I'm thinking of getting Hotchkis sway bars. I'm not sure if this has been answered before and I do sincerely apologize, but do we need to also change the sway bar endlinks when we do this upgrade? Will our old OEM end links work fine? I was told that it might be a good idea to change the end links also when doing the Sway Bar install.

I searched forums but I can only come up for v35 G35 sedans, not the v36 and the durability of our end links.

 

You should be fine. I've had my eibach sways on for a year with no problems. Not sure if anybody makes end links for the front anyways.

 

Our endlinks are pretty good. Bought the sway bars when they first came out and the endlinks are still fine. Just be aware that ride quality will suffer somewhat with the sway bars.

 

Thanks for your reply,

Hmm, how bad would the ride quality be? If I set everything to the softest settings wouldn't be still be better than stock and not sacrifice much ride quality?

 

It is only a marginal decrease in sound quality, but it definitely stiffens up the chassis. I didn't like them after a while because id dog leg going into the driveway and that drove me nuts. I know many people that love them though.

 

Hmm, will it definitely help in control when you swerve on the highway? I spun out on the highway trying to avoid debris going around 70mph. I would like to have nice handling in my car because I do sometimes corner hard when going on a ramp on the highway.

Thanks in advance!

 

SPL and Whiteline both make adjustable end links for our sways! Although they're not required when upgrading to larger adjustable sway bars they're a nice addition....Gary

 

I looked around, but I haven't found any of those for the V36 sedan. I've only found SPL and Whiteline that were for the V35 sedans.

I wonder if the performance is that drastic around corners that it justifies spending $500 for the sway bars and installation. I don't want a big sacrifice in ride quality just so I can corner better.

 

I have an 05" and my Hotchkis bars have been in for about four years now with the original links. The only bit of advise I can add is use lock tite RED on the nuts, mine have come loose on one side three times so far. This time, they are going to stay on.

BTW: this was the best bang for the buck of all my mods.

 

Math, if your links are in good condition, you don't have to get beefier or new ones now.

However, as you've probably noted in my recent thread, my fronts have already gone out. I've had the Eibach Sways on the car for about a year, with a few laps at the track mixed in.

You have Whiteline, SPL and ModMe (Myg37 thread) for rear options. I have ModMe's and it's working out quite well so far. There is only SPL for the front, but every V36 user who's had them have complained about the noise from the Heim joints.

The sways and beefier endlinks will help with minimizing lean, for sure. But it probably wouldn't have avoided your spin-out on the freeway. It sounds to me like there was a bit of oversteer in your case, possibly coupled with less grippy tires. Granted, when you properly set-up the sways, you can change the characteristics of the vehicle to add a bit more understeer. (see chart)

Remember, too, that the more you tighten up the suspension, the grippier the tires you need to make the most out of it, otherwise the tires will give up faster since the suspension has no slack.

FWIW, i have been in contact with a manufacturer to develop adjustable fronts for us, but there's nothing else to report other than that yet.

 

Great chart!

I run mine full hard in the front and medium in the back.

 

Thank you for the info!

I'm not really planning to track the car, and this is just my daily driver. However, I'm pretty spirited and I like to take highway offramps a big faster than usual. Should I just adjust them so I get softest front and middle rear, as noted in the chart for slight understeer so it is safer?

Everyone else seems to have stiff front and middle rear...what do you suggest?

 

How did you manage to spin an AWD car with stability control out on the highway? If I swerve my RWD in a snow storm I can't even do that.

I guess it will make it corner a bit flatter on the freeway.. I noticed it a bit more in town and when attacking clover leafs. These cars handle pretty good from factory though. You may benefit also from a good set of tires and some larger wheels like 18s or 19s. The 17s handle like a bowl of Pho.

 

This is what happened: I was the lead car in a pack of a couple cars, and I was going about 70mph on the freeway that has 4 lanes. There was a hill over a bridge, and it was also at night, so visibility is limited. Road was dry.

Once I went over the hill, there was this huge mattress/wooden structure staring me right in the face, so I swerved to the left quickly. What started happening is that my driver's side tires started to spin out when i swerved, so I tried correcting my swerve, but my back tires have already fishtailed, because my AWD system couldn't handle a big change in tire direction after that and all my tires were spinning in different speeds. Then, I did a full 360 and ended up stopping right at the left lane before the barrier. AWD system, while it helps, isn't perfect.

You can spin out on the highway if you swerve fast enough. Also, if I got a set of 18's or 19's, the rims would go bad almost immediately because of lower profile tires and there are so many potholes here.

Anyways, I got my Hotchkis Sway Bars 22443 for $360 shipped. Is that a good price?

 

Looking for sway bars? I know Stillen's work great, that was my third mod. Their sways are adjustable with 3 settings, starting in the middle is advisable then you can tune your ride to how it handles. My monster SPL end links (compared to OE) really tightens up the suspension....what body lean?
Gary