I need to disconnect my front sway bar for a few days, maybe a week. I managed to crack one of the end-link eyelets on my shock, and it's creaking like crazy. It's cracked right at the weld, and I think it's just the result of miles (roughly 60k) and salt, salt, salt. Rather than wait for the eyelet to shear and see what happens, I think I'll just disconnect both end links for the week or so that it takes for new shocks to arrive.

What can I expect going without a front sway bar? Any particular hazards I should watch out for?

 

Does not sound safe to me. I'm pretty sure I would not drive the car without a front sway bar. But that's just me.

 

With the front bar disconnected, the grip at the front will go up. Your car will overstear. Be careful!

Probably better to disconnect the rear bar as well. Both bars disconnected is a common tactic for racing in the wet. This will put the car closer to balanced, but still an unknown state.

Definitely make sure the DSC is ON! Be careful and be smooth.

 

+1

You will be very tail happy to say the least. It will be drivable but do be carefull in the turns .

Randy

 

Well... The snow made my short trip to work pretty slow. Plus, it's slippery wet snow like we haven't had much of this year, so I'm not sure what's the sway bar and what's the snow. It seemed to understeer more... I'm reasonably convinced, at least, that it's not dangerous. I'm going to take it easy regardless, as my sway-bar ends are wrapped in bicycle inner tubes and zip-tied to my front control arms! New shocks should arrive next week, at least, so I won't have this set up for long. In the meantime, it's a fun experiment!

 

I have run my disconnected front sway for quite a few years now...I dont have or see a problem in it. You just have to get used to the way it handles....

 

Many people run with the front swaybar disconnected. It's not dangerous at all. The car naturally understeers, so mainly you just get less understeer. I never had a problem with oversteer, even with a 19mm rear bar at full stiff. Sounds like you've already disconnected it, but you really only need to disconnect one side, not both. Disconnecting one side is the same as removing the bar completely, and then you don't have to worry about the bar flopping around, or having to zip tie it to the control arms!

 

+1.

 

Huh. Well, these are all much different responses than I anticipated! So far, I'm kind of digging the "looseness" of the front end with the bar disconnected. I haven't had a chance to put the car through its paces, as we just had fresh snow and I've still got winter tires on it. But I'm going to leave it for a bit!

This broken end-link eyelet is the only reason I bought new shocks: my OEMs are still in fine shape. Wish I had posted this before coughing up for new shocks that I don't necessarily need!

 

Hello.

I´ve just registered a few minutes ago.

In the Cooper we have the front arb disconnected with rear eibach 19 mm at the stiffness position and think it´s better. A lot of more traction, better handling with more agile rear train, and no dangerous oversteer.