Are there general principles to keep in mind when buying/matching suspension parts?

For example, which sway bars should be bought with coilovers? I am currently considering TEIN flex w/ EDFC.

 

when seting up your suspension you will find you probably are going to also want a good set of adjustable sway bars. If you go with the tein's wait on the EDFC you may want to spend that $ on different spring rates ($100 for a pair of front or rear springs from tein). Also your tire and wheel set up will effect your suspension setup. The best thing would be to install a coilover w/ a good amount of adjustability and the swaybars. Play around with the settings. If you can afford to do the tires at the same time then you will have an easier time dialing everything in (also in high speed turns downforce comes into play effecting over and understeer) . But it all depends on what you want to do with the car if its never going to see the track then you can probably ignore most of my rambling

 

Keep in mind that it's a system, and the system works best when all of the parts work well together.

Just because it's stiffer doesn't make it better.

You don't really match sway bars with certain spring/shock combinations. You match sway bars with your grip level. The more grip, the stiffer you want your sway bars. The less grip, the softer you want your sway bars. Too many people equate less roll with better handling, and they actually convince themselves that they are handling better with stiffer sway bars. That doesn't mean that they're not, it's just that they are convinced of that, whether it is true or not.

Now, that being said, you will normally lower the car when you put on aftermarket springs or coilovers, which means less suspension travel (don't give away too much suspension travel. That is hugely important for a well-working suspension, and most people mess that up). You will generally need to stiffen swaybars when you do that.

---jps

 

Aren't you contradicting yourself in these two statements?
Also believe it or not spring rates and shock dampening effect grip level so do tires and the surface you are driving on . So like you said in the first statement: This is also why I said a good "adjustable" sway bar

 

i don't see where Big S is contradicting himself, he's saying that all components of a system must work harmoniously in concert, otherwise you'll have some pretty funky characteristics and a fairly undriveable car.

believe me when i say that he almost certainly knows a lot more about this than you do, so it's ok to not try and belittle his comments or outsmart him. just take it for what it is, advice isn't a contest.

just check though the vendors for someone who retails a swaybar you think you're interested in.

 

I agree with that. Since things like springs/shocks, suspension travel, tire pressure, etc. etc. affect grip level, they certainly will have an affect on how you want to set up your sway bars. My point was that you go by the grip levels, not just the spring/shocks. So what'll work for one setup with say MS springs/shocks, might not work for another, and you can't just go by springs/shocks alone. Of course, one will be tuning in a much broader range for the street than for track.
I agree with that too. My post was not in response to your post. Yours was posted when I was typing mine up. We're just coming at this from different angles.
Thanks for the support, but I don't know about that. Besides, one doesn't have to know more than another to be able to make a valid point.

---jps

 

steve, can you please explain how the sway bar can be adjustable? I've never changed sway bars in the past, I think one can only buy thicker (or stiffer) sway bars...

And about tein's EDFC: some friends of mine just fitted tein's coilovers with the EDFC. you think it isn't worth it? What are the 'different spring rates'?

Oops sorry, I asked too much propably...:o

 

why would less grip be a design goal?

also, are the RB swaybars good for coilovers? Are they adjustable? I don't know which sway bars are adjustable.

 

RotorManiac: I had a adjustable rear sway bar on my FB. On such a bar, the piviot points remain the same. The end link is moved fore (harder) and aft (softer) to change the leverage on the bar.
Zaku-8: If you only want to purchase one setup for the car, I would by all the components from one manufacturer like RB. They, most likely, have done some testing to make sure their equpment works together.
Is less grip a design goal, no. Shocks are adjustable to keep your tires planted on the track. Some race tracks are smooth and a stiff shock is used. On a bumpy surface, a softer setting is used. For the street, I would think a slightly firmer shock would be ideal, but only if you were a aggressive driver.

 

Sorry about that I didn't mean to sound like an a#! rereading what I wrote I did sound like that. I didn't realize we were both posting at the same time :o
alnielsen answered the sway bar question for you as for the EDFC its simply 4 electric motors one on top of each strut that you control from inside the car to adjust your dampening. This can be nice but, I have found that personally (on my own cars) once I've found the right dampening setting I tend to leave it alone. (there are only 2 tracks here and they are pretty close in grip for the typical street/weekend track car)

 

That's right. Adjustable sway bars on street car simply consist of more than one hole on the end of the sway bars, where they mount to the suspension. The hole at the end of the sway bar is the "softest", and it will get stiffer the farther in you mount it. Now, these aren't going to be big changes, so you have to get a swaybar that's already close to what you need to begin with.

Depending on how the sway bar is designed (if there is enough flat area at the ends of the bar), you can take a standard sway bar, and make it adjustable by drilling additional holes on the end of the sway bar, and then you'll have a stiffer set up. For those people who want to try stiffer than stock w/o spending money, you might be able to try this on the stock bar.

---jps

 

I completely agree with that too. For my street/track car, I had a street setting that never needed to be changed, and when I hit the track, I'd change the swaybar and stiffness settings to whatever I needed for the track and conditions when I changed the brake pads. For some conditions like full rain, I'd keep the same pads and settings as street, and maybe even soften things if the track surface was old and real slippery when wet (like Hallet before they repaved it. Look out for them turtles!).

---jps

 

alnielsen, steve, sputnik. Thank you guys for all your answers! Much appreciated!