Derbo's ZHP

[derbo]

New item (to me) install day!

Hotchkis 30mm Front Sway Bar.





Install
It's pretty simple to install. Jack up car, remove front wheels, undo endlinks, undo d brackets, reverse. Couldn't be any easier. It is hard to tell in the pictures but the Hotchkis 30mm bar looks larger than the UUC 27mm bar. The Poly bushings are smaller on the Hotchkis and there was an extra bracket to install as well. I set the bar to the medium setting to test drive on one of the local mountain roads. Kings Mountain Road.



Initial Impressions
My car is not setup for the street at all.. My track pads are still on the car and they couldn't warm up properly on the mountain road as it is a very tight "course" with a few 10mph hairpins. The car felt like it was understeering at the hairpins and it was hard to determine if there was any improvement from the 27mm bar on full stuff. At this point it seems on the street it was hard to determine the cause of the understeer. I will have to drive it more and see how it performs on the track but as of now, it definitely feels stiffer in the front. When I get a chance, I'll fiddle with the settings and try out the softest setting .

[derbo]

Did you want to plug into my car this weekend to compare its DISA valve actuation to yours? I will have the car this weekend and next.

I will have to back to you Antone. As of right now, it is up in the air if I'm heading back to the city on Sunday or not.

[SoCalZman]

Sure, no worries. I will be around. Enjoy your new sway bar!

[derbo]

I realized its been awhile since I've replaced my FCABs (30k ago) and I've started to notice sudden jerks of the brake pedal at low speeds shook the steering wheel. I also have a high speed steering wheel shake It may be time to replace those silly FCABs. It's been 30k with many track days inbetween.

Time to replace them with these bad boys: Z4M FCAB.

I hope to get a little more caster and still have good clearance on the front side of the fender.

[Johal E32]

^I have those and love it. I do rub upon hard corners, I need too loose my 15mm spacers and get 12.5 or 10mm.

[derbo]

^I have those and love it. I do rub upon hard corners, I need too loose my 15mm spacers and get 12.5 or 10mm.

Nice! How much more caster does it add? Do you rub on the inner fender? My brake ducts are of concern on full lock already.

[Johal E32]

No, the outer lip. Like I said I think the spacers lowered my offset too much lolol. oh well.

I think I gained 1 degree of caster, I forget. Didn't check alignment before he fcab install. However, it is visibly more forward in the wheel well.

[derbo]

No, the outer lip. Like I said I think the spacers lowered my offset too much lolol. oh well.

I think I gained 1 degree of caster, I forget. Didn't check alignment before he fcab install. However, it is visibly more forward in the wheel well.

Good to know. I believe I have roughly 5degrees of caster at the moment. I will have to dig up my alignment specs.

[Johal E32]

Okay, so I am at 6. My alignment is more aggressive than stock, but also conservative as my car sees street more than auto-cross. I did bump the front negative camber to around -1.4 or -1.5. Rear is -2.0.

[derbo]

Okay, so I am at 6. My alignment is more aggressive than stock, but also conservative as my car sees street more than auto-cross. I did bump the front negative camber to around -1.4 or -1.5. Rear is -2.0.

I have camber set at 2.7 front and 2.0 rear. I need to head to my parents place to check my alignment records.

sent from Moto X Dev Edition