mariach said:

So a f ew weeks ago, I installed the H&R 24mm RSB.

WOW. Amazing. handling went through the roof. Turn in was sharper, mid corner required no steering correction, and off ramps were my playground.

A week after, i noticed some noise comming from the back... went through all the bolts again, tightened it all, very tight, and noise gone.

Now 3 weeks later, the noise is terrible, every bump in the rear it squeaks/creaks. I don't know what the heck it is! I tightened the endlinks and they are fine! Could it be the bushings???

HELP!

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Gota be the bushings. Only other squeaking or creaking I can think of is the subframe making noise. That wouldnt happen though unless you were going into a driveway or over a large speedbump or whatever.

Eevn though H&R says they should not make any noise???

Mariach said:

Eevn though H&R says they should not make any noise???

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they should make no noise.

are you sure everything is torqued to spec?

Mariach said:

So a f ew weeks ago, I installed the H&R 24mm RSB.

WOW. Amazing. handling went through the roof. Turn in was sharper, mid corner required no steering correction, and off ramps were my playground.

A week after, i noticed some noise comming from the back... went through all the bolts again, tightened it all, very tight, and noise gone.

Now 3 weeks later, the noise is terrible, every bump in the rear it squeaks/creaks. I don't know what the heck it is! I tightened the endlinks and they are fine! Could it be the bushings???

HELP!

Click to expand...

I had this issue with my subaru a few years back, I bought teflon tape and wrapped it around the swaybar where the bushing goes and voila no more noise, stayed like that for 2 years.

Mariach said:

So a f ew weeks ago, I installed the H&R 24mm RSB.

WOW. Amazing. handling went through the roof. Turn in was sharper, mid corner required no steering correction, and off ramps were my playground.

A week after, i noticed some noise comming from the back... went through all the bolts again, tightened it all, very tight, and noise gone.

Now 3 weeks later, the noise is terrible, every bump in the rear it squeaks/creaks. I don't know what the heck it is! I tightened the endlinks and they are fine! Could it be the bushings???

HELP!

Click to expand...

You tightened the brackets with the triple square bolts too? Did you use thread lock on the bolts? I had that same bar for 2 years and at least 40k and I never had any noises for it. Now I have the BSH 27mm RSB and issues would be an understatement. I love the performance it offers over the 24 H&R, but I sort of regret getting rid of the H&R bar.

Right now I have clunking issues from my BSH again and I think it's those bolts that are loose. I had to put the stock brackets over the BSH bushings because one of the BSH ones snapped, and I didn't thread lock the bolts when I put them back on. That is weird though, squeaks/creaks are usually related to the bushing like Mark and others said.

I did not thread lock...nor did I torque to spec... I just went as tight as I could by hand....

What are the torque specs? I heard 35ft-lb?

Here's my formula for squeak free:

1. Use silicon based grease, I'm using a moly grease, bars are quiet. I'm not sure lithium based is long term compatible with poly. Probably OK, but silicon is quiet.

2. When you install either front or rear bar, install and tighten the mounting brackets first, do not install the end links yet. After you install and tighten the mounting brackets, make sure the bar still moves up and down smoothly without a lot of friction. If the bar starts to bind up as you tighten the brackets, something is wrong - the bar will be guaranteed to squeak or groan. You may have to loosen brackets a bit and adjust them. Then when bar still moves fine with bracket bolts tight, attach and tighten the end links - you will not squeak. If you can't get the bar to move smoothly, the poly bearings were possibly not cut right, you may need to send them back.

3. You should also tighten the end links at ride height. I do that by putting car on jack stands and using jack on each side to push suspension up until the car just raises off the stands - then tighten.

All the above advise about just rear bar alone is half right, I'm a total convert to both, car handles MUCH better with matching front bar. Its a pain to install the front, but well worth it. I've recently install both front and rear Hotchkis 27mm bars - its freakin awesome. I would also not bother with bars that don't come with grease fittings, although its sounds like the H&R bars stay quiet.