Whiteline Swaybars

[_Ryan_]

Hey all,

thought i would post my experience with whiteline swaybars.

All parts were correct for the vehicle.

Fitted the front on a hoist in under 30mins, popped exhaust off, removed rear, went to fit it and it wouldn't line up...

My mechanic fiddled and got it on, but we then were disappointed with the design, to tired to explain, but they have got the link binding the bushes against the bar to stiffen it up, and it will chew the bushes. I spoke to my mechanic, and they normally get custom ones made properly for the race/rally cars, with a swivel in the end of the link...

The car feels looser, but sits flatter. On the up hand, with whiteline camber/castor bushes, the front end felt alot better until i put the bars in, and my rear tires are no longer being chewed.

Wish i spent the extra $100 per end

-Ryan

[pixel8r]

That dont sound too good...

so which parts would you recommend? Would you say the camber/castor bushes were worth it over the stock items?

And my impression from your post is that the whiteline swaybars, whilst making it drive flatter, actually make it worse to drive ??

Just wanted to clarify in case I ever get the urge to upgrade any of this stuff.

[wolverine]

pics?

they had to re-profile mine to fit around the exhaust (RS4s). otherwise i had no other issues fitting them.

[_Ryan_]

That dont sound too good...

so which parts would you recommend? Would you say the camber/castor bushes were worth it over the stock items?

And my impression from your post is that the whiteline swaybars, whilst making it drive flatter, actually make it worse to drive ??

Just wanted to clarify in case I ever get the urge to upgrade any of this stuff.

I reccomend their bushes. That is it. gonna track down some nismo springs, or go custom.

i got the bushes installed yesterday, best upgrade possible for a stagea, camber/castor and thats it. the swaybars were a waste of money.

I will try and get comparison photos next week, big rally this weekend so could have trouble getting hoist time.

Here are my findings:

After Bilsteins- Felt good

After Whiteline camber/castor bushes- great turn in, front end felt 'tighter' more steering feel, slightly heavier steering.

After Swaybars- possibly sits flatter, car feels 'sloppy'

I'm going to put some KM's on the car, then if i don't like it, will be selling the whiteline bars and going to stockies and spending the money on the datto.

-Ryan

[ssshonky]

hey Ryan .. I am very interested in discussing this ..

I was going to get the swaybar so that I could get a bit of the body roll out of the Stagea .. but now your saying they did SFA for you?

well... not really SFA but 5/8ths there of

have you gone thru all these suspension changes in an orderly manner? cause sometimes chaning manythings at once leaves you a bit confused as to what made what difference ( if that makes sense )

can you define " sloppy" is that more in the fact that you still have a good amt of body roll?

just out of curiosity what profile tire you running? lower profile will give you a harsher ride but it will definately give you less roll in the corners.

May I ask how much the whiteline camber/castor bushes set you back ?

I reccomend their bushes. That is it. gonna track down some nismo springs, or go custom.

i got the bushes installed yesterday, best upgrade possible for a stagea, camber/castor and thats it. the swaybars were a waste of money.

I will try and get comparison photos next week, big rally this weekend so could have trouble getting hoist time.

Here are my findings:

After Bilsteins- Felt good

After Whiteline camber/castor bushes- great turn in, front end felt 'tighter' more steering feel, slightly heavier steering.

After Swaybars- possibly sits flatter, car feels 'sloppy'

I'm going to put some KM's on the car, then if i don't like it, will be selling the whiteline bars and going to stockies and spending the money on the datto.

-Ryan

[Tangles]

the Whiteline 'adjustable' front and rear swaybars are one of the BEST mods you could do

well, I stick by that anyway....... an awesome upgrade IMO

edit: I use Bilstein shocks, standard springs, Whiteline adjustable swaybars, Whiteline front castor and rear pineapples

No body roll to speak of, great handling, very smooth ride, turn and point and accelerate

[ssshonky]

I know I was gobsmacked when I heard that Ryan was not happy with it.

ryan did you crank the swaybar right up to teh tightest it goes?

[stasis]

After i installed the front link and rear adjustable camber arm. I ended up getting -2camber in the front and the rears went from -2.69 to -0.5. The car felt very nice. More road feel, shrper steering and the rear grips when especially in windy roads. Took the car out for a drive to melbourne through toobrack, lancefield kilmore way. Very nice!!

[ssshonky]

thanks everyone .. I am going to start getting a bit more in the know abotu these things

the handling of the stagea as it is leaves a bit to be desired.

After i installed the front link and rear adjustable camber arm. I ended up getting -2camber in the front and the rears went from -2.69 to -0.5. The car felt very nice. More road feel, shrper steering and the rear grips when especially in windy roads. Took the car out for a drive to melbourne through toobrack, lancefield kilmore way. Very nice!!

[_Ryan_]

Okay, gotta be quick coz i'm ment to be converting the back of the stagea into a bed...

Fitted bilsteins first, defiantly worth every cent. Using standard springs.

Fitted Bushes day before yesterday, everything felt BEAUTIFUL, turn in was great, general 'feel' was improved, the poly replacing the old rubber amazed me, front felt superb.

Fitted swaybars yesterday, rear on softest, front on softest, front end feels like it has shit bushes now, aligned today by traction tires, they did a good job, recommend them highly. Took it for a short drive, unhappy with the bodyroll, doing 800km this weekend, so will assess it, if i have time, half way through i will stiffen up the front bar, will report back next week. Talking to the guy at traction(manager, great bloke), we discussed it and the general dynamics of what the car is doing, he agreed with my conclusion: Return to stock bars, get custom springs and shocks valved to suit. Probably keep to pretty much the same specs as whiteline springs, just better quality. Might try and track down some Nismo S-tech.

