RoW 030 sway bar installation on a 2.5L 5spd.

[blinkwatt]

While @ IPB today I had them take care of my air leak & I had them install the RoW 030 2.5L 5spd front sway bar. F.Y.I. the "s" front sway bar is the same as the 2.5L RoW 030. Now for everyone who is afraid of spinning out by adding sway bars,fear no more. I really like the new slightly adjusted handling feel after the install. The new front sway bar took away some(read not all) understeer in the handling,but not too much,keep in mind I still want to be able to drive it everywhere under any condition. The bar didn't transform the suspension into some monster that I'm afraid to drive,it's still very drivable and very predictable! It was a nice little mod that I will be glad to keep!

Cost of parts/labor;
OEM RoW 030 2.5L 5spd/"S" front sway bar - $50
Labor,1 hour - $98

Finally the car idles how it should(800 RPM steadily), and no more air leak!

[dcporsche99]

Sweet! Looks like you got a pretty good deal on the parts with labor too! :dance:

[blinkwatt]

Originally Posted by dcporsche99

Sweet! Looks like you got a pretty good deal on the parts with labor too! :dance:

Well the front sway bar came from a 02' "S" suspension I have sitting in the garage that I picked up for $50 awhile back.

As for labor my dad knows the guy,they used to work on VWs together when they were younger so he is willing to help me out some. Ron Kaine at IPB Motorsport kicks butt! He let's me go in the back and check out the work they are doing to my car,he even explained everything to me. When he found the air leak,he came to grab me and show me where it's at and what caused it(missing o ring). I don't know how many other shops will do that.

[dcporsche99]

Even better!!! You definitely got a good deal then!

BTW, where exactly was the leak?? What brought it on?? You didn't by chance take any pictures...did you?? I don't know if you posted something about this before on another thread?? Was it related to your O2 sensor possible issue?? Or maybe it was someone else that posted this??

Anyway, good to hear all is well!!

[blinkwatt]

BTW, where exactly was the leak?? What brought it on??

Awhile ago when I went to clean my throttle body I ran into a little trouble with that project. One of the 4 bolts that connecting the TB to the shaft between the intakes snapped on me,leaving half of the bolt in the shaft....Well I ordered a whole new shaft and forgot to take the "o" ring from the old shaft and put it on the new one. Because I forgot about the shaft "o" ring there was a tiny bit of space between the shaft and TB=air leak.

You didn't by chance take any pictures...did you??

Nope but they smoked test my intake and whala,air leak ahoy!

I don't know if you posted something about this before on another thread?? Was it related to your O2 sensor possible issue?? Or maybe it was someone else that posted this??

Nope that was me,Ron Kaine noticed it and couldn't figure it out why it was pending and the other codes were already there. He took care of the air leak and everything went away.

[dcporsche99]

Ohhh, now I remember...that's right! Well, glad it worked out!

[Allen K. Littlefield]

Certainly a good deal. Now are you going to install the rear bar too? I imagine these bars provide somewhat of a balance and you now have two different strength bars on and I am wondering what the handling results will be? Keep us posted as R030 sway bars are somewhere down the list for my '02. Thanks for sharing,

986geezer

[blinkwatt]

Originally Posted by Allen K. Littlefield

Certainly a good deal. Now are you going to install the rear bar too? I imagine these bars provide somewhat of a balance and you now have two different strength bars on and I am wondering what the handling results will be? Keep us posted as R030 sway bars are somewhere down the list for my '02. Thanks for sharing,

986geezer

I don't know about the rear sway bar. Too many people have said that changing the rear sway bar to the RoW rear sway bar makes the car "tail-happy". Just changing out the front sway bar keeps the car balanced and predicatable but w/ less understeer. The RoW 5spd(2.5L & 2.7L) & "S" FRONT SWAY BARS ARE THE SAME! Guess what?! The base(not RoW) 5spd suspension and base(not RoW) "s" share the same rear sway bar. I hope I'm not confusing anyone with this info. In short,I'm basically running the "S" sway bar set up as of right now.

http://www.cb-racing.com/boxster_030.html

[John V]

In general, moving to a thicker front sway bar will increase understeer, not decrease it. Remember that stiffening a sway bar will generally give you LESS grip at that end of the car.

(Some cars can actually see more grip with a larger front bar. This is due to the larger bar limiting roll and limiting the positive camber gain that strut-equipped cars experience in hard cornering. In my experience the Boxster isn't one of these cars).

The car probably feels better to you because it's rolling slightly less in corners. All that matters is that you like it. .

[Peer]

John V wrote:
> In general, moving to a thicker front sway bar will increase
> understeer, not decrease it. Remember that stiffening a sway
> bar will generally give you LESS grip at that end of the car.

If you mean by saying that "the end of the car" is the same as the REAR of the car, then this is a contradiction.

-- peer

[John V]

Originally Posted by Peer

John V wrote:
> In general, moving to a thicker front sway bar will increase
> understeer, not decrease it. Remember that stiffening a sway
> bar will generally give you LESS grip at that end of the car.

If you mean by saying that "the end of the car" is the same as the REAR of the car, then this is a contradiction.

-- peer

No contradition. A thicker sway bar installed at one end of the car gives you less grip at that end. i.e. a thicker front bar gives you less grip at the front end. A thicker rear bar gives you less grip at the rear end. My initial point was made because the OP seemed concerned that installing a thicker front anti-roll bar would cause his car to oversteer (or rather, decrease understeer). This is not a valid concern. It won't happen.

It is much more complicated than that dynamically, but in the simplest of terms this is true.

[Peer]

John V wrote:
> No contradition. A thicker sway bar installed at one end of
> the car gives you less grip at that end.

Yes, that's correct. I somehow read your initial post the other way. Sorry.

-- peer

[just_me]

A stiffer front bar would be used to cure over steer/tail-happiness. It will INCREASE under steer. Many people confuse flat,prompt turn-in with more grip int he front. Not so. In effect, a stiffer bar causes the wheel on THAT SAME axle to run at a higher slip angle - ergo a stiffer front bar causes more under steer.

I'm chasing a tail-happy boxster and job #1 is to replace the front sway bar bushings - the last remnant of the old, OEM suspension and likely, as the brits would say, perished.

Grant