I am thinking about placing an order for some sway bars and just wanted to get some opinions. Right now I am torn between some White Line (not sure on size) or Hotchkis (25mm)? Any pros or cons between the two.
ive heard mixed opinions on hollow vs solid bars... some people say hollow are better since they are lighter... some say hollow break easily so go for solid... i have whiteline... they're solid and they're good stuff :bigthumb: and for no apparent reason, heres a picture of some electronics
interesting pic..... Next question would lead to. Bigger bar on front or rear. I have been reading around and that gets mixed answers. another random pic
I think M-Chan has the X3006 Whiteline (27mm??). She was highly recommending it... I think SS sings it's praises also.
I'd talk to Scott. When he was tuning my car he mentioned something about matching your sway to your spring-rate. If you have any intention to get coil-overs it may serve you better to go a little smaller. Hollow-solid who knows on that one?? I think Steven (xnoodlesx) has the Hotchkis bars... maybe he could chime in.
I am enjoying my progress set at the moment, not too expensive, and no problems with them so far. I guess it depends on what kind of driving you enjoy best, and most often.
I'm running an adjustable Whiteline FSB (24-26) and loving it. Here's a good article from SS regarding suspension tuning on the STi...enjoy. http://www.sogperformance.com/html/techarticles/suspension_dissertation.html
Another vote for Whiteline here, just wish I would've bought the larger size for the rear(I got the 20-22-24)...
The Whiteline 27-29mm front and 22-24-26mm rear is hard to beat (unless you are going to REALLY stiff coil-overs, then drop to the 24-26mm front and 20-24mm rear). There are a lots of options out there, but with any spring that's appropriate for the stock shocks, the 27-29 front and 22-26 rear Whiteline's seem to be the best performance. They are the biggest bars readily produced, and while bigger isn't always better, for the STi's on springs (stock shocks) the bars could probably be even bigger and continue to improve handling (but they wouldn't fit) . SS
I have the h-sport (Hotchkis) set on my Audi. And i could not be happier with them. They know what they are doing as far as chassis modification IMO. The car seems to be very level even through an all-wheel drift when the tires get a little hot at the track. Granite i also have coilovers also. SO, This may or may not be any helpful info but here goes my $.02..... I have the set 35mm F and 22.5 mm R. That is sized up from a 30 mm F and 12mm R (OE sizes) The bars are hollow (as far as i can guess), but due to un unfortunate accident i was able to figure out that the sidewall of the front bar exceeds over 6-7mm (1/4"), not sure on the back bar (solid or Hollow) i suspect that the wall thickness of the bar is realtive to the overall diameter, but due to its weight it is tough to say (at least for the rear one) Also the rear bar came with some additional bracing for the lower frame. (not sure what is offered for the WRX. I also installed adjustable CPP sway bar end links (highly recommend) to replace the cheap plastic OE end links (crap) that really stiffened up the rear as well. I do not think you would be able to find a rear bar that would be larger that any front bar (OE or aftermarket) for ANY vehicle, i could be wrong.....i do not know all the specs of how the drift cars are set up, but who wants destroy perfectly good tires any faster anyway??
thanks for all the feedback. I may swing by SOG next week and talk. I assume SOG stocks most of the sway bars or are they special order?
I've been thinking about COBB swaybars, because they're cheap (-er than STi), hollow, and adjustable. I want to keep the car stockish feeling (more neutral though) so maybe a 24 mm setting up front with 22 mm in the back?
I will sell you my whiteline 27-29" adjustable bar, I upgrading to the 32mm hollow bar that joel is running on stompy. PM me if you want it!
btw, us wagon owners get no love when it comes to the front sway bars. If you are still wondering about hollow vs solid, whiteline has a great research/white paper on the topic. you can download it in PDF format from whiteline's website.
Whiteline has an interesting write up on hollow vs solid bars and the load transfers through them. It is pretty much exactly what you would expect. Solid bars (of equal diameter) are able to transfer more weight through them because there is more material. You basically have to look at the solid cross section of the bar. so a hollow bar with a 1"OD (25mm)and 0.5"ID can transfer the same load as a 0.86"OD bar. At lower values like this, the difference is about 14% on the diameter... That translates to an additional 3-4mm, or a 22mm solid acts like a 25mm hollow assuming that there's 12mm ID. I don't know what the relative thickness of the walls is but you can do your own calculations to figure out what a .75"ID and .25"ID would translate to. Additionally, the 25mm hollow above will weight the SAME as the 22mm solid (more or less) because the length is about the same and the cross section area is equal. Part of the difference is also the load transfer. Hollow bars place more stress on the inner wall (which is why people suggest they're more likely to break). Is this anything to worry about? They're mostly steel so I doubt it unless you're in an accident and in that case you're not really so concerned with whether or not your bar survives. I think it breaks down to preference, but solid seem to be more efficient. My personal opinion, if you want something like a 29mm hollow, but a 22-24-26 solid. It's 24mm diameter, but acts like a 26mm on the stiffest setting. Therefore it weighs about the same as the 29mm hollow, but acts like a bar that stiffer than that.
hey abt those sway bars i wanna get sum any1 selling?? it's gonna go on a 2002 wrx 4dr (not a wagon) anyways i still dont understand which once to get so just tell me the size what is better to get way better handling?
i have the whiteling adjustables set on 26mm front and rear... i love the setting along with the coilovers... if ur gonna get a 26mm rear, i'd recommend new rear endlinks as well
I have the whiteline 25-27 front and 22-24-26 rear. I have the front set to 27, back to 26 and with a light change in tire pressure (thanks Milo) I was able to get the back end to rotate nicely. I would highly recommend this setup for Auto X use at least. never had any problems with the back breaking loose on the road.