Sway Bar Upgrade

[Dalejandrino]

I'm looking into buying a 26mm front sway bar. The guy who's selling it to me doesn't know the milage or the brand of the sway bar, so if anyone has an idea of what brand it is please let me know.

Also it looks like it has a little wear on it but I think it look pretty good for what it's worth. He selling it to me for $100.

He says I have to buy new bushing and stronger links for it. I found 26mm bushings on amazon for about $12, but I still need to get stronger links so that it doesn't tear through my car when I taking a corner hard.

What brand of type of links would you guys recommend for this sway bar?





Also, he has an eibach sway bar set for $200 which includes the rear and the front sway bar. The rear is 22mm, but he doesn't know the size of the front sway bar.

Let me know what you guys think. Any advice would help thanks.

[StereoInstaller1]

26mm is HUGE for street use

[Dalejandrino]

26mm is HUGE for street use

Do you think it would be too much? should I go with the eibach set?

[StereoInstaller1]

Depends on your taste, lots of guys do 26mm

[Bearmw]

Is that bar hollow?

[Dalejandrino]

yeah.

[acolella76]

Yeah 26mm is fucking huge... A little overkill in my opinion. But hey, if that's what you want go for it.

[Jaxx_]

are you going to run the 26mm bar with nothing else? understeer city!

[Dalejandrino]

are you going to run the 26mm bar with nothing else? understeer city!

The 26 mm is the only thing I can afford right now haha. I have the stock sway bar in the back. Would it still cause a lot of understeer?

[jlevie]

Yep, the car will understeer a lot. For good handling the sways need to be matched up with the springs. For a spring set with rates close to those of H&R race 22/19mm sways are about right. With less spring rates the stock sways are about right (the rear bar could be just a bit bigger), though you can use 22/19mm sways.

That bar is way huge and you'll have to find a rear bar of the right size, which could be a challenge.

[StereoInstaller1]

My next setup (DD status not racecar) will use cabby sways front and rear with Energy urethane bushings on custom mounts and strut mounted end links from an E34.

I will reposition the rear bar a bit, it seriously needs some geometry correction at my ride height.

I am going to weld the tabs onto the strut tubes with the fenders off and the car on the ground and weighted, the sway bars will be 100% parallel to the ground at static height and no preload at all.

I want the sway bar to just gradually control the mass, not let the car flop on the springs until all of the sudden its like "Hey, thats the swaybar working" like every single E30 I have ever driven does.

So, in my case, the goal of the sways is to match my style of driving, which is "Aggressive Street"...Doriftos and donuts on the occasional parking lot, I double the posted onramp speeds all the time and occasionally triple them...but I also demand the car be drivable in heavy 3MPH stop and go traffic. I do drive aggressively, but I like to think I am careful about it. My goal is better sways, not just bigger.

EDIT: I should point out, in light of Jims post, that the springs are B+G and pretty soft, so the cabby sways and urethane just might be overkill, but only because I am fixing the geometry too. I want a very neutral feel to the car, and the stereo is even part of that. I don't care if the car is light or not, I want it to be neutral. It ain't a rocket, it's a daily driver.

[Dalejandrino]

what set up would you guys recommend for me? I have the stock sways with koni shocks and the pro-kit eibach springs.

I have almost no knowledge on sway bars. haha

I think we have similar goals StereoInstaller1. I'm looking for something fairly similar to what you are.

[E30_fiend]

That sway bar is a 25mm, not 26. The paint is what adds the extra mm. It's an Ireland Engineering bar.

And as for your springs, get H&R race or IE3's. Eibach pro kit is WAY too soft.


Taylor

[Paradox]

sorta off topic but I think its still a valid question....so if you run a smaller front sway bar or no sway bar in my case it creates oversteer?

[CabbE30]

sorta off topic but I think its still a valid question....so if you run a smaller front sway bar or no sway bar in my case it creates oversteer?

I do not recommend running no sway unless you have some really stiff springs. If you want more oversteer, upgrade your rear bar.