Sway bars

[Pete_Repeat]

Sway bars

I just bought a bargain set of whiteline sway bars for the v36. 

Now tossing up whether to do it myself or hand it to a suspension place and get an alignment done at the same time. 

Now the questions (I haven't got under the car yet)

 

- How hard is the front sway bar to change? No steering rack removal or anything like that that is there?

- Believe the rear bar should be easy, but possible the mufflers might  need unbolting to get the rear seat out. 

- Estimated 1 to 2 hours max for swap? 

- I plan on using the supplied front links to replace the factory ones. Good choice I assume.

- Rear links remain factory I believe. 

- Suggested setup? I believe middle firmness for front and soft rear? Prefer firmer than stock. Car is a daily and prefer to not get to twitchy over bumps round corners. Will consider going harder for my track day I'll eventually do.

[Pete_Repeat]

I should add. I was going to get my squeaky suspension fixed/checked and decided let's hope this will fix it... If not, we'll it's a good excuse to upgrade as it does roll a little too much for my liking. 

Suspension squeaks more on hot days, going over speed bumps or even just going diagonally up a driveway gutter slowly.. So hoping I kill two birds with one stone.

[The Max]

With swaybars the key is to perform the work while the vehicle is sitting flat. The best way is with a full pedestal hoist (i.e. one the car's tyres actually sit on rather than just from the chassis jacking points).

[Pete_Repeat]

26 minutes ago, The Max said:

With swaybars the key is to perform the work while the vehicle is sitting flat. The best way is with a full pedestal hoist (i.e. one the car's tyres actually sit on rather than just from the chassis jacking points).

OK. Maybe I'll look at getting them done at a good tyre place I know and get the alignment, caster and camber checked at the same time.

[Pete_Repeat]

Ok. I decided to book it in at a place with the pedestal hoist and get the alignment, caster and camber all checked as well.

Going to aim for the stiffness mentioned above as a syatywoamd see how it handles... Unless someone jumps in before Saturday. 

Now time to search this forum for people's opinion on alignment (i have the G37 service manual)

[Pete_Repeat]

Ok. 370z appears soft front and medium rear. Assume this encourages over steer rather than under steer which I'd prefer.

[Pete_Repeat]

Ok. So initial impressions with whiteline sway bars installed, soft in front and medium in rear. Cost me $450 and decided to install myself as the place I was booked into messed me around.

Car sits flatter which I expected, but surprisingly more stable on small undulations/bumps in the road where I thought it would would give more feel/pull on the steering wheel.

This I am not sure of, but it appears that there is less traction in the rear end round tight corners which I understand is likely with a firmer rear sway bar = less traction on cornering. But this is initial thoughts and it really may not be that much different as my potenza re050a tyres are fairly temperature dependent especially under acceleration.

It definitely sits flatter however.

[JMZ08]

Interesting... Good updates Pete.  I was curious in doing something like this to mine.  There are a few options for sways on the V36/370z so I will keep my eyes peeled.

[Pete_Repeat]

The installation was easy.

The longest thing on the front sway bar was removing the bolts for the plastic tray. Which I decided to use a cordless drill and a 10mm socket at the end.

The rear took a little to wiggle the sway bar out without undoing any of the exhaust. It was tight but got there eventually, almost like one of those mind games of twisting things.

I took a shortcut on the rear and kept the standard links however, but thinking I may change to the whiteline adjustable ones as I am worried the stock ones could fatigue with the stiffer sway bar in. Or maybe just wait until the stock links break then change