What is the best Sway Bar for TL-P or TL-S?
Comptech Sway Bar 27mm front/ 22mm rear
Eibach Anti Roll Bar 27mm front/ 23mm rear
Neuspeed Sway Bar 27mm front/ 19mm rear

I am looking for Eibach...but it is the most expensive one. I find one which is like around 320 USD/ 500 CAD. But I heard that since our TLs are equipped 27mm front Sway Bar already, so I don't think we need those front sway bars replaced.
One of the best things for Neuspeed Sway bar is we can buy them seperately. So what we need here is ONLY the rear sway bar replaced. But unfortunately Neuspeed rear Sway bar is only 19mm which is the same size as TL-S one. For those TL-P might be a "upgrade" one, but if we can get Eibach Sway Bar seperately, then we can save $$$. So what do you guy think and where can I get the cheapest price for Eibach Sway Bars?

 

The best sway bars u can buy would be Eibach. If u don wanna spend that much on Eibach, go with Neuspeed next

 

Since you live out west ... you won't really have to worry about salt on the road. I'd go with Comptech. I have CT springs / sways (note: springs come out in a month or two for Tein springs). Comptech has had a good reputation for quality parts (up until recently) and performance. Call around the VAN area to see how stocks CT parts. Some places in Toronto I know but you might get burned due to shipping.

BTW, your car will handle totally different when you get the sways installed!!!

 

do you guys recommend replacing the rear only or both sways. I thought I read replacing the rear is the most important.

what is the diameter on the TLP front and rear sway?

 

it is 27 mm front , 18 mm rear

 

thanks alot! so why do people replace the front one? and is it even worth getting the Neuspeed rear sway?

 

First of all, you need to identify the handling characteristics of the TL. The stock setup is designed to understeer. Why?....because it is much easier to recover from a understeer condition than a oversteer. Get off the gas and presto, you're back on track (given you don't hit the brakes and lock the muther up). Get off the gas during oversteer will whip the backend around and put you in a position which would be much harder to recover from.
So, to reduce understeer you need to soften up the front and stiffen up the back. This would include softer springs and sways up front. Changing the rear swaybar with a stiffer one sure makes sense; changing out the front with a identifcal or stiffer bar would be counter-productive.

Other setup changes to consider to reduce understeer; tire pressure, section width, alignment tweaks, bushings.

 

so your saying its not good to replace the front sway or strut bar, but increasing the rear sway is good?

 

Going from the stock 19mm bar to 22mm, Comptech probably made it stiffer than necessary to even it out, THEN stiffened up the front to even it out, and make the car firmer both front AND back.

Does that make sense?

I like my Comptech sway bars. I got 'em for 303 shipped new. It's stiff enough for me. In the snow, the ass-end snaps out all the time.

 

Even though the OEM front and the Comptech front sway bars are both 27mm thick, the Comptech one is stiffer because it has a thicker tube wall than the OEM one. So there will be less body roll at front of the car as well, if installed.

 

Eibach is the best and the more stiff than the other aftermarket sways. Their front is the same as Comptech and Neuspeed, but the Eiibach rear is larger & stiffer. Neuspeed used to have a "race" rear bar that was stiffer than the Eibach, but it hasn't been available for over a year. I would go with the Eibach, especially if your into hard cornering.

 

Eibach is awesome. I got mine used here for ~220 shipped. Best upgrade i've ever done; you'll feel the results. The car whips around curves a lot sharper now! Go with used sways if you can find 'em, no need to buy them new.

 

is it hard to install the front and rear sway bars? can i do it myself? so, out of all the manufacturers of sway bars, Comptech's are the ones that you guys would buy last??

 

id say comptech and Neuspeed are same...Eibach first if u can find em used as others have said. Its not bad to go with Comptech or Neuspeed, ull definitley feel the difference, but Eibach will give u a slightly better edge in handling.

 

Neuspeed swaybars are pretty much useless - their rear sway is as thick as the standard TL-S sway. Your only real choices are Comptech or Eibach; just go with whichever you can get cheaper. Eibachs will be stiffer, so if you can get both CT and Eibach for the same price, go with Eibach.

 

Do you carry stuff or passengers around in the rear often? If so, how much weight?

You have to be careful when choosing the sway bars especially in the rear because you don't want to go too stiff. For example, I found out this past week while installing my Tein SS that I bent the plate to which the rear sway bar end link attaches to. Most likely when I had passengers in the rear and hit a big pothole or too much difference in height between left and right. I will have to replace that.

Edgalang, I think it was, broke a couple of those plates, too. He had the Neuspeed race sway bar in the rear.

Just keep that in mind and don't simply go for the thicket bars.

 

All you need is a 14mm combination wrench, 5mm allen wrench, and wd40. Follow the DIY linkSway DIY

 

I would actually recommend PB Blaster. That stuff works ten times better than WD40. Just don't let it sit on your skin for too long.

 

maybe im mistaken but, from what i take from this thread is that the aftermarket sways will increase sliding in the snow?! am i right? if this is true, then this mod would make the TL real bad for winter driving

 

Well, yeah. The lateral force that would be normally absorbed by the movement of the suspension is now being directed to the ground. That's how I put my car into a ditch the first time after putting the Comptech sway bars on my car. I also hit an ice patch, but still the same principle. It was an expensive lesson, and since then I've learned to keep the car under control in the snow. You just have to be careful. I have made that turn in my subdivision thousands of times, and I just got a bit cocky, I guess, when I wasn't really aware of the car's new driving characteristics.

 

so i would be better off not getting sways.

 

I wouldnt get them if I lived in NY...if that means anything too you. New sways are real fun on dry roads, but on wet, icy or snow roads you will wish you didnt have them

 

Aren't the roads really shitty in NYC, anyway?

If you have passengers or stuff in the car (significant amount of extra weight) and hit a pothole or something, then you could bend or break the plate to which the end links attach.

I fit 5 girls in the back of my car (don't ask), and at the time, I thought I got away with it. But I realized that the driver side rear plate is slightly bent.

 

ok great, thanks for that info lol. i def wont get them then. this past winter i spun out in the snow, but that was b.c i was being REALLLLLLL stupid. but thank god nothing bad happened. thanks for all the info

 

When a car is taking hard corners, the car leans and rides on the shoulders of the tires intead of the flat tread blocks. That's why treads are designed into the tire shoulders as well. What aftermarket (means harder) sways and springs/shocks do is to force the tread blocks to maintain more contact with the roads than stock when cornering hard. So the car can take corners at a higher speed than stock.

When I said cornering hard, I mean cornering hard. You just can't drive the same way in the wet as in the dry, let alone in the snow. The tires will have already lost traction in the snow before the sways start having effects. The most effective ways to prevent sliding in the snow is to have 4 snow tires and to drive slowly.

I have Comptech sways and (wider than stock) 225/50/17 snow tires, and I never have problem with accidental sliding in the snow unless I wanted it to.

 

it's really weird.....before i installed my sumitomos and had the stock michelins....also before i put in the CT sways, whenever i cut the wheel and hit the brakes i would go into a real bad skid which was really hard for the VSA and myself to correct...

after i installed the comptech sways, i noticed that i can't purposely go into a skid by cutting the wheen and hitting the brakes....and in the snow, it's impossible....i've never had the back out of control in the winter.....and i've tried so many times.....