Rear sway bar mount reinforcement necessity ?

[Simon S]

Street-driven 318is lowered on Tokico springs with Bilstein Sports.
Stock 20mm front bar and 12mm rear bar.
I’ve acquired a 14.5mm OE (cabrio/M3) rear bar and would like to install it as a budget upgrade.

A big part of why I want to do this is because Purcell notes that European 318is models were equipped with the bigger 14.5mm bar.

After doing some research – it seems like 16mm is the approximate bar diameter that starts breaking mounts..

Is a Turner/IE/VAC mount reinforcement kit really needed for an OE bar?

Thanks for any input.

[jlevie]

It won't hurt to install the reinforcements, but I don't think they are required for that bar.

[Dominic49]

soft springs plus upgraded bars is what cause sway bar mounts to break

[rThor432]

It's never a bad idea to do the reinforcement upgrade while you are in there. Personally, even with a stock bar it would give me peace-of-mind to know that a common failure point has been strengthened. Turners reinforcements for the rear swaybar mounts are very nice, by the way.

[Lunner]

I have a very similar question, sorry if this is a thread hijack, but maybe it won't be.

I have a cabrio, and I'm running a 19mm sway and Vogtland M3 Club Spec Springs (fairly stiff I believe) in the rear. I'm also using GC adjustable links, which I've extended pretty much all the way out. (I wasn't sure exactly how to adjust them, I really just wanted a stronger than oe link).

I've done the triangle shaped welded trailing arm reinforcement, but I haven't done the reinforcement for the mounting bracket to the body of the car. On the convertibles that part of the trunk is inaccessible, so I'd have to cut in or something to get at it.

So my question is, for a never tracked car with that setup, is it sufficient to reinforce just the trailing arm side of the equation, and leave the mounting points alone?

Thanks, and sorry if this doesn't help the op.

-Brett

[rThor432]

That setup will put a lot of stress on the bushing mount area.. 19mm isn't huge, but I wouldn't count on it lasting forever..

[erik325i]

Simon, you shouldn't have to add the reinforcements for the m3 rear bar. It would be nice to have, but I have never seen a stock m3 tear out the swaybar mounts.

Brett, in your convertible you should be fine doing just the trailing arm reinforcements. Reinforcing the point where it attaches to the body is nice, but that is a far less common failure point. Most swaybar kits do not come with any reinforcement for that area.

Erik

[Simon S]

Thanks all for input. Much appreciated.