Eibach Sway bars now avalable for the Mach E

[Spck83]

Ok sorry if stupid question I have tried to read up and think I kinda understand the purpose of upgrading the sway bar, I have a premium x awd when committing with wife and kid I drive like a daily driver mostly but when it's just me I like to push harder and notice like when circular on ramps fell a roll I guess. How would you all describe if I were to purchase and have these installed in your opinions would it be worth it? I understand it should help my tires maintain contact better and distribute the weight better am I understanding?? Thank you in advance!

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[mkhuffman]

Ok sorry if stupid question I have tried to read up and think I kinda understand the purpose of upgrading the sway bar, I have a premium x awd when committing with wife and kid I drive like a daily driver mostly but when it's just me I like to push harder and notice like when circular on ramps fell a roll I guess. How would you all describe if I were to purchase and have these installed in your opinions would it be worth it? I understand it should help my tires maintain contact better and distribute the weight better am I understanding?? Thank you in advance!

I explained the difference stiffer bars made in my car in this post:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-car-into-what-it-should-be.20263/post-491431

That should help you get an idea of what to expect.

 

[azerik]

Erik, I think you will be very happy with the front bar. Are you going to use the OEM end links to eliminate the issues there too?.

Yep, popping the stock endlinks back on. Hopefully can get this done next week if it’s not 110+.

 

[markboris]

Very happy to hear that as my attempts to remedy haven’t solved it.

Yep, popping the stock endlinks back on. Hopefully can get this done next week if it’s not 110+.

You really need a mini-split AC in your garage. I installed one in mine and also in my friends in Surprise (AZ) and it just expands your square footage that is usable during these hot summer days. I would not have been able to work in my garage last night if I didn't have it. When I left Sac airport to drive home yesterday, my garage was 96˚. I turned on my mini-split AC to 78˚ and that is what it was when I got home 2 hours later. It doesn't take that long to cool it down but I wanted to make sure I was ready to work when I got home. I bought both Mr. Cool systems at Costco. Easy install, just one day or less if you can move faster than me. ?

 

[azerik]

Yeah, I installed two of those Costco mini splits at my cabin up in Flagstaff. I haven’t put one in this garage because I don’t know what the code is for it and I really don’t wanna be in this house too much longer.

 

[markboris]

Well, I wasn't able to fully push the car on the back roads like I wanted to yesterday as by the time I got around to it, the rain came in (summer storm) and still lightly drizzling as I'm writing this. From what I can tell, the front end feels a little more flat than when I had the Steeda bar on there.

One thing I noticed earlier in the day before it started raining, is my front tires lightly squealed when taking a downhill, left hand turn (briskly) on to a street near my home. I immediately checked my tire pressures and they were all good. I have to take this turn to get home and this has never happened before. I went back and tried it again and they still gave a slight squeal. Maybe Steve can explain better than I can but I assume the stiffer front bar is transferring just enough more force to the tires to make them do this?

As far as the rear bar, it is hard to tell since I could not really push it but I am not noticing a big difference. If anything it is not as flat as when the Steeda bar was on there. Of the 15-20 miles I did put on the car yesterday just driving around town, there was no noise at all coming from any suspension components. I put the car back up on the lift to check for any suspension/body contact on the bars and found none. I'm driving to a car show over in Sac later today and by the time I'm done with this round trip I will have put about 240 miles on it so as long as it does not rain, I should be able to test it out a bit more.

Not Mach-E related but here are a couple of lightning photos I captured during last night's storm.

 

[markboris]

I have now driven over 350 miles since I installed the Eibach sway bars two days ago and can definitely say the front handles a little more flat than it did with the Steeda's. While I had thought the back was less firm than than with the rear Steeda bar, it's about the same. I think because the front is more firm it led me to believe the back was less. With the Steeda's the car felt more even front and rear. The car still seems to handle great. I am looking forward to Erik (and hopefully Steve too) getting his front bar and giving a more technical opinion.

