rear sway for budget daily driver?

[funcrew]

I'm going through the suspension on my '88 sedan, replacing all the blown/rotted/fried/cracked/missing components and mildly upgrading at the same time. Car is a daily driver (and I'm talking major teenager taxi service stuff here) with occasional autocross use in SCCA STX class. Budget and comfort are my top priorities; cornering is desired, as long as it doesn't conflict with cushy & cheap. I'm very very old, so you 19 year old guys on coilovers and konis are on the opposite end of the cornering/comfort bell curve from me.

I inherited H&R sport springs from the PO. I'm going with KYB shocks, replacing every bushing and mount on the car with OEM rubber (voids filled with soft 60A urethane), 21mm front cabrio sway, Turner fixed front camber plates, and bottlecaps with 195-60-14 Azenis 615's that I got cheap. Might upgrade to 15X8 and 225-45-15 current-generation autoX tires at a later date if Mrs. Funcrew releases her stranglehold on the racing budget (fat chance).

So the missing piece is whether to upgrade from the anorexic OEM rear sway. I don't want to reinforce the trailing arms, so that limits rear sway size to something, I'm not sure where the line is, maybe 16mm? Stock bar is about the diameter of a coat hanger.

So should I try to source a larger rear bar, just keep the OEM and replace the rubber bits, or what? Anybody got one they want to sell cheap?

[jlevie]

With a 21mm front bar you'd need about a 17mm rear bar to balance the car, which would mean reinforcing the sway link pickup points. I have no idea where you could find such a sway bar for an E30. I think a better approach would be to install a 22/29mm sway bar set.

[nrubenstein]

Can we convince you to use different shocks?

[erik325i]

Just get an m3 rear bar. It is 14mm, which is 4mm thicker than stock if I recall correctly, but won't be too stiff or expensive.

Erik

[funcrew]

Can we convince you to use different shocks?

Absolutely. All it would require is Mrs. Funcrew's buy-in. Maybe you'd like to call her and try to explain the need.

Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?

[3bvert]

the 14 mm bars wiht the 21 up front make a nice combo for me

if yoru thinking of upgrading wheels and tires, then you must have some funds, Id ratehr put it into billy sports

not a 19 year olds advice, a grandpa's advice

[Lunner]

Standard E30 rear sways are 12mm, and M3's and some (all?) convertibles come with 14.5mm bars. So while that would be an upgrade that wouldn't require reinforcement, it would be a slight upgrade.

I also was budget minded when I went about upgrading my vert's suspension, and in addition to replacing all the rubber with oem rubber I used an addco 19mm rear bar (kept the standard 21mm front bar).

Addco bar with hardware ~ $140
TMS Trailing arm reinforcement ~ $30
Shop fee to weld it ~ $20

I ran that for 3,000 miles and loved it, but after losing my sway bar link I had to upgrade, for which I used ground control's adjustable links. So add $100,

And all together it's ~ $290, which was the cheapest route I could find, and I'm very happy with it.

Also Hai, first post.

[funcrew]

the 14 mm bars wiht the 21 up front make a nice combo for me

if yoru thinking of upgrading wheels and tires, then you must have some funds, Id rather put it into billy sports

not a 19 year olds advice, a grandpa's advice

I'm not sensing much KYB love around this place. The rears helped a lot, but only because the old shocks were toasted. I didn't know the 'vert rear bar was 14, I'll search the parts for sale forums and see if I can find one cheap.

Standard E30 rear sways are 12mm, and M3's and some (all?) convertibles come with 14.5mm bars. So while that would be an upgrade that wouldn't require reinforcement, it would be a slight upgrade.

I also was budget minded when I went about upgrading my vert's suspension, and in addition to replacing all the rubber with oem rubber I used an addco 19mm rear bar (kept the standard 21mm front bar).

Addco bar with hardware ~ $140
TMS Trailing arm reinforcement ~ $30
Shop fee to weld it ~ $20

I ran that for 3,000 miles and loved it, but after losing my sway bar link I had to upgrade, for which I used ground control's adjustable links. So add $100,

And all together it's ~ $290, which was the cheapest route I could find, and I'm very happy with it.

Also Hai, first post.

Welcome to the forum and congrats on a great first post, with useful content, and written in actual English. Well done, and rare.

[Lunner]

Just a note, according to this link:

http://www.e30ic.com/tips.htm

Only M technic non-m3's (and iX's) had the beefier rear sway, so just buying any standard convertible bar wouldn't mean it's a 14.5.

Just the same, I coulda sworn mine had a 14.5, but meh, it's gone now so I couldn't say for sure.

Good luck with the hunt.

[3bvert]

my 91 318 vert is 14 stock rear
not sure about the 325 verts, but assume they would be
but they might be hard to find, as many others rob them for the same reason
you could luck out though, and have someone that only robbed the front
take a caliper with you, no sence pulling off something that aint it