20mm or 22mm sway bars

[CMF_Daz]

Hi there,
Ive now fitted KYB shocks, 30 mm lwrd lovell springs, 15" wheels with 195.15.45 tyres, whiteline adj panhard (4-2-1 extractors, 2" system, K&N filter)and now thinking sway bars. The local autobarn guy suggested to go the 20mm whiteline on the rear but says I would need the 22mm on the front. The car is definitely only a road car however I like to have a bit of fun going up and down the range from Cairns to Atherton (to and from work). What can guys suggest as to sway bar sizes for road applications.
Daz

 

[CMF_tris]

just put a 20mm bar in the rear of mine. i have 30 mm lowered apexi springs kyb shocks and adjustable panhard and now also castor kit and i can say i love the way its set up. still has a small amount of body roll so i was thiking just to put a 20mm front aswell to remove the roll in the front. 22mm in the rear would make you understeer too much i would suggest. the castor kit stopped any understeer from the stiffer swaybar. there has been heaps of posts about it anyway which will give you some more opinions

 

[CMF_Campbell]

im almost 100% positive that you cant get 20mm front swabyars from whiteline, they only make 22mm because of the engine weight in the front.

 

[CMF_micrat]

a 22mm rear bar as opposed to 20mm rear bar will NOT promote understeer! if anything it will promote oversteer. an oversized front bar will induce understeer

 

[CMF_frank2]

i think heavy swaybars are overated, my understanding is that they lift the inside wheel, and in rainy blighty that means a loss of drive when exiting a corner.
my shed handles surprisingly well with a widened track, a bit of negative camber and some 165/55/13,s on the front.
oh, and NO sway bars !

 

[CMF_SSUK]

Swaybars do try to lift the inside wheel per say but they only do so with respect to the load imposed on the outside wheel. This keeps body roll and thus weight transfer to a minimum and helps to keep more weight on the inside, reducing the tendancy for the inside wheel to lift clear when cornering, resulting in more available grip.

With no swaybar the springs are the only thing controlling body roll, so when you enter into a corner the body roll is limited by spring rate and the rate of roll is limited by the damping rate only. Eventually the weight will transfer, on hard sharp corners it's enough to lift enough weight off the the inside wheel due to weight transfer to the outside wheel, (grip dependant), resulting in possible loss of drive.

With swaybars it's very hard to spin the inside front wheel, I have a very hard time doing it, possible in the wet, but the awaybars make it much harder to do. It's simple to do in my 1.0 but not in my 1.3.

You'd be very suprised how much difference a set of swaybars will do to the handling.......they make K11's extremely hard to keep up with on short sprints with tight bends.

 

[CMF_turbo march-rolling shell]

SSUK WROTE:

"Swaybars do try to lift the inside wheel per say but they only do so with respect to the load imposed on the outside wheel. This keeps body roll and thus weight transfer to a minimum and helps to keep more weight on the inside, reducing the tendancy for the inside wheel to lift clear when cornering, resulting in more available grip.<BR><BR>With no swaybar the springs are the only thing controlling body roll, so when you enter into a corner the body roll is limited by spring rate and the rate of roll is limited by the damping rate only. Eventually the weight will transfer, on hard sharp corners it's enough to lift enough weight off the the inside wheel due to weight transfer to the outside wheel, (grip dependant), resulting in possible loss of drive.<BR><BR>With swaybars it's very hard to spin the inside front wheel, I have a very hard time doing it, possible in the wet, but the awaybars make it much harder to do. It's simple to do in my 1.0 but not in my 1.3.<BR><BR>You'd be very suprised how much difference a set of swaybars will do to the handling.......they make K11's extremely hard to keep up with on short sprints with tight bends.

what he said, aftermarket swaybars and micra's =good, yeh they handle good stock.. but with sway bars, the difference is amazing...

 

[CMF_frank2]

i,m not convinced !, sure the body will roll less and it may well handle better, but as that outside wheel is being pushed upwards the inside wheel is dragged upwards too by the swaybar (against the spring, which is trying to hold the wheel down on the road).
look how much a track micra lifts the back wheel when entering a corner.
if you,ve got a slip diff or its dry tarmac, then yes, its a no brainer.
all i,m saying is, on our wet roads this k11 of mine seems to have good traction (which i,d put down to the absence of swaybars)

 

[CMF_micrat]

i might suggest that "good traction" that you have is possibly not the result of "the absence of swaybars" that you have suggested.... but rather an absence of POWER!!

 

[CMF_frank2]

micrat

you cheeky sod !
there is a grip threshold, i have spun the wheels in 3rd a few times, and the 4kg flywheel does,nt help, but if i throttle below that threshold, it has better traction than my old super s had with any lock on
btw, my profile is well out of date, but it keeps reverting after trying to edit

frank