Hey Guys I just recently purchase a hotchkist sway bar, i have an '03 350Z Track... Just wondering what would be the best ajdustment on the front and rear sway bar? thanks 4 the info n help.

 

Try soft front, medium rear. That'll prevent oversteer and be tighter than stock. Then try medium/medium, medium, hard and finally hard/hard. I think the newer hotchkis has a 4th setting...super hard? lol. Try those. On my cusco they're at Hard front, rear is not adjustable. Thats the same as hard/hard on the hotchkis. Feels good, but theres a lot of bump steer and knocking from the rear.

 

Well, first of all it is spelled Hotchkis. And they recommend to start off at one hole before the stiffest setting up front and softest in rear. This is what I did and seems to be the best overall setup as Hotchkis recommends. Most would agree. Some have said going one hole stiffer in the rear causes the rear to slide out from you during hard turns.

I still need to test more though.

 

I cant really lower my car because of my drive way, Do you think these set up would have the same effect even if i dont change my springs? Thanks a lot guys appreciate the infos a lot.

 

I have mine set at hole 4 (stiffest) up front and hole 2 (middle) in the rear. Feels great to me. Suggest just try different setting to fit your drving style and needs.

 

Hotchkis recommends this setup so you have the most understeer. It's to prevent you from crashing your Z. This is so you can get a feel for your car before you change the settings. I don't think there is a "best" setup - it's whatever you prefer. For example, if you want to go drifting, you would probably set your sways to softest in the front and full stiff in the back. This would be the best setting for drifting. I'm going to try a different setup this weekend, I'm thinking 2nd whole from stiff in front and 2nd whole in the back. Accoring to Forza (the game), tune your suspension components one at a time - tune your sways - test drive, then tune your dampening - test drive.

 

I installed mine today in the fourth stiffest hole up front and lightest in the rear as hotchkis recommends because I dont wanna crash my Zed... It feels better....... I still want to take some turns at high speeds to really test it out!

 

I'm experiencing a lot of understeer w/ the recommended setting...maybe i'll stiffen up the rear

 

How are you experiencing understeer? JW.. TIA

 

I'm running the 4-hole front/3-hole rear hotchkis sways on stock dampers/springs. Only minor stuff on the car so far, exhaust, intake, test pipes, 18" rims, nitto 555's so fairly stock from a suspension point of view. I got my hotchkis sways on yesterday and spent the day today at TGP (www.tgprace.com).

Initially, I was hole 4 (stiffest) up front, medium in the rear. Every corner I hit felt like the car was just swinging the back in the breeze and had a lot of control issues. The normal body lean in the U was gone, car was much more planted but on the other turns the back end didn't want to sit down. I swapped it around and went with stiffest up front and loosest in the back (hole 3) as Hotchkis recommended. The back end seemed to settle down more once I did that. I was tempted to do hole 3 front/medium rear and see how it felt but the day was rapidly ending and didn't feel like losing out on more track time while I jacked the car up, etc.

Overall, very happy with the sways. A definate improvement over stock, will be even better once I get the feel/tuning the way I want it.

friz

 

Asking about the bar settings of others isn't really a good idea other then for curiosities sake. You all have different talent levels, different ideas of what ideal at the limit behavior is, and have different setups. As difficult for some this may be, you need to strike out on your own and find out what the best setting is. Start out a trial settings, then test and make changes to get the at the limit behavior closer to what your after.

 

Mine is stock suspension right now except for the H sways. So far ive found full soft rear with the front ont he second from softest works good. This setup eliminates a lot of understeer and does not overpower the tires. Unless your running some wide R compounds, you shouldnt have it much stiffer than this setup.

 

How do the hotchkis recommended settings compare to stock?

 

wats the price comparison from hotchkis to cusco?

 

Front - hole 3 / rear - hole 2. very balanced

 

What is the "smoothest" setting?

 

uh, sways dont make your car any more or less smooth.

 

True, they make the car more responsive; more control / less bouncy.... maybe it does make it smoother.

 

Very good set up too, between mine and you set up just depends on how much under/oversteer you want.

 

Puree or maybe liquefy.