last night installed my H&R sway bars from turner. I current;y have H&R and Bilsteins all around. The new bars have 2 settings both front and rear...I set them both to "soft". My wheel combination is LTW's with 245 rear and 225 front....standard staggered setup. This is my first year of really getting out to driver schools (4 so far)...so the car does see the track occasionally.

question is: after last nights install I definately have a some understeer I would like to get rid of....what is the best way to go about doing this?

1. change the rear to the stiffer setting?
2. change the front wheels to 8.5 and 245 tires?
3. a combination of them both?

BTW: putting that rear bar back in the car was the biggest pain in the ass I have encountered while working on this car......and I have done a lot of work to my car over the years. Another set of hands probably would have helped.

Thanks

If you haven't done anything else to the car, you might actually experiment with making the front stiffer. Sometimes going stiffer in the front can actually help your grip due to the roll center and camber curve of the front.

If you haven't done anything else to the car, you might actually experiment with making the front stiffer. Sometimes going stiffer in the front can actually help your grip due to the roll center and camber curve of the front.

I completely agree with Bryan. Ideally, you would want to stiffen the front springs, but you can easily tighten the sway bar one notch and see if it helps. In layman's tems, Bryan is saying that there is too much roll right now since it is too soft and the tire is rolling over on itself. By slightly stiffening it, you will gain more effective traction out of the tire.

Scott

Yep, I think it's worth playing with a stiffer front adjustment. I recently installed a Kline/Koni coilover suspension, 500# springs all around. A couple of weeks later, I installed a bigger H&R front bar, and it did help the balance, removing some understeer; it's about where I want it now. I know it's kind of counter-intuitive, but it seems to work, at least with the heavier E46.

i remove the muffler section whenever i need to move the swaybar. much easier and worth the extra work.

I disagree. Stiffen the rear bar. With his H&R Bilstein setup, he has basically no front suspension travel. Adding more wheel rate would not help.

I disagree. Stiffen the rear bar. With his H&R Bilstein setup, he has basically no front suspension travel. Adding more wheel rate would not help.

It could if the understeer is being caused by bottoming out and sending the spring rate to infinity. Plus, we know the H&R kit is still pretty soft, so additional front roll stiffness might still be the key if the tire is rolling over too much (depends on camber settings and the specific tire).

How about the easy answer and add some pressure to the front tires to give it more grip? Or lower the pressure in the rear? Much easier to implement. :-)

How about the easy answer and add some pressure to the front tires to give it more grip? Or lower the pressure in the rear? Much easier to implement. :-)

Just like the anti-roll bars, this could be a case where more pressure either equals more grip or less grip...just depends on the setup of the car, the amount of roll, and how much roll stiffness is needed in the sidewall of the tire.

In a "perfect" world, you would actually lower the air pressure to increase grip.

Just like the anti-roll bars, this could be a case where more pressure either equals more grip or less grip...just depends on the setup of the car, the amount of roll, and how much roll stiffness is needed in the sidewall of the tire.

In a "perfect" world, you would actually lower the air pressure to increase grip.

in a perfect world one would understand that there is an optimum pressure for grip. so whether one should lower or raise pressure for more grip would depend on whether the current pressure was above or below optimum.


also, the guy suggesting that H&R + bilstein = no suspension travel....

LOL

Need I Show you pictures of springs 3 times as stiff allowing massive amounts of travel?