Novaleadfoot, did a shop really charge you almost $200 to install them? I'm tired of shops getting over on folks down here.

 

$460 for the sways...$130 labor

http://www.hotchkis.net/sport_sway_b..._g37s_g35.html

 

had a chance to play with the new Hotchkis this weekend on my G37x sedan

I have been told before that the sway bars don't affect your straight-line driving...that's apparently not true...my ride is (very comfortably) more solid all the way around...there is a noticeable difference in the feel of the car even in a straight line...I'm impressed

another thing I notice is that putting sways on will considerably reduce the body roll and accentuate any flaws in your tires when cornering...ride is very solid but the soft sidewall in my 245-40-19 Primacy MXM4 when cornering now shows itself more clearly

comments?

 

Odd, my set are only adjustable in the rear. The front only has one hole. Rear has three.

 

The looser you set the rear, the less it will oversteer. The stiffer you set the rear, the more it will oversteer. I have had it set in all 3 settings. For my taste, the center setting is best. Each driver will have their own opinion of how they want it to feel, but I think a majority of the people I've seen comment chose the middle setting.
__________________

 

After a few Weeks driving on the stiffest setting on the front, I'm dropping back to the softest. Liked many others have experienced, I'm starting to get the infamous clunking noise coming from my end links. Maybe I'll go back once the weather gets warmer, but I don't want to invest in adjustable end links right now.

BTW Fred Beans Parts has the best price on sways around (sub $400)

 

Regarding that clunking noise. I believe it's a direct result of the fact that the Hotchkis directions call for a paltry 40 ft/lbs torque on the fastening nuts. After about 800 miles, I started hearing a clunking noise over bumps and upon quick inspection I discovered that the nuts had backed off of their torque settings. The right front was too loose to measure. The left front was back to less than 20 ft/lbs. The rears were "maybe" backed off a bit.

A while back I installed sways in another car and the torque settings were significantly tighter; roughly 140 and 160 as I recall.

In any case, I re-tightened them all; this time to a setting quite a bit tighter than the original 40 ft.lbs and the clunking is totally gone. I'll report back in another 800 miles to let you all know if the tighter settings held.

Tom in NH

 

According to the FSM, front bar to end link torque is 62 ft lb (84 NM)

For rear 41 ft lb (55 NM).

So the rears aren't too far off from the Hotchkis spec. What I would do is apply some blue locktite to the threads before torquing them down. This is the medium strength stuff that should easy break bond with standard hand tools. If you use red, that will require heat to break it loose and is not necessary.

 

Cool Dabo. I'll check my specs today. Hopefully this is the problem, because I thoroughly enjoy the stiffest setting on the front bar.

 

I went back under my G this evening and switched back to the first hole on the front sway bar. I can still feel the chunking, but ever so slightly. I sure hope I didn't screw up my ever links riding all the way stiff. My advice going forward is if your G is a DD, and you have any kind of bumpy roads, stay away from full stif.

 

Even if the end links are torqued down properly, the holes might have elongated when they were loose. I'd disconnect them and examine under good light. If they are no longer round, you might have to replace them.

 

So everything is properly torqued now. One thing I did see is large quantities of grease squirting out of the sides of the bushings. Also when I had the end links disconnected, the bars did not move as easily as I expected them to. Tomorrow I'm going to buy a grease gun and lube them again using the zerk fittings. I have two questions: 1) what PSI should I be looking for on the grease gun, and 2) any suggestions for a grease that doesn't get too thick in cold weather?

 

When I had my Hotchkis bars installed, beside using the grease they give you with the bars I bought a tube of the grease that Hotchkis recomends for use with their bars (kind of pricey at $26. a tube) but shot a good load of the stuff in the zerk fittings till it oozed a bit. I have about 750 miles since the install and no noise at all so far. By the way settings are most stiff if front and center setting in rear. Couldn't be happier with the outcome.

 

I'd love to go back to those settings, but until I can isolate the noise, I'm stuck. I'll update how the lubing affects my situation.

 

Quick Update on the CLUNKING noise:

I put the Hotchkis Sway Bars in a few weeks ago and used the as-directed torque settings (40 ft/lbs). My mechanic friend who did the install with me actually said at that time that those torque setting weren't enough, but we followed the directions anyway. Within a week, the front nuts had come loose and I was experiencing the same clunking noise that so many up here have talked about.

We put it back on the lift and I let him torque things the way he saw fit. He brought the fronts to 90 ft/lbs and the rears to 80 ft/lbs. He also used blue lock-tight.

With the old torque settings, the parts became loose after 350 miles. I've now done 1,000 miles on the new torque settings and there's no clunking noise of any kind coming from under the car.