i'm getting my hotchkis sways installed this friday, and was wondering what i should tell them to do with the collars i got. how much play should i tell them to give the bars on each side? also, what's a good setup for starters; medium/medium? if it matters, i'm gettin the springs installed, too; i got the whole tvs stage 1. these are my first suspension mods. thanks.

 

Install rear collars flush against the inside of the bushings, install fronts as close to the inside of the bushings as possible (there may be a small gap).

 

thanks, man. what about the stiffness though? it's just my daily driver; no tracking.

 

Mine are full soft, the car handles great with excellent turnin and almost no body roll. Stiffer bars will make for a stiffer ride and increased tire wear with reduced body roll. If you're carving canyons start at medium, otherwise start at soft and tighten as needed, they're not hard to adjust.

 

I have mine set for full stiff front and medium rear. That is only about 58% stiffer in the front and like 90% stiffer rear. I originally had them full stiff front and full soft rear but when I autox, the car understeers pretty badly. Tire pressure and the adjustment to the rear bar helped out a lot. As for ride quality, I honestly didn't notice any difference in the ride. My wife didn't notice anything either if that helps at all...

 

Sway bars have no effect on ride quality when bumps have the same effect on both sides of the car. When bumps happen only on one side of the car, the bar will transmit some of that energy to the other side.

Bars should be tuned to effect the handling balance you need, this means trail and error testing. They are not ment to overcome gross mismangement of chassis tuning, like picking springs that transfer roll stiffness to the wrong end of the car.