HELP. Sway Bar Q's...
 

I've been reading threads on the forums regarding sway bars. Not really finding the answer to the question i'm wondering. I have a 2011 370 with koni yellows and swift springs. In my experience this upgrade was a MASSIVE change from stock. I've tweaked my dampening and got it dialed in to my liking (I'm not riding them all the way soft like I've seen a lot of people posting in the threads.) I'm not tracking the car, only spirited driving in the ozarks. Was wondering if upgrading sway bars is a noticeable difference in the car? A night and day handling difference. The car is already so well balanced from the factory, and i haven't yet made it worse. Just looking for some opinions from experience here. Was leaning towards stillen SIMPLY because i like the brand.

Thanks in advance

Many people like a stiff front bar and a softer rear. I went with an eibach front and kept the stock rear. I'm happy with it. I'm on stock springs and I feel like it helped a noticeable amount.

I feel like the general consensus around here is that the bigger the front bar the better. I have some swifts I havent installed yet, but I do have a bigger front bar and it made the turn in A LOT better. I can only imagine how it would feel with swifts/yellows installed.

Unecessary for street driving, if anything pick up a used front from a nimso. You would only really benifit from it when you are hitting the limits of grip which I hope your not doing on public streets.

I'm not sure on that. They are still pretty much the most immediately noticeable mod I've done. You notice them every time you turn the wheel, and they're cheap.

I agree with Chuck, I switched from my Nismo bar to an Eibach and loved it immediately. I have since switched to Hotchkiss and it's more better lol! For immediate results on handling it is on of the cheapest and biggest bang for the buck.

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Honestly, I don't know why it's not the first mod for any Z owner. It's night and day better.

I agree, the stillen sways were the first thing I did and it was immediately noticeable. Stock had so much front roll going into any off camber turn. I would have done sways before spring/shock. Now that I'm on coilovers I think I may actually need to soften my front bar if doing autocross since it went from a stiffer rear spring vs front for oem to now a stiff front spring vs rear it had just the slightlest bit of understeer on sharp turn in on the little figure 8 cone setup test, maybe softer front or stiffen rear but it's nice to have options.

Did you guys upgrade both front/rear or just the front?

I went back to my rear Nismo bar because I was getting snap under steer with the Eibach bar. Some track guys run no rear bar.

There are some that will do like jhill and run more bar in the rear to counter under steer. The deal with running more rear bar is you can get a happier rear end which can upset the car when taking corners at speed. All things are about what you are most comfortable with. Some folks like a little push others perfer a happy rearend.

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Yea for track the middle/middle on my stillen it ended up very nice (high speed). On tighter slower technical figure 8 (so kind of like auto cross) I could use a touch looser rear, not a lot just a touch, so either softer front or firmer rear but that's the beauty of adjustables.

Yep, have true square wheel and tier set up and that has taken the under steer complete out and loosened up the rear a bit. Still getting use to it as I prefer it to under steer.

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Now the question is which sway bar to go with haha

You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the input.

Personally if your mostly a street driven car then I would say eibach or stillen as my opinion. Both are front and rear adjustable, both will have noticeable effect, neither is so overpoweringly stiff that you lose independence in the suspension (which can be annoying and uncomfortable on uneven surfaces). The white line I'll bet are nice too but they were pretty costly and I think they only ship with locks for one bar so if you want the locks for the other bar too then that's more cost (might be wrong on that), the hotchkiss is just going to be rock solid stiff up front and if you find you don't like it there is no adjustment up front.

That's my opinion but only actually driven the stillen.

For a street driven car go with the the Eibach front bar. If the car is going to see any HPDE or autox get the Hotchkis front bar. Don't bother with a rear bar. The factory rear bar is all the stiffness you'll need.

If you want the car to be a little oversteery then do that via alignment settings (less rear camber).

Seems like a lot of people love the eibachs. If you get the rear and put it on the softest setting will it still be way too accurate and cause oversteer? Just from reading I'm gathering most aftermarket rear sways aren't much bigger than stock. What about endlinks? I guess I'll be at the "might as well" stage. Seems to always happen when you're working on a car.

Install it and drive it, if you like it keep it on, if not put the oem back on. Endlinks are nice up front but they are not necessary until they wear out for street. Get SPL if decide to get them.

I ran both front and rear Eibach bars for awhile. Even with the rear bar on full soft it was too much. Then again I run a square setup so my needs may not match your's.

I plan on running stock alignment specs.

Thanks for the advice. SPL makes great quality parts. I used them for my rear camber arms. Couldn't get over the quality.

Yea I think once you go squared setup then all bets are off as to how the bars are to interact with each other. I know everyone likes the oem or no rear bar but I couldn't see having more understeer than what I have. Then again I'm not runningnhotchkiss which has like a 170% stiffer than oem which sounds nuts to me.

Op you just got done saying that you like the way the car feels. You don't compete with it or have any or do anything that you could measure as an improvement. You've won. Don't buy anything else. :)

Sway bars will reduce body roll and for your type of driving that is the main difference you will see. They will also make the car ride a little more rough as the suspension is not less independent.