Fitted sway bars to S13

[Gary57]

So I fitted bigger sway bars to my road going S13, the rear went to 20mm and the front to 27mm as per Whiteline. Now the handling is absolutely FANTASTIC, handles like the car is on coilovers (I have Koni yellow adjustables and stock springs).

The only issue I have is at high speed the steering is very positive and feels twitchy even with the smallest of steering inputs. This tells me that I have too much ARB on the rear, problem is I cannot make it softer only harder. Would it help if I turned my rear dampers down, they are on about 40% now?? Surely this would allow more roll and in turn less positive steering??

[WorkInProgressK]

You sure you just didnt create some positif toe when you droped the car?

[Matt93SE]

As WIP said, check alignment before you make any adjustments.

On my S14, I run the rear shocks slightly stiffer than the fronts and the car is rock solid stable at any speed.

[Gary57]

I havent droped the car, I have stock springs... Car handled perfect before I fitted the sway bars...

[jmauld]

Unhook one side of the Rear bar and see if the problem goes away. If it does go away, change the rear bar back to a stock one.

[silverbullet]

er. Would it help if I turned my rear dampers down, they are on about 40% now?? Surely this would allow more roll and in turn less positive steering??

I can't comment on your setup, but dampers do not control how much the body rolls. They control how fast it rolls, where as ARB and spring controls how much it rolls. Because of this, dampers can not be used to tune steady state under/oversteer. They can be used to tune corner entry response. Twitchy response may be a description of this?

If it is infact an issue with front vs rear ARB stiffness, stiffening up the front ARB will have same effect as loosening the rear ARB.

[Def]

You might be preloading one or both sway bars(ARB if you prefer). Adjustable endlinks can eliminate this.

If the sway bar is under any tension when you connect/disconnect a link at your desired ride height, then it is preloaded and will usually not be symmetrically preloaded.

[Gary57]

They can be used to tune corner entry response. Twitchy response may be a description of this?

It is the corner entry responce that I want to correct, this is what makes it feel twitchy...

I cant understand why this would happen because they are the same size as white line... Must also check rear tyre pressure...

[Def]

You sure you're just not accustomed to the slightly higher roll stiffness? I can't imagine stock springs + bigger sway bars really giving the car so much stiffness that it feels "twitchy."

If you're still on stock dampers, they're likely worn out, so that will not make the car's handling feel very good.

[WorkInProgressK]

Is it possible that since you were on stock shocks your cars swayed side to side before changing lanes? now that it stays flat, aren't you just not used to that direct input from your steering wheel to the road?

[Gary57]

Ok found the issue , rear tyre pressures were too high. Always used to run 2.2bar on front and 2.0bar at the rear, fitted new rear tyres just after the sway bars and I never checked the tyre pressures. The car now handles like it did just stiffer , really flat and very balanced...

Thanks for your help guys and sorry for the ignorance...

[McCoy]

Happens to all of us... I'm glad you found the issue before removing the swaybar!