sway bar coming loose

FUBAR · Post by **FUBAR** » 28 Mar 2007, 01:21

I was poking around under the hood today, and found that the bar connecting the two shocks has a bit of play in it, about 15 degrees of rotation. Seems really loose since on my friends S60 its torqed down pretty good. Can I just borrow a torque wrench and have at it(how many lbs of torque?) and should I have the car lifted when I do this? Maybe the OEM bushing is shot and the motor is wrenching on the bar? Or could it be the stiff HD bilsteins punishing it?

I was poking around under the hood because I'm having horrible throttle response(if I floor it and let go real fast won't notice a thing). My cousin just cleaned his MAF on his E36 M3 and he said it helped a lot. All I know is my car weighs about 200lbs more than my friends S60(we both have T5) and mine feels a lot less responsive. Maybe new batt deleted the ETM software upgrade? I'm stumpted

Post by **JRL** » 29 Mar 2007, 15:49

That is not a sway bar, that is the engine brace and
should have play.
ipd sells bushings that make it tight, the car will drive a bit better (tighter) BUT you WILL have more vibration at idle.
That and the top mount are vibation dampeners

FUBAR · Post by **FUBAR** » 31 Mar 2007, 18:30

Hey thanks JRL, I actually found a performance site (www.vivaperformance.com) that makes a bracket that converts this engine stabilizer into a swaybay, only a tad over a hundred bucks too. As for the lost power, I still am clueless. Are those fuel system cleaners harmful?

Post by **JRL** » 31 Mar 2007, 19:54

FUBAR wrote:Hey thanks JRL, I actually found a performance site (www.vivaperformance.com) that makes a bracket that converts this engine stabilizer into a swaybay, only a tad over a hundred bucks too. As for the lost power, I still am clueless. Are those fuel system cleaners harmful?

You have the wrong terminology. A sway bar is at the BOTTOM of the car.
It ties the suspension together (to oversimplify)
At the most it turns into a STRUT TOWER BRACE.
Be prepared for some serious vibrations at idle if you overstiffen that too much.

FUBAR · Post by **FUBAR** » 31 Mar 2007, 20:27

haha, thanks for correcting me.

I think I understand now the function of this bar much better. Your 100% right about the vibrations, the s60 with the tighter engine brace does have more vibration and a lot more noise at idle as well. Thanks a lot man!