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Finalizing my sway bar/endlink setup

14K views 17 replies 5 participants last post by  man show 
#1 ·
As far as endlinks, I've decided upon Kartboy for both the front and rear.

As far as sway bars, I've narrowed down the brand to Whiteline. The tricky part is deciding exactly which sizes to get. I've done a little reading, and it seems that bigger is generally better and adjustability is obviously a nice feature. However, I'll be running stock springs and struts for a while yet, so I don't want to go too big right off the bat. I've been leaning toward Whiteline's 24 mm adjustable front sway bar, but the rear I'm not so sure about. I'm torn between the 22 mm adjustable bar and the 24 mm adjustable bar. I think the adjustable 27 mm bars are probably too big for both - even on the softest settings.

If I get the 24 mm adjustable rear bar, I should probably look into a set of stout mounts - either Perrin (which seems to be sold out almost everywhere) or Whiteline (which appears to be of a slightly lesser quality). I'd imagine any brand should work since the bolt holes are in the same location, correct? Do I even need this part at all?

I know I'll also need to get the spacers that allow the front Whiteline bar to successfully mate with the front Kartboy endlinks - no big deal, they're only a few bucks.

I don't think I'll need the locking collars for either bar because I'm not doing any hardcore racing just yet. It's just that all together, I'm looking at several hundred bucks, so I want to make sure I'm buying a good combination of parts.

Finally, does anybody anticipate any fitment issues with the equipment I listed since I have an HKS Hi-Power Carbon-Ti cat back? I might crawl underneath my car tomorrow and see how much clearance I have. I'd imagine the aftermarket rear sway bar will sit in the exact same location as the stock bar, correct?

Am I missing anything else?
 
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#2 ·
After several more hours of reading, I think I've finally decided that the adjustable 22 mm rsb is probably going to be much better for me than the adjustable 24 mm rsb. At first, I thought it would be cool to stiffen up the rear significantly so it would whip around more, but then I started to think about safety. It's still good for the car to experience a bit of understeer instead of overwhelming oversteer or snap-oversteer in extreme situations. I think with the 24f/22r setup, the car will still feel like it's on rails compared to the stock bars, but it will still maintain similar characteristics to the stock setup when pushed to the limit. The dual adjustability up front and triple adjustability out back will allow me to play around until I get the car to feel exactly how I want it to feel. Odds are, I won't be changing the settings very much, but it's nice to know that I could if I ever wanted to.

Final equipment list:
Whiteline adjustable 24 mm front sway bar
Whiteline adjustable 22 mm rear sway bar
Kartboy front and rear endlinks
Perrin stout mounts (rear)
Spacers (front)

I think that's everything I'm going to need... any opinions or comments?
 
#7 ·
What are the spacers for?
The spacers are recommended to ensure a proper fit between the Kartboy front endlinks and Whiteline's front sway bar. I'm not sure if it's specific to STis or not, but it helps the endlinks sit more perpendicular to the bar instead of crooked I think...

How To: Whiteline Rear Sway Bar & Kartboy Endlinks - Page 3 - Subaru Impreza WRX STI Forums: IWSTI.com

See post #24 for a pic of what I'm talking about. If I don't need them, I'm only out a few bucks and I'll be able to relay that info here for anyone else who might be interested in a similar setup. If I do end up needing them, more power to me I guess :cool:

...actually, VisiX, did you use the spacers on the front of your 07 or were they not necessary?
 
#10 ·
Thanks for the info guys - you confirmed my suspicions. I'm glad several people have gone through this process before and dealt with these issues because it's going to make my life a little easier.

This may be a dumb question, but how come the companies didn't notice this issue when they first designed their bars? I don't get it... they could have fixed it right away.
 
#11 ·
Just a guess, but I would imagine they use the same forges to manufacture for multiple different cars to save money on production. The length issue is likely within their established tolerances. Are the widths on the mount points for the sways on a JDM WRX different? How about the regular impreza?
 
#12 ·
Yeah, I'd be willing to bet it has to do with saving money. That's usually the case.

I was also thinking maybe they use high heat when the bars are manufactured and they shrink slightly as they cool? I'm just taking a stab in the dark here since I really have no idea how exactly the bars are formed.
 
#14 ·
Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

I just finished installing my Perrin Stout Mounts, Whiteline 22 mm adjustable rear sway bar (middle setting ~ 23mm), Kartboy rear endlinks, and Whiteline rear subframe lock bolts (last-minute addition to my list) and took a quick spin on Foxville Rd. (MD-77) through Catoctin Mountain Park - there are twisty road signs all over the place, for those of you who aren't familiar with that one... what an incredible improvement in handling!

Simply amazing.

I can't believe I waited so long to do this mod.

