Such a thing as too big of a sway bar?

[rudee023]

I am considering purchasing an R32 GTR rear sway bar for my car. The guys selling it said it is 26mm and will bolt right up as opposed to most rears which are 22mm. I will run it with a 30mm Tanabe Driftspec front. I wanted to know what the ill effects if any of this setup will be. Is this one case where bigger isn't always better?

[candela]

http://www.nissaninfiniticlub....57086

as you can see there are aftermarket bars that are larger...I know bigger isn't always better and lots can be noticed (assumign everything else is top notch) from going larger. Its not just that few mm increase... its a percentage in stiffness. I really do not know the ill effects of going a little to large as usually sticky tires, tire pressures, suspension settings...etc can make up for the rear wanting to come out from that bar. Check out that thread though, good luck!

[LiU]

I'm not a suspension guru but too big will make you lose traction (that's what a sway bar does essentially)... might not be a good idea for autoX or a course w/ relatively tight turns from the way I see it

[chandler]

to truely get the full use out of sway bars, you need stiffer springs, 90% is springs then tune the bars to finish the setup, and with tune I mean the adjustable ones

[Q45tech]

The general rule of thumb is the sway bar should always be less stiff than the springs........the shocks are not designed to control sway bars, so anytime you get above 25% stiffness derived from bar you have shock problems ------if you are using the bar [frequent side to side turns].Oem rear springs run 100-120 pounds per inch.

Factory typically don't install bars that are more than 25-33% of spring stiffness.

Personally for non professional racing conditions I would limit rear bar to no more than 50% ..........240# bar creating a 60# wheel rate...........that's something like a 24 mm rear bar on a Nissan which couples at the midpoint of lower arm.