Anyone got a Sway-Bar installed? Care to voice opinions???

[gavs]

That was the story back in the day, might not have been right though. Does your GF have a 180? Has it fallen to pieces yet?

No she didn't end up getting one, she ended up going and buying new instead by getting a 207 and that's just as bad. It is after all the same body underneath the exterior sheet metal but still, the rear window shaking while driving over the cobble stone patches around her area is pretty rubbish. She is goin to sell it and look at a hyundai, I'm steerin her toward the voloster.

Bassik a front anti roll bar that is thicker will give flatter cornering but will start reintroducing under steer into the handling characteristics.

[Guy_H]

The main reason to get a front bar in place is to help stop the weight transfer that reduces your corner speed.

On the Polo (and the majority of FWD cars), a huge percentage of the weight is in front of the front axle (have a look next time you have a front wheel off, your wheel centre line & the centre line of the engine / transmission).

When you hook into a corner, the weight transfers to the outside front wheel, and unloads the inside rear wheel (There are many pictures of Polo's & Golf's carrying the inside rear wheel). If you ever get to look at shock data & weight loads from a FWD car, reducing that transfer makes a faster car - Ideally if you could keep the load very neutral front to rear in cornering, that would be perfect (like a mid engined Cayman).

Making the rear end "stiff" or "loose" doesn't do anything for corner speed, it might feel like you can tip it in better (feel less understeer) - let the FWD pull you through the corner as FWD's do best.

Watch some of the footage of the BTCC, I have seen the suspension setup in those things, and the bias is certainly not towards a stiff rear end

my 2c anyway.

[Bassik]

So if I go ahead and get a front sway bar and reduce the stiffness on the rear that should in turn reduce the over steering... theoretically?

I felt that the rear did wonders but now given I'm used to it I feel I need more stability in corning. I know at the end of the day I just need to get used to driving my new car over the DC2.

[Guy_H]

It certainly will shift the oversteer - you just need to spend a lot of time on all your settings, including wheel alignment & tyre pressures - unfortunately suspension tuning is not a one dimensional thing!

[gavs]

Very very true. Bassik, if you crave flatter cornering then the easiest way to do that is by putting stiffer anti roll bars in the car. If you still want it to be flatter again as well as being able to tune the handling, you will need to look at compression and rebound adjustable dampers with various spring combos, coupled with camber adjustment strut mounts, castor kits, bracing etc.

[Bassik]

Sound all very expensive to me. I didn't want to go down the coil over path. I would however get a front sway bar or any other minor advancements to improve handling. I didn't want to substitute comfort over handling but looks like I have too, I wanted somewhere in the middle... I guess I'm at that point now???

[Bassik]

Just got an email back from Whiteline after asking if they were going to be development a front anti sway bar. The response was

"Sorry only the rear bar we list as we feel that is all that is needed. If you add a front bar it will bring back the understeer it had from factory"

So looks like rear is the best option... and front will in fact coz more understeer!

[Tigga1]

just got mine installed yesterday, very happy with the result.
Is there any point in keeping the old one, as the mechanics didn't put it in the car.

cheers

[Bassik]

just got mine installed yesterday, very happy with the result.
Is there any point in keeping the old one, as the mechanics didn't put it in the car.

cheers

What did you get installed? The old one...There was never one installed, isn't that why you got one?

[Tigga1]

What did you get installed? The old one...There was never one installed, isn't that why you got one?

ah...well you got me there.
I wasn't sure whether there was one previously, as I never looked, but my invoice says "remove old sway bar and replace with new one supplied"...

anyway, it is a H/D 24mm adjustable whiteline