Disclaimer!!!!! My car is an 04 sedan, from what I understand, there may be differences from model to model, year to year and even vin to vin. I am not a professional mechanic and use this as a guide only. The perrin instructions were awful. So I am doing this to help. If you have a different bar, with better instructions, I strongly suggest you use them. Good Luck! I decided to go with the directions Perrin Sent me and put the car up on jack stands, rather than use my Rhino Ramps. Here is a pic of all the pieces that came with the Perrin Adjustable sway. Perrin Pieces This is why I took the wheel off. On the 04’s (not sure about other model years), there is a ton of tubing, wiring, etc. running right where the new Sway bar bracket will go (What I am calling the sway bar bracket, is the large metal bracket Stamped with a P, this takes the place of the stock dome shaped bracket. This bracket is what you secure the sway bar bushing to) View of Passenger Side wheel well Installation went faster when I figured out I should unscrew this black box, gently push it off to the side and use some wire to hold it in place. This is on the passenger side. View of Black Box… Just a view of the stock sway vs. the Perrin sway. Stock Sway vs. Perrin Sway.. I have taken off the dome shaped sway bar bracket and this is what you see. Additionally, I removed the large plastic cover that sits in the passenger side wheel well. This cover comes off by removing three nuts. Stock Sway Brace Removed Here you see the bar in and the endlinks bolted up. This step would have been easier with the car on ramps, placing the suspension “under load” as some say. The endlinks did not want to flush against the bar when the car was on jack stands. Endlinks Attached… The total install time, working by myself, and never having done it before, was about 4 hours. I feel confident that I could cut that time in half, if I had to do it over again. You will need a minimum of a socket wrench with several metric sockets, a regular open ended monkey type wrench to tighten down the bolts, and some grease (which probably came with your bar). Well, I hope this helps and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Whiteline Rear Sway/Endlinks/Heavy Duty mount ok, if there's info about this install on our site, my bad. i can't find much at all for a how-to on this. i am installing a Rear sway (24mm), with end links (24mm) and the heavy duty mounting brace. all thanks to my girl which is awesome! here's exactly what i'm doing in the one photo i can find: [/URL] does anyone use this set-up? what advise can you give me before i start? can anyone find a decent how-to write-up? I'll take picts of how i do it. then try and post a little tutorial about what i encountered. i know the the bar and endlinks are easy. i'm more concerned with the HD mounts. Any and all info is welcome. Cheers!
Prepare to spend atleast 30 minutes on just the passenger side HD mount. There's a box in the way that makes it a huge pain in the ass.
The rear sway was pretty easy if I recall correctly...the fronts however are a pita. Just make sure to look at the orientation of the existing bar before taking it off to assure you put the new bar in correctly. Sways are a great first mod, especially if you're not use to working on your own car much (like I was). Nasioc also has a pretty good write up iirc.
Make sure you've got the suspension loaded. You can move the carbon canister box to get to the pass. side mount. There should be 3 nuts you can remove to swing it out of the way. Make sure you've got the bolts started correctly. I've seen lots of cross-threaded bolts.
to make it easy use a Metric Button Head cap screw to reinstall the troubled bolt because its easier to tighten with a ball hex driver
I didn't have any cross threading issues - just make sure to hand start them. For the rear, I was able to get a flexible ratcheting wrench in to remove the mount without messing with the cannister box. I can't remember what size it was - 12 or 14 mm I am guessing. For the front, you must remove a big piece of subframe. It wasn't too bad, just made it more of a pain than the rear. For the frame, the 2 bolts in the rear can be loosened and then the frame can be slid out from under them. Makes it easier to deal with by loosening them and then working forward.
Awesome. Awesome. AND Awesome!!! thanks folks. very good info. for the HD braces, are there pre-drilled holes?
update: the HD mounts came with the wrong bolts to mount the bracket that holds the SW to it. awesome! oh and the hole didn't line up to the hole on the sub-frame (bottom) of the car. super awesome. i filed the holes on the bracket, and got them installed. Ped, nail on the head. the right side sucks balls! i of course didn't pre-assemble everything, so now the RT side mount has to come back out so i can drill out the threads on the top of the mount and buy new hardware to hold the bracket to the mount. i'll have to use a bolt with a flat area near the head and then use a few nuts and washers to assemble it all. or i can try and call them, send it back, wait for a new part and in the mean time put all the old parts back on. joy. lesson learned? don't assume they sent you the write hardware to assemble whatever it is you want to, well, assemble. oh, and murrphy's law is kickin' it. the driver's side mount, it's good to go. because that's the easy side to work on. all so my ass comes around better at the auto-x's
it's all in. the bolt holes on the left side mount were perfect. the rt side, not so much. i filed one of the holes about .5 cm larger. then it went in fine. the pisser is, the bolts that hold the bracket/bushings to the mounts had a different thread (too tight) then the mount itself (much looser thread pattern) and they were the wrong size. i had to retap the threads on both mounts and then get bolts long enough so i could put a lock washer and a nut on the top of the mount. so now the bolts thread into the mount and i have nuts on the top so it's not just the threads i made to fit the bolts i bought. all in all, it's done. i learned a shit ton and got my shirt dirty. real dirty. normal driving there's not much of a difference at all. a bit more stiff, but it's a fairly stiff ride to start off with. under heavy load is where i can tell a difference. the car has to be reaching a point of understeer, for the sway to actually do it's thing. all very interesting. new tires and a front sway and i'm set for this year's auto-x season. in a much harder class, though. should be fun.