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It looks my car is due for some front control arm bushings, my question is for those that have used the bushings that allow you to run some additional caster. The car is my daily doing ~100 miles a day 50/50 mix of backroads and freeway so I don't want to kill tire wear too badly but it will be seeing multiple track days a year so I wouldn't mind improving performance a bit either.
Hoping to get some input from those that are running them and what you think after putting some miles on. There's also a few different options, Alta, Powerflex etc so looking for experiences there as well.
Getting extra Caster would only be for a full blown track car. And every set of Alta ones we've seen in a car has been bad so we never recommend or even install them.
Getting extra Caster would only be for a full blown track car. And every set of Alta ones we've seen in a car has been bad so we never recommend or even install them.
Thanks for the heads up! Looks like I'm aiming for the standard Powerflex ones then.
Some people do both front and rear which is fine, but not many only do front swaybar increase as it increases understeer by itself. Rear sway bar decreases understeer. H sport is always good brand to trust
I do already have the lower mount, does the front sway bar help much? I haven't stumbled across too many people running a larger front as well.
Most people don't do the front bar due to the amount of labor it is since you have to drop the entire subframe out of the car.
If you added it and not a bigger bar you would get more understeer. But when you have the bigger rear bar you get a better match and the handling improvement is worth every penny, esp since you already are going to have the subframe out. You will really notice the car planted in the corners so much better, and it will allow you to run the rear bar on the stiff setting without having too much oversteer. I've done them on my cars and wish I could let you drive it and see how big of an improvement it is.
Careful on the motor mount replacement, I opted to do both sides of the motor mount with poly bushings and now I have a nice vibration when at idle. I probably should have just done the rear one.
Most people don't do the front bar due to the amount of labor it is since you have to drop the entire subframe out of the car.
If you added it and not a bigger bar you would get more understeer. But when you have the bigger rear bar you get a better match and the handling improvement is worth every penny, esp since you already are going to have the subframe out. You will really notice the car planted in the corners so much better, and it will allow you to run the rear bar on the stiff setting without having too much oversteer. I've done them on my cars and wish I could let you drive it and see how big of an improvement it is.
Well you made it sound too good to pass up, aaaand I really wouldn't wanna ride in a Mini with both soon and end up pulling everything apart again so I just put in my order for the bushings and the front swaybar. Looking forward to driving with them, not so much installing haha.
Careful on the motor mount replacement, I opted to do both sides of the motor mount with poly bushings and now I have a nice vibration when at idle. I probably should have just done the rear one.
The rear mount is going to give you the most benefit to reduce engine movement under throttle. The sides are going to be weight-bearing and insulating. I do have the rear only and it did add some vibrations but considering my 3000gt has solid front and rear mounts it's not bad at all comparatively.
Well got the swap all wrapped up, all in all, it took 8 hours for the whole job. Things were flying along really well until it came to that damn u-joint on the steering shaft. The bolt inside has a retained nut that's held into a little recess by a simple tack-welded plate and on removal, either the nut or bolt were corroded or damaged but it locked up and broke 3 of the 4 tack welds off so the nut was just free-spinning. Due to the lack of space in there, it was impossible to get a tool on both sides to get a good grip and continue removing the seized nut. So lost ~1.5 hours to cut off the nut without damaging the u-joint or surrounding interior pieces, that was fun...
All in all, a little under 3 hours, disassembly/assembly to spend 20 mins replacing the parts. So far all my clucking from low speed driving with the wheels cranked is gone. The front end feels much more solid now, haven't had a chance to really play with it in the corners yet to see how different it feels under some pressure. I managed to get stuck behind every slow driver possible this morning so hopefully, this evening will be a bit better.
Nice! Are you planning on the matching H&R rear bar?
I already have the NM Eng rear bar so I'm likely just going to stick with that. It's currently on the middle setting as I forgot to change it before setting the car back down. Will bump it up to the stiffest setting this weekend as the rear definitely has more roll than the front now.
On another note, I still have something in the front end shifting around...maybe it's one of the ball joints but they all seemed solid when I checked them. IDK, will probably have the shop check it out when I take it in for a tire rotation.
