I'm posting this question in this forum, to get the opinions and experience of those that autox. I'm installing some Hotchkis sways tomorrow, and would like to know what setting other people are using on a similar setup. Thanks!

 

I have the Hotchkiss setup too, and have tried a multitude of settings on the street and track. I would recommend soft (end holes) for the front and medium (middle holes) for the rear to improve turn-in on the street without impacting ride quality. Bump up to full stiff on the back and medium or stiff on the front for autocross (I use medium on the track). You can split the difference and fine tune by using a soft/med or stiff/med setting on a single bar.

I suggest you add some clamps to limit lateral movement (I forget the part #'s, but they're something like $5.00 a piece at Mcmaster Carr). I also suggest you add grease fittings to the front (stock) bar mounts. You can pick some fittings up at the local hardware store, drill & tap the mounts, drill out the bushings, mount 'em up and you won't have to disassemble to grease ever again.

My rear sway bar links got noisy after 10,000 miles or so, the stock replacements are cheap ($13.00 each) and have beefier joints than the originals. I guess Infiniti knew they were a weak link.

Keep in mind that these are torsion bars connecting the "formerly independent" wheels together. As you stiffen the bar setting you lose some of the independent charecteristic of the suspension. That, combined with the poly bushings will increase kickback through the steering wheel on bumps and generally increase harshness a bit. The payback comes with much better turn-in, limited plowing, and less body roll/tighter feel all around.

Good luck & have fun!

 

I just ordered the McMaster-Carr collars. Came to $35 shipped. Great idea about installing grease fittings on the front bushings.

Frankly, I'm surprised that none of these aftermarket sway bar kits include new endlinks. So you're saying the stock Infiniti replacement endlinks are better than the stock endlinks that came with the car? I'm confused...

 

Yup, must have been updated for '05 but they're definitely bigger ball joints than the originals.

 

Thanks timm..
Good info

 

Yeah, great info. actually. You might wanna post that in the stickied "Sway Bar Summary" thread.

 

Not sure if this is much use to you if you have Hotchkis sways, but here is my experience:

I have run a couple of events with my 350evo sways at med/med. The last event I tried stiff/stiff. While the balance seems about right, the car was too edgy for my driving abilities. It was very unforgiving, so any errors on my part made my tires come loose. I was always able to recover but had several near spins. Got a 3+ second drift out of one, which apparently earned me an applause from the bystanders

A better driver might find the stiffer settings advantageous, but I think from now on I'll stick with the med/med and play with the Tokicos from there...