Been saying it forever...

Sways are the best suspension mod you can do for the money hands down.

U wait until it gets a little warmer. Ur gonna **** yourself with how your car handles.

Oh...and coils just improve the sways....and good coils will be better than that.

 

Agreed, in terms of bang for the buck, but in fact, sways should be used to tune and tweak balance while proper spring and damping selections should be used to control roll and handling. i say that because you can get the body roll control of sways without the added laterally transferred harshness by using properly set up coils.

But again, if you are on a budget then sways are the answer. That's why I made the selection I did and why I still think it's a great mod for this platform if you aren't ready to go all-out.

 

Ash and I had a PM discussion that I'm going to bring into this thread, starting with the stipulation that in stock form, and when pushed to the edge without Traction Control, the RWD G37 will understeer before it oversteers. In other words, the front end will slip into the outside of the turn long before the back end starts to swing out. To compensate, you have to feather the throttle and do a little dance... which can be fun, but I think we can all agree that balance is better, and this car is not a Mustang. And then of course there's Traction Control, but where's the fun in that?

These Eibach Sways are adjustable, depending on which bolt-holes you use for the end-link connectors. The fronts have two settings (soft & hard), whereas the rears have three settings (soft, medium, hard). "Soft" means closest to the end of the bar, to maximize flex. "Hard" means furthest from the ends of the bar, to minimize flex. If you read the first few posts, Ash gave a lot of consideration on which settings to use, ultimately deciding on the softer of the two settings in the front sways, and the hardest of the three settings in the rear sways.

Here's my dilemma: he was expressing concerns that I would be suffering from understeer this year because I'm planning on two new Michelin Pilot Super Sports on my rear wheels, while getting one more year of use out of the OEM Bridgestone Potenza RE050A on the front wheels. I've only got less than 12K miles on the car, and the fronts still have another season of life in them.

Anyway, his thinking was that the PSS are so much of a better, more sticky tire, that it would cause an imbalance in grip, so much so that the front end would slip at the extents... i.e., understeer. And while I don't fully agree with him that these two tires are that dramatically different, it would be presumptive to dismiss the concerns off-hand for no reason other than guess-work.

So this is the idea I woke up with today: for initial setup, what if I followed his recommendations on the softer of the two settings in the front sways, but employ the *center* setting on the rears? And then after matching the fronts with a new pair of PSS, I simply adjust the rears to the hardest setting?

 

Problem is, the setting i chose is the most oversteery possible with these sways. You proposed setting is less- so it wouldn't help your situation.

 

'splain to me, Lucy.

Let me re-word that: assuming your thoughts about mixing PSS (rear) and RE050A (front) are noticeable enough to warrant concern, can they be addressed by choosing from the available settings on these sways?

 

So.

I have sways, coils, and a fairly new full set of PS2 on my G. I don't have the adjustable front sway due to them being HKS, but still. Now, that being said, I had the sways on BEFORE the PS2s. The setting on the rear was on medium. My over/under steering was completely gone on this setting. I could go into a long gradual highway curve, and literally not move the steering wheel or adjust the throttle......then I put on the PS2s. I gotta tell you, I disagree with . They are WAY different. The PS2s are a much better tire when it comes to gripping force, dry or wet. With the sways and potenza setup, I was slipping slightly on higher speed cornering. This completely went away with the PS2s. So...now that I have the sways and PS2s on the G, I decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about and adjusted the rear to the stiffest setting. This is where it has been for the last 6 months. I noticed that the back end slips out much easier and the tires spin around corners a lot. I have also noticed a SLIGHT oversteer that can be corrected with throttle control. I do like how much faster the car points in spirited driving situations, and on the highway it corners excellent, but I don't think the setting is good for daily driving or stretching your tire life. Soon as the warmer weather starts, I need to switch it back to medium because I think it's a much better setting for daily driving and spirited striving combo. If I were tracking the car, I probably would keep it on the stiffest setting and adjust the tire pressure down a little (maybe from 35psi currently to 32ish).

 

I think the setting that you might wanna try is, soft in front and middle in rear. Get your ps2s, then adjust from there. I truly think you're gonna be surprised how much a difference those tires are gonna make.

I can't think of a situation where you would wanna adjust the front to full stiff

 

Ok, ok... on this forum, owslystnly also lives in Rochester, and he has a 2010 6MT with a full set of PSS. He completely swears by these tires as superior to the OEM Bridgestone. Between the three of you (and Black Betty, too, from early last year), it's time for me to cry UNCLE! LOL

Be that as it is, I'm still only budgeting for $500 in tires this rear, because the rears are worn out (and already discarded), whereas the fronts still have another season of life in the tread. I'd like to run them mixed for 2013. So accepting that the rears will have more grip than the fronts, I'm trying to figure out where to go with the settings on the sways to best compensate.

And thanks for weighing in on this, Matt.

That's exactly what I was thinking, however Ash pushed me back and said I've got it backwards. Of course, I realize I can adjust things post-install. But without this discussion, I won't understand *how* to adjust them. So thanks for talking, guys.

 

Splainataion- middle setting on the rear will bias more rear traction vs my setting, so more understeer... Exacerbating your balance.

 

I ran PSS rears and Ventus V12 fronts for a while. Changing all 4 corners to PSS will make a world of difference. It's hard to really quantify. If you are going to run used Potenzas in the front and then switch them to PSS later, be sure to post your lament after switching to PSS on all 4 corners and be willing to admit your folly to the world. You'll kick yourself for it later thinking how much driving enjoyment you have deprived yourself of for all those miles.

 

I swear you must have majored in Hyperbole when in school. You certainly have a gift for it.

You may or may not remember, but it was your review on the PSS that laid these plans. But unless you want to gift me another five bills this year, it's a pretty difficult argument to go with 4 new PSS instead of just 2.

That's the situation I'm looking to account for in the sway bar settings. Any thoughts on where to go with that approach?

 

Also, Rochester, i should add that even though this is academic, you have the flex thing backwards. Closest to bar end means less bar flex, not more. That's why that is a "soft" setting.

 

Rochester, you're digging yourself quite a hole here.

Here, this might help:

http://www.nyracer.com/overunder.htm

 

http://www.timskelton.com/lightning/...orrections.htm

Read this link. It will help you i think.

 

Just letting you know my experience with doing the same thing you are planning to do. YMMV. I just dropped $1200+ on a new set so I feel your pain. And I got a discount.

My only other suggestion would be to play around with air pressure adjustments on each axle and see if it makes any appreciable difference with your driving style. See the first 2 understeer adjustments in the link Mike provided.

I have different sway bars (Hotchkis) and my front is not adjustable so I can't advise you on that from personal experience in this car. If it were me and I were going to run as you are, I'd start with the softest front, stiffest rear setting and see if that is too loose for me. If so, I'd make adjustments to stiffen the rear incrementally and leave the front softer if possible.

Good luck.