i just installed a gsr front sway bar on the front of my 99 hatch without power steering and it fills like i have to use more power to turn my steering wheel when taking anything more than a small turn, am i imagining this or is this a side affect of installing a sway bar???

 

You increased the understeer installing a larger front bar. Youll have to counteract it by installing a rear bar or a larger rear bar if you already have one. You can also increase your rear spring rates and increase negative camber in front to make it better.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the swaybar shouldn't make any difference in steering effort if the front end of the car isn't actually sliding, right? Yeah a bigger front bar can make the front slide when taking a hard corner, but what about normal driving? I don't see how a larger front sway bar would affect steering in those cases.


Modified by PatrickGSR94 at 5:37 AM 10/31/2008

 

hmm.. prolly installed something wrong? maybe there are some binding issues wit the bushings? or something? just a guess.

 

If you're increasing the work the front tyres are doing, they will be trying harder to align themselves against where you're pointing. i.e. more steering force due to higher tyre aligning torque.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by string &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you're increasing the work the front tyres are doing, they will be trying harder to align themselves against where you're pointing. i.e. more steering force due to higher tyre aligning torque.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I could see this happening if our cars had high caster angles like many German cars and other newer cars with Mac struts up front. But our steering knuckles are so close to vertical that I don't see how adding or stiffening the front sway bar would have any effect on steering at normal driving speeds.

 

he did say he had no powersteering, and "anything but a small turn", thats probably why the effect is more pronounced.


get a rear sway man, stiffen up that rear

 

thanks for the input, i have a gsr reay sway bar as well but i can figure how to mount it...the only holes i have on my rear lca's seem to be a few inches wider than the swaybar linkage piece, and the 2 mounts that go on the frame, well i dont have anywhere to mount them, and the holes i do see are to far apart..any help here