Hello, I just want to add some tips and points of experience to aid anyone looking to upgrade their rear sway bar. I upgraded to a 20mm bar which is significantly thicker than the stock rear sway bar (13mm?). I'm not one to compare/contrast name brand vs. online special, but I can only afford the online special and I'm just looking to have better handling in my daily driver.
The first thing I found wrong w/my online special was that the mount brackets which house the bushing wasn't the correct bracket, so I had to re-use the stock brackets. I had to take the old 13mm bushing out and replace it w/the new 20mm bushing. Also the bracket came off of the stock 13mm bar. The old stock sway bar was corroded and rusty everywhere so anything, even a new stock sway bar would have been better. I was able to force the bushings into the bracket w/the help of some C clamp vice grips and then used the same tool to close the connection of the bracket to the car as the 20mm bushings had to be forced into the stock bracket. I'm going to purchase new polyurethane bushings and will look for a brand that fits and has the correct bracket. My current setup is temporary as additional needs popped-up as I worked my way to completion of this upgrade.
Just as my stock sway bar was rusty, so were the bolts that I needed to remove. The upgrade didn't come w/the bolts so again I had to reuse my rusty bolts. Before taking the bolts off I had to wire brush them off so that the socket set would fit the bolt. I used one of the penetrating sprays/liquid wrench. I found that on the bracket bolts, you can spray from atop of the bracket and that helps tremendously. I wasn't able to take pics as it was a race against time with me trying to get the switch done before losing the light of day. By 5:30pm I was quickly loosing daylight and I still hadn't had the the old sway bar off of the car. By the time I got home from work it was 4pm and the race was on, I'd totally forgotten about documenting the upgrade. In the weeks coming up I'll be changing the bushings and the end-links and I'll be able to get pics up. The intent of this post is to help any other DIY'er save time making the upgrade because if I had soaked the bolts a day ago like I planned and had the rust off of the bolts before I went under the car, this could have potentially been a 30 minute upgrade. It took me around 2 1/2 hours to complete the upgrade.
Took'er for a spin and the best way to describe the the upgrade would be to have you imagine you're currently going straight and there's an intersection and you're going to turn right but you want to keep your speed. You slow a little going into the turn and you accelerate out of the corner. With the upgrade the car turns quicker, it feels like the back whips around the corner faster and the transition of turning to having the wheels in the right direction happens faster and w/less effort. I haven't pushed quicker turns yet as the bushings are smashed into place and I'm going to give it time until I go hard turning, atleast until I get the proper bushings and brackets in place.
Once night fall hit I didn't have a light under the car to see where the bolts went and I had my fiance run to an unnamed auto parts store, I was initially pissed because the unnamed auto parts dealer sold her a $14 lamp when I just wanted one of those $5 to $7 LED cluster lights that runs off of batteries. The lamp was very useful and I'm satisfied w/it now but was upset because I know they took advantage of a woman looking for an item w/no idea what I actually needed. I guess I could have used my iPhone flashlight app but I had one of the smaller LED clusters in mind as I recently bypassed picking one up at harborfreight not 3 days ago. I've wasted your time long enough, thanks for reading!
The first thing I found wrong w/my online special was that the mount brackets which house the bushing wasn't the correct bracket, so I had to re-use the stock brackets. I had to take the old 13mm bushing out and replace it w/the new 20mm bushing. Also the bracket came off of the stock 13mm bar. The old stock sway bar was corroded and rusty everywhere so anything, even a new stock sway bar would have been better. I was able to force the bushings into the bracket w/the help of some C clamp vice grips and then used the same tool to close the connection of the bracket to the car as the 20mm bushings had to be forced into the stock bracket. I'm going to purchase new polyurethane bushings and will look for a brand that fits and has the correct bracket. My current setup is temporary as additional needs popped-up as I worked my way to completion of this upgrade.
Just as my stock sway bar was rusty, so were the bolts that I needed to remove. The upgrade didn't come w/the bolts so again I had to reuse my rusty bolts. Before taking the bolts off I had to wire brush them off so that the socket set would fit the bolt. I used one of the penetrating sprays/liquid wrench. I found that on the bracket bolts, you can spray from atop of the bracket and that helps tremendously. I wasn't able to take pics as it was a race against time with me trying to get the switch done before losing the light of day. By 5:30pm I was quickly loosing daylight and I still hadn't had the the old sway bar off of the car. By the time I got home from work it was 4pm and the race was on, I'd totally forgotten about documenting the upgrade. In the weeks coming up I'll be changing the bushings and the end-links and I'll be able to get pics up. The intent of this post is to help any other DIY'er save time making the upgrade because if I had soaked the bolts a day ago like I planned and had the rust off of the bolts before I went under the car, this could have potentially been a 30 minute upgrade. It took me around 2 1/2 hours to complete the upgrade.
Took'er for a spin and the best way to describe the the upgrade would be to have you imagine you're currently going straight and there's an intersection and you're going to turn right but you want to keep your speed. You slow a little going into the turn and you accelerate out of the corner. With the upgrade the car turns quicker, it feels like the back whips around the corner faster and the transition of turning to having the wheels in the right direction happens faster and w/less effort. I haven't pushed quicker turns yet as the bushings are smashed into place and I'm going to give it time until I go hard turning, atleast until I get the proper bushings and brackets in place.
Once night fall hit I didn't have a light under the car to see where the bolts went and I had my fiance run to an unnamed auto parts store, I was initially pissed because the unnamed auto parts dealer sold her a $14 lamp when I just wanted one of those $5 to $7 LED cluster lights that runs off of batteries. The lamp was very useful and I'm satisfied w/it now but was upset because I know they took advantage of a woman looking for an item w/no idea what I actually needed. I guess I could have used my iPhone flashlight app but I had one of the smaller LED clusters in mind as I recently bypassed picking one up at harborfreight not 3 days ago. I've wasted your time long enough, thanks for reading!