...now I'm extremely anxious to install the front bar and links and take another ride! Maybe I've had the tbe and Stage 2 tune for too long and have gotten used to it or grown bored with it, but I'd almost have to say that this was the best money I've spent on the car yet.
 
#16 ·
WARNING: FITMENT ALERT!!!

If you don't care to read boring details, a single sentence summary is at the bottom.

Details:

I ran into a several problems today when I was installing my front sway bar and endlinks. The first issue occurred when I was taking all the stock equipment off. When I tried to loosen the two nuts that hold the stock front sway bar mounting brakets, I had to get creative in order to get them off without stripping them. I ended up using a 12 mm slightly offset wrench (circle side, 6 sides - not 12) and a larger wrench (forget what size) on that one as a cheater bar. If I had an actual cheater bar, about a foot or so long, that would have been much easier, but my method did the trick.

The second issue I ran into was figuring out how the hell to get the stock front endlinks off. As it turns (no pun intended) out, after you crack the nuts loose, you have to put an allen wrench into the bottom of the bolt to keep it from turning as you twist the nut off. The bolt moves freely in the ball joint in all directions, so if you don't hold the threaded part still with an allen wrench, the whole damn thing moves and unfortunately, I didn't figure that out for a several minutes and I was cussing up a storm the entire time because I thought I stripped all 4 nuts. Whew!

The next issue I ran into was that, despite reading several different write-ups about how to install the front bar, I neglected to pay attention to the exact orientation of the stock front sway bar. At first, I installed the Whiteline 24 mm adjustable bar upside down and it was literally touching the steering rods (I think). After realizing what I did, I switched the bar around and it looked like everything would finally line up with plenty of clearance. Needless to say, I ended up making a horrible greasy mess since the bushings were already completely greased up, so I'm glad I had an extra container of grease laying around to re-lube the thing once I got it positioned properly.

The final issue I ran into was that the damn Kartboy endlinks would NOT fit no matter what I did. I tried installing them with the spacers, without the spacers, on both holes, with only some spacers, but no matter what I did, it just would not fit. I think the biggest problem is that the hardware supplied with the kit was too big. The bolts would literally contact the sway bar and there was no way that was going to work without making horrible noises and creating gashes in the bar when I drove. My solution - install the stock front endlinks with the aftermarket Whiteline bar. BINGO! That fit perfectly. I can easily adjust the endlinks between either set of holes and everything fit perfectly with plenty of clearance in all directions. The only problem - messing with those damn allen wrench threaded nubs and nuts... those took forever to get back on, but now everything's tight and I'm about to test it out.

I had my suspension loaded during the install - the front end was up on a set of ramps. I don't know if that was the issue, but the bolts on the bottom of the Kartboy endlinks were literally almost touching the Whiteline bar, so if there was any kind of movement (and I suspect there would have been), there would be contact and horrible metal on metal noises. The way it sits now, with the suspension fully loaded and the car on the ground, the stock endlinks are ever so slightly NOT perpendicular to the ground. I think that extra little bit of angle away from the bar plus the fact that the back of the stock endlinks don't have thick 17 mm nuts poking out toward the bar combined to allow plenty of clearance in the front.

Now I need to figure out if I want to try another brand of front endlinks and risk hearing some noise from a spherical-type busing or possibly fight another fitment battle with a solid endlink (and mess with those damn allen bolts AGAIN), or stick with the stock units which seem pretty stout.... decisions, decisions...

Summary: I was unable to fit Kartboy solid front endlinks (with or without spacers) along with a Whiteline 24 mm adjustable front sway bar on my 2007 WRX Limited Sedan.
 
#18 ·
Yeah, I'm still thinking about what to do. As far as performance, everything is excellent. Such a huge improvement over stock, it's not even funny. Things like doing a simple U-turn or entering/exiting the highway are so much more fun. This aftermarket swaybar/end link combo definitely bumped the fun factor up several points.

I have the front bar set on stiff and the rear bar set in the middle. I do hear a slight creaking coming from the rear end when I go over speed bumps or enter my driveway at an angle at a slow speed, but I'm 95% sure that's because of the Whiteline rear subframe lock bolts. Before I installed those, everything was nice and quiet. I don't really care about that creak because the stiffness benefit from the lock bolts outweighs the slight creak in my opinion. If the radio is on, it's hardly noticeable. If the windows are up too, it's even less noticeable. If the windows are down and the radio is off, it's pretty noticeable.

Overall, nvh is increased probably 2 out of 10. Everything feels so much more stiff than stock, so bumps in the road are felt a little more than they were before. At the same time, the squishiness and body roll are almost completely gone - or at least it feels that way. The car feels like it's definitely glued to the road much more than before. It's really hard to put into words, but this is an excellent mod and I think everybody should experience it :)
 
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