Mod: Hotckis Sway Bars
$: 270
DIY: yes
Difficulty: Moderatate. (Easy if you have the right tools)
Time to install: 3 hours
Overall value: 5/5
Review: This is a definitely must do for everyone. After installation, I felt an exceptionally huge differenece between the stock sways and the Hotchkis sways. The turns are more responsive, and the body roll is reduced significantly. With this mod, you are able to set the stiffness in the front and rear. It's soft, and medium respectively right now. I put it on these settings so I could get acclimated to the new feel of the car.

The only drawback is that I did this myself with jackstands. You really need the right tools to breeze through it. The torque wrench has to be big in order for proper leverage to get the bolts off and you're gonna need extensions for certain bolts. I broke a couple of my cheaper tools working on this project. How sad. But the effort was well worth it.

 

great mod. I did the springs at the same time. Best mods I have done do far.

 

Oh yeah, warning to those that will get this in the future....

MAKE SURE YOU GREASE THE THE BUSHINGS LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW.

Better do it... or else you'll never hear the end of it, from the car that is.

 

Yeah, also consider buying some collars from McMaster Carr to prevent lateral movement of the bar. I noticed that my sways squeak like crazy in temps lower than 30 degrees. Not sure if they need more grease, but as soon as it warms up, the car is fine. I am thinking it is mainly because the polyurethane stiffens up in the cold.

 

Try lithium grease next time. none of my cars with aftermarket swaybars
squeak, even in the sub-freezing cold in Chicago.

 

That's what I used. They are probably due for a re-lubing, though.

 

you shouldn't use a torque wrench to break loose stuck bolts, it will damage the tool. It's a precision instrument and not meant to break loose fasteners. A breaker bar is better suited for loosening frozen bolts.

 

aww, that sucks. I did use a lot of that stuff though... oh well.



DHCrocks is right, you'll probably want to use a breaker bar with long
socket extension for removing the front two inner bolts off the
mounting bracket. I think mine had some red paint on the bolt head.
The other bolt and nut on the same bracket are easy to take off as
long as you have an extension for the socket. The rear is easy to
take off. Sears sells a cool extension kit for 1/4" drives with 4
different lengths.