Sway bar for Regular Golf

[Chogokin]

My 25mm Neuspeed bar used the stock clamps.

 

[plastermaster]

Thanks to all of you for your help. I just ordered the Whiteline 22mm bar with 2 settings on Amazon for $199 and free shipping. On the stiff setting it should be stiffer than any of the upgraded OEM bars, and hopefully enough for me. I could have gone stiffer but I wanted to keep my original endlinks. If I still feel too much sway I can always add a front bar since I am not concerned with balance as much as feeling flatter on the turns. I'll also get some more eager tires when my current Hankooks wear out later this year. I plan to replace before next rainy season, assuming we still get rainy seasons here in northern CA.

Someone somewhere mentioned wrapping the bar with Teflon tape where it contacts the bushings. Anyone else heard of this? Seems to me that it would just tear apart.

Since I am keeping the end links, is it still easier to remove the bar with the end links attached and switch them off the car?

I still might have someone else do the work because I would need to spend about $50 in tools and whenever I lay down under a car and have to hold my head up I get an instant headache and nausea due to some neck issues. Or another $50 or so for a rolling dolly to lay on.

 

[Elwood]

I replaced my Hankooks before I had 500 miles on them. Single best thing I did to improve the handling of the car. If you're still on 16" rims, consider 17s or 18s so you can get some decent tires with stiffer sidewalls.

 

[odessa.filez]

re teflon tape several years ago I had an H&R front bar on a BMW and I believe the H&R bushings had a teflon mesh on the surface that touched the bar.
I doubt it would hurt to try thetape

 

[plastermaster]

Does the Club sport also have the stiffest front bar?
I am thinking after further reading that adding bar to the front will reduce roll the most. I am reluctant to go with an aftermarket bar for the front because I don't want the risk of the lube wearing out on poly bushings. If I need to lube the rear in a year or so that is doable. I don't want to have to deal with the front though.
Has anyone had poly bushings on the front for a few years maintenance free?

 

[plastermaster]

Well, I can get kinda wishy washy about purchases and decided to return the whiteline. This was due to a few findings. Seems that there have been lots of complaints about squeaks a few months after the installs of the poly bushings. The Whiteline bushings are treated to not need grease but I found several cases of them squeaking over time greased or not. Also, I found that if the main goal is staying flat in the curves rather than under/oversteer improvement, the front bar is the most important, as the front has more lean than the rear from the factory. The whiteline FSB isn't that much of an improvement over stock according to their chart. So, I am now getting the H&R 26f and 24r. Both should be stiffer than the whiteline and the least likely to have squeaks down the road. Got the front on clearance from Tirerack $60 off. and the rear on sale too.

I question the need to have the weight on the wheels when not using rubber bushings. Rubber bushings are designed to not have slip between the bar and the bushing but rather flex. For this you want to set it up in a neutral position (weight on wheels) when tightening. Non rubber bushings are designed so that the bar slips rotationally in the bushing so it doesn't seem like it should be necessary to preload. There is also the endlinks, but they seem to move freely enough as well.

 

[plastermaster]

Hi everyone, I appreciate all the input since I started this thread well over a year ago. The upgrade wasn't a priority so its taken me awhile to get around to it. As I said in my previous post, I went with the H&R 26 front and 24 rear. I looked on Yelp for some installers and noticed Yelp enables viewers to put out a request for what you are looking for and business can then get back to you with whatever info you ask. I thought it would be a waste of time where I would just get random replies from business that I would likely not use since I am pretty picky. I lucked out though. I was contacted by SGK Performance who I had never heard of. They are a recommended Tire Rack installer where I bought the sway bars. THeir shop is located on the grounds of Sears Point Raceway in Vallejo CA about 30 min from where I live. They mostly work on track cars, so they understood my concern for torquing everything to spec and not having issues that might occur from slack attention to doing everything correctly. They also use the shop manuals for everything they do rather than possibly make a mistake due to having enough experience that they probably would never need the manuals. I guess they knew how easy it can be to make wrong assumptions once you pretty much know what you are doing.
Anyway, they did the installation in about 5 hours including alignment which Faruk, the owner recommends when dropping the subframe. Total cost was $500 which I think was really generous on their part given the average shop time costs in our area. (local VW dealer charges $265/hr). Installation went well but they needed to do some material removal on the stock clamps to fit the H&R bushings. H&R used to include the OEM bushings but evidently do not anymore, at least not in my purchase.
OK enough of the boring part. Today I did my weekly drive up HWY 1 from the bay area CA up to my getaway. The last 60 miles or so is pretty winding, and so I was able to really see the difference on how the car behaves on curves. I was mostly just wanting a flatter feel and not so concerned with oversteer/understeer issues. I assumed that that only came into play when there was total break away, ie which end of the car goes in the ditch first. What I found was just a slight oversteer that felt very controlled and gave the feeling that the rear wheels were doing some of the steering. The rear end slipping out just a bit kind of points the car around the curve. The roads were a little wet so I was able to do this without a lot of speed. Overall, there is just much more of a feel of confidence in cornering. With the stock bars I kind of felt like I didn't have as much control over what the car might do. I'm sure experienced track guys get used to some amount of lean , as I have seen pics of 2 wheel cornering. Also I have noticed not one iota of ride harshness. No loss of absorbing bumps or potholes. It makes sense to me that this should have been the stock configuration. For all around driving, stiffer sway bars rather than stiffer springs on each wheel make the most sense IMO. In a few more months I'll be done with the stock Hankooks and look forward to some better tires. Past experience tells me that will be even more noticeable than the sway bar upgrade.

 

[SouthFL_Mk7.5]

Nice upgrade. Lotus was always famous for tuning with big sway bars with springs on the softer side. It does offer an overall comfortable ride but provides the added performance when pushed through the turns. Sounds like you’re having fun with the new setup.

 

[sprinks]

Does the Club sport also have the stiffest front bar?
I am thinking after further reading that adding bar to the front will reduce roll the most. I am reluctant to go with an aftermarket bar for the front because I don't want the risk of the lube wearing out on poly bushings. If I need to lube the rear in a year or so that is doable. I don't want to have to deal with the front though.
Has anyone had poly bushings on the front for a few years maintenance free?

Funny enough it doesn't have the largest. The GTE has the largest front sway bar of the mk7 platform, from what I've seen. The part number was posted previously elsewhere for that. Upping the fsb will shift the handling back to understeer unless the rsb is bumped up as well.