Base 98 suspension upgrades

[ike84]

Fwiw, I wouldn't spend $ on new sway bars until you get competitive and identify a specific aspect of the setup that needs tweaking.

If you're looking to correct understeer (common complaint with this car) for canyon carving, just go up to 225s up front. (Larger front sway will likely worsen your understeer, which I doubt is what you want. That again depends a lot on the rest of your setup though)

If you want to loosen the rear end, disconnect the rear sway bar and tie it out of the way for the day.

There are lots more scenarios and suggestions that don't require a different sway bar. In addition, it's hard to predict exactly what effect a different sway will have and is something that needs to be vetted it through trial and error most of the time.

The point is to set up the suspension around your driving, and the stock sways are pretty good for nearly all types of driving.

In terms of bushings, absolutely replace them. You'd be surprised how this may change the handling. I used energy suspension PU bushings on mine and they're fantastic (and a third the price of oem).

Also, if you're struts are shot, you can consider a set of coilovers. Even the inexpensive ones are better than the 20 year old oems. This will give you a ton of freedom to dial in your suspension in a controlled, predicable manner.

Sent from my SM-N976V using Tapatalk

[chromecarz00]

Originally Posted by ike84

Fwiw, I wouldn't spend $ on new sway bars until you get competitive and identify a specific aspect of the setup that needs tweaking.

If you're looking to correct understeer (common complaint with this car) for canyon carving, just go up to 225s up front. (Larger front sway will likely worsen your understeer, which I doubt is what you want. That again depends a lot on the rest of your setup though)

If you want to loosen the rear end, disconnect the rear sway bar and tie it out of the way for the day.

There are lots more scenarios and suggestions that don't require a different sway bar. In addition, it's hard to predict exactly what effect a different sway will have and is something that needs to be vetted it through trial and error most of the time.

The point is to set up the suspension around your driving, and the stock sways are pretty good for nearly all types of driving.

In terms of bushings, absolutely replace them. You'd be surprised how this may change the handling. I used energy suspension PU bushings on mine and they're fantastic (and a third the price of oem).

Also, if you're struts are shot, you can consider a set of coilovers. Even the inexpensive ones are better than the 20 year old oems. This will give you a ton of freedom to dial in your suspension in a controlled, predicable manner.

Sent from my SM-N976V using Tapatalk

Awesome response, thanks

For me, this started with wanting to refresh my whole tired suspension - all the clattering, crashes and bangs were starting to get on my nerves. Part of that for me was the sway bushings and the drop links, I figured if I'm upgrading everything, might as well?

I have 19s on the car that have pretty good grip, 265 in the back and I believe 235 in the front. I'm pretty happy with the setup, but a bit of additional rear bias isnt the worst thing. I also figured that setting the car up for when I start auto-x is a good thing.

I actually bought the 987 sway bar/bushing/endlink as a used assembly off of eBay. I figured if I'm replacing, I may as well upgrade and try to get to the m030.

From what I read, 987 has the same stiffness as m030.

When you say loosen the rear end, do you mean remove oversteer?

Tia