FE2 Sway Bars

[mulligan-can]

Is it worth getting pair of front and rear FE2 sway bars and fitting them to my S1 Berlina? Going to be lowering it soon. Will the FE2 sway bars make any worthwhile difference to handling?

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

They are slightly bigger in diameter, 22mm as opposed to 19mm so I reckon they would help reduce body roll. Only really noticeable if you drive hard.

[mulligan-can]

So not really worth say $220 for the pair?

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Will you get $220 worth of improved handling? IMO probably not. New shocks and struts will improve the ride more for about the same price.

[mulligan-can]

Well, planning on getting new struts and shocks when I lower it . Just wondering if I should go for the sway bars. I have to do a lot of range driving (lots of twists/turns) between Cairns and Atherton so any handling increase is good news.

What else can help to improve handling?

[donald]

i just put fe2 struts and rear shocks in my vx series 2 handles nice now and the ride is good

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Replace all the bushes with nolathane. I wouldn't bother with the sway bars, they do the job, if you had pissy little ones like a Kia or something then sure but $220 for the sake of 3mm.....

[mulligan-can]

Already replaced all the bushes with nolathane . Any recommendations for struts, shocks and springs that i'll need to lower?

[stockvp]

get a 30 mm whiteline sway bar thats around the same price and definitly worth it also you should do a link conversion as for springs id go a set of kings low allround and shocks well that depends on the cashflow

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

It's all $$ versus handling. Not many people can tell the difference between a $500 suspension package and a $2000 package. Any known brand gas shock thats not too over priced, something like Monroe or Gabriel, King springs seems to be the popular choice for people on here, followed by Pedders. Approximately $90-$100 a pair for springs and about $200-$250 for shocks and struts would be a fair price to pay. The thing to remember is that it's not a race car and you still need some level of comfort.

[mulligan-can]

Ok, you need new springs for front and back right? So $200 for springs and $200 for shocks and $200 for struts? So about $600 all up would be a fair price?

[friedchicken]

hrmmm i from my research a while ago, all vn-vp run a 26mm bar on the front, even the lower hsvs. Not as sure about the rear, but pretty sure all the sedans have a 19. A set of second hand factory bars certainly isnt worth $220. A wrecker i went to sold me a 27mm adjustable whiteline bar for $45. Im still lookin for a bigger one for the back, but not desperatly. They make a difference, but definatly do the springs/shocks/bushes/check for bent stuff path first.

Have a look at the bushes on your swaybar, if they are stuffed replace them with poly ones, you should notice it if they were well stuffed.

[pandaman]

I've got a kmac 30mm swaybar at the front with slightly lowered springs all round. This thing corners flat. It's being let down by skinny 205 tyres at the moment, but I would wholeheartedly reccomend this combo to anyone looking to make their commodore feel a bit better through the twisty stuff.

Oh and Not_an_abba_fan, while a 3mm increase doesn't seem like much, the torsional stiffness of the bar is proportional to the square or the cube of the radius, if i remember correctly it's the cube (Honestly can't remember, and I loaned my mechanics of materials textbook to some semi-retarded second year who keeps failing things and hence wont be returning it any time soon. ) Anyway, wikipedia reckons it's the cube, but wikipedia is the devil. Soooooo anyway, even a such a small difference in radius as between the standard and FE2 bars can have a significant effect on handling. I'd still reccomend the 30mm item though, gotta love the overkill.

[mulligan-can]

Lol, ok, 220$ is a total rip off Thanks, I'll take a look around a bit more and see what I can find at a decent price lol.

[pandaman]

hrmmm i from my research a while ago, all vn-vp run a 26mm bar on the front, even the lower hsvs.

