has anyone whose lowered their max removed or heard of removing aftermarked rear sway bars b/c of oversteer problems? I think i remember a thread in where someone said that it's a good idea to let the stock rear beam do all the work when the center of gravity is lowered. My sprint springs dropped my max about 2" and i was wondering if i should take off my addco rsb. I had my back end come around on me a few days ago in the middle of a sharp turn. I wasn't going very fast, the road was just a little damp. got me thinking about taking it off. I have the bar adjusted about midway.Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

Always wondered the same thing.

 

i'm thinking about taking it off today just to see the difference. it's just going to be a b!tch getting under my car with the tools that i have and i wanted to get a little feedback first.

 

Why don't you just try it. The installation/deinstallation isn't that hard. See which way you like it better.

I'm not sure if the addco is adjustable. I know the stillen is. You can change the amount of sway reduction by adjusting the bar relative to the mounting brackets.

 

the addco is adjustable, and i have it adjusted midway, as i stated in my first post.

just wanted to see if anyone had tried this before i go tooling around under the max.

 

bump......

 

i personally prefer oversteer to understeer, so i would leave it alone, but i dont have one yet so what do i know.
WHEELMAN

 

Sell me the RSB...........are you willing to sell it???

 

 

UPDATE: sorry maximapolak, on second thought, i'm going to keep it on.

after not getting an answer in this thread i decided to just go ahead and find out for myself. I jacked the car up and instead of taking the rsb off I just adjusted it to it's minimum.(i just made it to where the two brackets were right beside each other). After finishing up with that & some work on the exhaust, Took it for a quick spin.
Let's just say that i found my answer @ the first sharp turn that i took. not good. It felt like the the car wasn't even lowered anymore. it reminded me of when my max was still stock. Basically, the car felt very sluggish going around the turn, not crisp like i'm now used to.
So that answers the question. glad i found out. I haven't had time to switch it back yet & probablly won't for 2 or 3 days so if any suprise benifits show up, although i doubt it, i will post. hope this helps anyone with the same question that i had.

 

hey maxdis1, didn't see your reply until after i made my last post. What your saying makes alot of sense. As i said in my original post, my incendent happend to me when the roads were wet.

Basically this is what I can make of it out of my experiences: When conditions are great, so is having the rsb installed. It makes turning feel sharper and make the max feel like it's not such a boat of a car. It really does make a huge difference, when the conditions are right.

like wheelman said earlier, i prefer oversteer rather than understeer. the problem with oversteer in our cars is that they are front wheel drive. In a rear wheel drive car, you can power out of a tail slide.( when the rear tires lose traction). sometimes, in rear wheel drive cars, it's desirable to break the back end loose for a power slide (damn, those were fun). But it's controlable. Since the max isn't sending power to the rear wheels, when they break loose, all that you can do is try to counter steer and hope for the best. Believe me, it wasn't a good feeling when i was going sideways down the road.

so, what i'm going to do is just put the sway bar back the way it was for normal conditions and just be very carefull when conditions are bad. knowing is half the battle, so they say. thanks to all who gave their input.

 

good info. i'm in the middle of tuning up my suspension. i was seriously thinking about buying a rsb until now. not that i don't like the tight sporty suspension, but w/ these stories, safety is definitely a factor that i wasnt considering

 

in my opinion and experience, i would go ahead and get the sway bar. The difference is amazing, a lot less body roll. I've been driving around today with the bar adjusted to the minimum and i feel like i'm driving an old cadilac or something. I will be re-adjusting it back as soon as i get a chance.

i think that if you just realize that there is a possibility for the back end to come around in bad conditions and drive accordingly that the positives outweigh the negatives. The suspension is supertight with the sway bar adjusted right.

also, i still have stock tires on the rear and that also plays a major factor. when i get my wheels i will be getting a much larger and stickier tire so it that should also help out with grip. just my 2 cents...

 

I just installed the Progress bar and I think I have it set at the stiffest setting. The brackets on the rear axle are moved all the way out towards the wheels and the brackets on the trailing arm are about 3 " or so from the end of the bar. So far I like the stiffer rear, but I'll just have to be even more careful when its wet.