The Design of the whiteline bars uses the binding up of the bushes/links to cheaply stiffen the car/hopefully reduce bodyroll. This hasn't given me a good effect/feel, and i will review my decision to return to stock after this weekend, but right now you can tell what i am thinking. Also on the topic of whiteline design, they used shit quality fittings, as with all swaybars i have bought i will be going to a 'bolt barn' type joint and replacing all nuts/bolts with high tensile items that properly fit my sidchrome spanners.

The only reason why i am considering aftermarket springs is because lowering with the circlips reduces tire/wheel clearance.

225/50/16 Bridgestone RE001's, tested 38-42psi hot pressures on various days, and now stick to 40psi warm. I have always played with tires on the 16/r31's/stagea.

If anyone wants low KM swaybars, PM me

Cheers,

-Ryan

Edited November 23, 2007 by Ryan1600

[_Ryan_]

BTW, rear end feels nervous so i wouldn't recommend soft rear/soft front, i would go soft rear/stiff front as Gary recommends, but I personally prefer to start off soft and stiffen it until i find the sweet spot.

[Sydneykid]

Hi Ryan, let's work through the issues one by one;

they have got the link binding the bushes against the bar to stiffen it up,

I am not sure what you mean by this. The bushes rotate around the crush tubes, the crush tubes prevent overtightening of the bushes, so there is no possibility of binding.

The only reason why i am considering aftermarket springs is because lowering with the circlips reduces tire/wheel clearance

You would have to go below the recommend height (345 mm rear) for the lower spring seat positioning to be an issue. If you do go to an aftermarket spring please be carefull in your choices as nothing I have found off the shelf suites the Stagea's balance. That includes Nismo.

rear end feels nervous

Have a look at your toe and camber settings on the rear, I have tried all the combinations of bar setting and I have never ever felt any nervousness in the rear. Try a little toe in (2 mm each side) if you feel the necessity, but I would be surprised if you do

car feels 'sloppy'

You haven't mentioned what sized bars you have , but I assume they are the sizes as recommended in the Group Buy. Fitting the rear 24 mm bar has increased the rear roll stiffness by over 100%, that is the important end with a Stagea (waggon, high CoG + low roll centre = big roll couple). The front roll stiffness is around a 50% increase, any more than that and we end up with a tad too much understeer. With that amount of roll stiffness increase, I am not sure how you can describe it as "sloppy".

I have been fitting upgraded swaybars to my own cars for over 30 years, I have yet to find one single car that hasn't benefitted from their fitment. In a customer car sense, I have only ever had one car that sufferd when upgraded bars were fitted and it had the hardest tyres I have ever seen. Put a decent tyre on it and it was fine. So, you are either feeling for something that isn't there, perhaps expecting too much of reduction in roll or there is something wrong in the product selection or their fitment.

There are over 30 Stagea running around with the Group Buy kits fitted to them and I have had nothing but positive feed back. Even Duncan (who races an R32GTR) was pleasantly surprised at how well his Stagea handled the SAU track day at Wakefield Park. I am always willing to help, so feel free to contact me anytime.

Cheers

Gary

[stasis]

Ohhh COol man!! GARY is back!!!

[_Ryan_]

Gary, Traction Tyres in Rowville did the alignment, i told them the settings you mentioned and mentioned your name, he knew of you and did it off of that... couldn't get enough of my rear camber out(still have -1), but he explained to me the dynamics of IRS and why i shouldn't go for less. I might try and change the front bar to the hardest setting now.

-Ryan

[stasis]

Gary, Traction Tyres in Rowville did the alignment, i told them the settings you mentioned and mentioned your name, he knew of you and did it off of that... couldn't get enough of my rear camber out(still have -1), but he explained to me the dynamics of IRS and why i shouldn't go for less. I might try and change the front bar to the hardest setting now.

-Ryan

hei ryan whats your front camber like? mine is -2 rear is 0.5. Feels great although the steering its a lottle bit sensitive.

[_Ryan_]

hei ryan whats your front camber like? mine is -2 rear is 0.5. Feels great although the steering its a lottle bit sensitive.

REAR: L R

Camber -1.04 -0.56

Toe +1.0mm +1.4mm

Front

Camber -1.05 -0.51

Toe +0.3mm +0.2mm

Castor +5.16 +5.13

when i can get back in with craig will play with it following exactly what gary said with the front bar stiffer, then go from there.

[unique1]

....

Edited November 23, 2007 by unique1

[_Ryan_]

....

?

[stasis]

REAR: L R

Camber -1.04 -0.56

Toe +1.0mm +1.4mm

Front

Camber -1.05 -0.51

Toe +0.3mm +0.2mm

Castor +5.16 +5.13

when i can get back in with craig will play with it following exactly what gary said with the front bar stiffer, then go from there.

Why is your left side have more of everything? purposely did it? On my rig before i installed the components it have more of everything on the right!! LOL!!

[Tangles]

ok, I waited a year and a half prior to doing a wheel alignment

(only just had the front castor fitted)

settings:

Front caster: Left 5.29 Right 4.33

Front camber: Left -1.19 Right -1.18

Front toe: Left 0.4 Right 0.7 Total 1.1

Rear camber: Left -1.57 Right -1.27

Rear toe: Left 0.5 Right 0.9 Total 1.4

Thrust angle: 0.02

I am very happy with the handling

Stock springs are perfect: simply siad, aftermarket springs ARE NOT NEEDED when using the Bilsteins and circlips for lowering