 

[mkhuffman]

I have now driven over 350 miles since I installed the Eibach sway bars two days ago and can definitely say the front handles a little more flat than it did with the Steeda's. While I had thought the back was less firm than than with the rear Steeda bar, it's about the same. I think because the front is more firm it led me to believe the back was less. With the Steeda's the car felt more even front and rear. The car still seems to handle great. I am looking forward to Erik (and hopefully Steve too) getting his front bar and giving a more technical opinion.

Did you notice recurrence of the front tire noise you first noticed?

 

[MisterSofa]

Which adjustment hole did you use?

 

[Scooby24]

Per my autocross days, stiff front and soft rear produces understeer. You can control it with trail braking but it's not as fun in my view. I always preferred stiffer springs and softer bars and balanced out understeer with softer front and stiffer rear. Sway bars are a bit counter intuitive in that when they are stiffer the body is flatter but you're loading your outside tire more because the sway bar is pushing that outside tire into the ground more and you'll overwhelm its traction and understeer. (This is why your front tires are squealing more)

When you have a softer bar your inside tire gets more grip. Soft front stiff rear loads up inside front tire and outside rear tire and will make the car more tail happy. It's all driver preference but this is textbook eibach. They always did this...good for road course. Bad for autocross.

 

[mkhuffman]

Per my autocross days, stiff front and soft rear produces understeer. You can control it with trail braking but it's not as fun in my view. I always preferred stiffer springs and softer bars and balanced out understeer with softer front and stiffer rear. Sway bars are a bit counter intuitive in that when they are stiffer the body is flatter but your loading your outside tire more because the sway bar is pushing that outside tire into the ground more and you'll overwhelm its traction and understeer. (This is why your front tires are squealing more)

When you have a softer bar your inside tire gets more grip. Soft front stiff rear loads up inside front tire and outside rear tire and will make the car more tail happy. It's all driver preference but this is textbook eibach. They always did this...good for road course. Bad for autocross.

I think when I put this front bar on, I will use the softer hole so it is closer to the Steeda rear bar. Right now with both Steeda bars my car feels very balanced. To me, but I am not a suspension expert.

 

[markboris]

Which adjustment hole did you use?

The one furthest from the end (stiffest).

 

[markboris]

Did you notice recurrence of the front tire noise you first noticed?

Yes I did but on a different road.

 

[markboris]

I think when I put this front bar on, I will use the softer hole so it is closer to the Steeda rear bar. Right now with both Steeda bars my car feels very balanced. To me, but I am not a suspension expert.

I'm thinking if I change it to the softer hole setting it will closer match how the Steeda bars were which as you say, felt more balanced. However I like that the front is even more flat that it was before and as long as I don't really push it too hard, this works for me. Very happy with it the short time I drove it. I kind of like the fact I have the OEM end links knowing they hopefully won't require the maintenance of the Steeda spherical's and they certainly are not noisy at all. The bars being the exact shape of the OEM bars should not cause any noises when the car is loaded to it max as some others have had. I am out of town until the 18th so won't be able to test or give any more opinions of these bars for awhile.

 

[Scooby24]

I think when I put this front bar on, I will use the softer hole so it is closer to the Steeda rear bar. Right now with both Steeda bars my car feels very balanced. To me, but I am not a suspension expert.

That's what I would end up doing. It's too bad they didn't make the rear adjustable as well.

I had 25mm front and 22mm rear bars, both adjustable (rear was only 2 way, front 3 way) and I tried them both at the opposite ends of the spectrum and if I were highway driving or other high speed driving, I'd want the stability of stiff front, soft rear as Eibach has done. It gives driver confidence at speed as it's predictable and the inspires confidence as it feels nice up to the limit. When you hit the limit it's very predictable but kinda...not in a fun way...you'll just push and so long as you're not headed straight for a curb you'll be much safer in that scenario than when you tail whip. But in an autocross setting or when you're doing lots of lower speed aggressive turning and you're constantly overloading those front tires because you NEED your car to rotate to be fast, you're going to want softer sways.

It was eye opening getting my ass handed to me on a course by a driver in a stock sxt dodge neon that was rolling left and right and was in a stock class with no modifications aside from very good sticky tires.

It handled those turns better than my BSP STI...but he also had the driver mod.

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