Not true unfortunately. Can't remember the dimensions exactly, but I'm pretty sure our very own anti-nordic pop band man got the diameter of the v6 one right @ 19mm. V8's (and V6 FE2 probably) got a bigger one (NAAF said 22mm which rings a bell as well but I'm not 100%) and some option packs got a bigger one again which i believe is the 26mm item you are referring to, I think that might have been the V5W country pack or something that got that. There may be another size in the middle there somewhere as well. I went shopping for bushes a while back and repco had a fair assortment of sizes listed as being matches with the VN in various option packs. Didn't have any 30mm though.

[friedchicken]

99% sure there wasnt any 19mm FRONT bars on a vn. I went to 3 wreckers with a set of calipers, only ever found 26mm bars untill i saw mine sitting next to a fence. The vns ranged from execs with completely stock setups to an sv150 or something like that. Early commos, like my brother vc ran a lot smaller bars. As for repco, i dont think that really means anything, as they are prolly listed as vb-vp anyway.

my car is a '88 v6 berlina, and that came with a 26mm bar. no FE2 or any other pack.

[VSIIBerlinaL67]

can sway bars off a VN fit a VS?? whats the standard VS sway bar size?

[friedchicken]

can sway bars off a VN fit a VS?? whats the standard VS sway bar size?

pretty sure also 26mm. but no you cant, they are a little wider because of the wider front track. acctually vn onto vs might work, but not the other way around.

[VSIIBerlinaL67]

so VN sway bars will fit a VS? how much are whiteline ones worth back and front?
thanks

[friedchicken]

im not sure why you would want a vn one... get a vs one, at least you know it will fit. i think a vn one would most likely bolt up fine, but the link pins will be on a weird angle, and that isnt good for their life.

[VSIIBerlinaL67]

yer i saw some VN SV3800 or somthing fe2 sway bars on ebay for 20 bucks each back and front just seeing if they would fit he says there 29-30mm

[friedchicken]

yeah personally i wouldnt, unless you have someone to give them too if they dont fit. Something like a whiteline one that goes down to the lower arm might be the same, then again the lower arm kit for vs clamps the arm, rather than using the hole provided with vb-vp arms. Apparently the normal link pins dont like 30mm bars as it is, let along with extra angle there.

Personally i would be nervous about putting a 30mm bar on the front of mine, as my 27 is plenty enough with the factory 19mm rear bar. as it is my car tends to wash away mid corner, which is typical of a heavy front sway bar. all comes down to what you want your car to handle like, i prefer the back to get lose rather than the front. also i hear that going larger on the back to match a 30mm front often leads to inside wheel traction issues unless you have an LSD, as the bigger bar tends to 'lift' the wheel off the ground.

[VSIIBerlinaL67]

ive got heavy duty link pins, so what do you recommend you seem to know your stuff, im getting LSD fitting in a couple of weeks so, so is it worth changing or what and what do you recommend, i want my car to handle like its on rails.
thanks mate

[Bent_6]

If VN is the same spec as VP, then the std sway bar is 26mm with i.d code CH whilst FE2 is 25mm with i.d. code CG.
The country pack is V5W and is 22mm and code CJ.
The rear bar is 19mm std and FE2, code AF and the V5W is 16mm with code AE.

[friedchicken]

i dont really know what to recommend for a vs, youd be best talking to some places like pedders to get some oppinions. vs has different front track etc, and probably irs being a berlina? hence i really dont know much about them.

handle like its on rails is pretty unspecific really :P, ultimatly springs and shocks are more important than bars. also dont lower you car too much would be the thing i would recommend first. the reason i think a lot of people like big bars is because the car is too low, which makes a mess of the roll centres, and makes the car roll more than it should. my car is at FE2 height, and i wouldnt go much lower than that, really depends what you want, a dumped car will not handle well without massive changes to mounting points/struts/basically every thing.

if you have the money and plan to do most things anyway, id suggest going to whiteline and get one of their full kits. the initial outlay may be high, but the general consensous is that they know what they are doing and produce well matched kits.

ask around, talk to a heap of people. work out what you want to pay and there will be someone with a kit for you haha