Fitting an uprated front anti-roll bar

The author fitted an uprated bar in 2009 after finding on a track day that the car had a bit too much body roll. He chose the Eliseparts S2 adjustable bar because it was a good price, came with nylatron bushes, is stronger than the original and is adjustable. It is a direct replacement for the standard bar. The thread's own photos have since vanished, so this page is the written steps with the additions below. Photos of the job are on verboom.net, which was linked in the thread. The thread doesn't say which year of car he had.

Taking the old bar out

1. Jack up the front so that both wheels are off the ground, secure it with axle stands and remove both wheels. Then take off the front under tray: 10 bolts, with an 8 mm socket and ratchet.
2. Disconnect the drop links from the bar. The bar is held to the chassis by two brackets, and each end is bolted to a drop link. Use a 17 mm socket on the nut that holds the link on. The internal joint just spins, so push back the rubber boot on the link to reveal a joint you can hold with a 17 mm spanner. Do both sides this way. One owner's drop link nuts were seized, and the thread doesn't say how he freed them.
3. Undo the chassis brackets. Each bracket is held by two bolts, put in from the wishbone side, and both are awkward:
   • The top bolt is partly hidden by a piece of the aluminium frame, which has a hole about 8 mm across for an Allen key. That only lets you turn the bolt about a quarter turn at a time, and it took nearly 15 minutes for one bolt. The author then drilled the hole out to 10 mm, which let him use a hex bit with two extensions, and the second top bolt took less than a minute. That is his own modification of the frame piece, and the thread doesn't discuss whether drilling it is wise.
   • Another way for the Allen key: cut an Allen key from a cheap set just before the bend on the long side, put the cut end in the socket head bolt, and turn it with a socket and ratchet on the other end.
   • The lower bolts are hidden by the lower wishbones. You could remove the wishbone completely, but the author took out the bolt nearest the front of the car and knocked it up a little with a piece of wood and a mallet. With the wishbone out of the way, an Allen key or the hex bit with extensions and a ratchet will undo the lower bolts.
4. Drill the rivets out of the two aluminium panels. Even with the bar disconnected, two aluminium panels riveted to the chassis and the crash box stop it coming out. Drill the three rivets out and prise the panel off the crash box with a flat screwdriver.
   • Can it slide out from one side? No: one owner wasted time trying when he fitted his. The only way would be to straighten the bar, which might do for the old one but isn't a good idea for the new one.
   • Do you have to refit the panels? The supplier's instructions state that the little aluminium plate isn't necessary and doesn't do anything structural. One owner replaced his anyway, because it was a simple matter of 3 rivets per side, and he doesn't intend to take the bar off again as it is adjustable in place.
5. Lower the bar out and put the new one in.

Fitting the new bar

1. Use plenty of lubricant between the new bushes and the bar.
2. Reverse the removal steps. The one change the author made was to fit stainless socket head M8 x 25 mm bolts, left over from another project, in place of the lower chassis bracket bolts. He says that made refitting much easier, and means the wishbones won't need moving if he takes the bar off again.
3. Use a torque wrench to tighten things up. The thread doesn't give any figures. The torque values list has 25 Nm for the stabiliser bar to chassis clamp bolt and 45 Nm for the stabiliser bar to link rod, but that is for the standard fittings, and its source isn't known. Check what the instructions for your bar say.

Two different bush kits

The photos in the original guide show one kind of bush, and the kit you get may be different. In 2011 one owner found that his had a bush with a single hole and a stainless insert, plus a longer M10 bolt that appeared to go through the bush and the wishbone mounting, where the standard bar had its own bracket. The reply was that this is the version with the big nylatron block bush, which mounts through the wishbone mounting hole, and that you simply lose the original bushes and brackets.

• A gap behind the bush. On a block-bush version, one owner found a bung in the way, leaving a gap, and asked whether it was okay to cut the bung off. The reply was that removing it would be a very bad idea, and he noticed the red bonding. The block mounts are quite solid once fully installed. The other kind fits the original brackets.
• The same owner first thought of using superglue and washers as shims, and then decided not to, because the shims could become another place for corrosion. He said he would watch how the nylatron bushes wear. Those were his own choices, not advice from anyone else in the thread.

Adjusting it

The bar has five holes for adjustment. The closer the drop link is to the front of the car, the stiffer the bar. Counting the hole nearest the front as number one, the author says his old bar was equivalent to hole four. He set the new one to hole three, so that it was a bit stiffer than standard, and planned to go stiffer later if needed. The bar can be adjusted without removing it.

What owners felt afterwards

• The author (April 2009): after the first drive in the dry, the car was understeering significantly more. He expected a little more in the wet but thought it would feel better in the dry. He wondered whether it was set too stiff, or whether his Bridgestones weren't working well when loaded, and planned to fit his R888s, move the drop links back one position and adjust his bump and rebound settings. The thread doesn't record what he found, and he said he wouldn't have a true picture until the Nürburgring in May.
• Another owner (January 2012): was happy with the effect the bar has had on the handling.