27 replies to this topic

[Jardon]

It may be too soft up front once grip and speed increases. I run 5kg front springs and 10kg rears. If it is too sloppy I could run 6kg fronts and still maintain the traction friendly independence. Definitely in suck-it-and-see territory but on track I was constantly trying to soften the front end to prevent understeer. I run 2.5 degrees negative camber on track as the BC Coilovers have adjustable top mounts - tyre year is neutral even with my unskilled abusive driving style.

[98t5M]

Just for fun I'll try this out on my next 1/4mile track day and let you guys know if it really makes a difference in straight line traction.

[NEU]

I personally love the 25mm IPD front swaybars and combined with stiff springs I can see where you FWD guys will lose some traction, but for me with AWD it's not a problem. I've wondered what the 28mm front bar would be like, but I'd have to increase the bar in the rear for sure. If I could get a bigger rear bar like 25mm vs IPD 22mm I'd be very happy, I've even thought about using double bars in the rear.

I've driven mine with a broken front swaybar endlink and it rolled too much for my taste and I've got TME springs with Koni Sports set to full stiff. I'd never run without a front bar and would only run the stock bar if I were on very stiff springs, but I would think that would just be awful on anything but smooth as glass roads. Endlinks are a key to this puzzle too, stock ones flex too much for me, I should be making some heavy duty adjustable ones soon and will be making a custom set up for the rear AWD setup to remove the rubber bushing and make it a solid connection.

To the OP you could try decreasing your spring rate and running the bigger swaybar with stock endlinks. That may give you back some movement (flex) to maintain traction.

[550]

I'm running stock front, and 25mm rear sway. Car handles awesome with the KW's like this.

Edited by 550, 10 January 2012 - 12:46 PM.

[Jardon]

I think what I'm learning from these posts (thanks all) is how diverse our set ups are and how different our opinions are given the same set up!!. For me ride quality is great with the current spring/damper settings and certainly was worse with the 25mm front bar - jittery is how I would describe it. I have been running the BC Coilovers for around 8 months and I disconnected the front roll bar 1 month ago. Before the BC's I had Eibach prokit 30mm lowering springs with Koni FSD's and that was the worst of all worlds - unstable at speed/hard braking and bouncy (under damped I suspect) on rougher surfaces at low speeds.

I will get a price for the UR 25mm rear bar but I need to see how the current set up perfoms when road surface conditions improve. I have notices as NEU has that the rear blue IPD bushes are very soft and if I ramp up one side only (load the bar heavily) they distort a lot - I wonder how much slop this creates on the road but it must surely be tighter and more effective at preventing roll with more robust bushes.

[NEU]

Jardon, on 10 January 2012 - 01:16 PM, said:

I have notices as NEU has that the rear blue IPD bushes are very soft and if I ramp up one side only (load the bar heavily) they distort a lot - I wonder how much slop this creates on the road but it must surely be tighter and more effective at preventing roll with more robust bushes.

Yes the IPD blue bushings are very soft! I had their poly top mount engine mount and it turned to jelly! I notice that the front sway bar used red poly vs there soft blue I have on the rear bars and endlinks. Upgrading to another companies poly bushings is advisable if you can. Or remove the bushing and make it a hard mount like for the endlinksl.

[Gideon35T]

What about homemade bushings? I dont remember the design of the sway bar bushings but I've made misc types of bushings out of hockey pucks. Easy to shape, very stiff, cheap, and last forever. I'm about to make a whole set for the SR20DE motor mounts in my G20.

[NEU]

For the bar you can use any universal poly mounts like these from Energy Suspensions.