Steeda Front Sway Bar! It is awesome. Transforms the car into what it should be.

[ALTANertive]

Wow, Dremel. You have patience. I’m thinking that my Dremel will be my only recourse unless I want to pull the bar out of the car (not gonna happen). I already ground ~3/8” off of the tips and I heard contact leaving my driveway for work on Friday. Not working on it today. Too lazy LOL.

Haha, it wasn’t so bad. Maybe 5 min per side.
I don’t have an angle grinder so this was the best option.

Sponsored

 

[HuntingPudel]

Haha, it wasn’t so bad. Maybe 5 min per side.
I don’t have an angle grinder so this was the best option.

Heh, so my Dremel might take 7-10 min per side since I will be under the car. Not too bad. Maybe I will go a-cuttin’.

 

[21st Century Pony]

I used my MultiMax while the sway bar was on the car. Took the wheels off. About 6 - 8 careful minutes per side, avoiding the lower endlink boot. Another minute per side with a Dremel to polish the cuts, and a quick liquid electric coating with a brush to seal them.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Well, my Dremel adventure was horrendous. LOL! I put a cut-off wheel on a die grinder and lopped off the top half of the driver’s side in no time but couldn’t fit the air hose in the wheel well to do the bottom half. I crudely used my angle grinder to cut the bottom half off then used a file to deburr and then masked and painted. Gonna do the other side later this week.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Well today was finally the day: front and rear swap bar installation in Mark's amazing shop. OEM bars came off as easily as could be hoped for (no mishaps and hugely aided by Mark's awesome lift), and Steeda bars installed really smoothly and easily. To my surprise the job up front was much easier than the job in the rear, aided by the easy access to the end link nuts and the mounting brackets once the front tires were removed.

Set everything to the stiffest holes front and back and so far, me like! I drove 132 miles home from Mark's without stopping though unfortunately the majority of that was on roads that didn't allow the bars to really show their stuff. But on the roads that did, OMG they're great. I feel so much more confident cornering at speed, the car is flatter and there is definitely less bounce. The suspension is stiff, and you feel the bumps, but pretty much gone is the harmonic crap that all too often gave me a queasy stomach. I will plan to take it out of some of the more challenging Bay Area twisties to see how it compares to the OEM bar days. I'll report back once I do.

No installation shots since so many have documented the process already, but here's a short video inside Mark's wonderful garage as Joy Heads Up...

A huge thank you to @markboris for all your help and hospitality. Mark helped me (in most cases did the majority of the work) install a total of six different types of mods/updates. People like you restore my faith in humanity. Thank you.

 

[kindofblue]

Has anyone contacted Steeda about removing that bit of the bar that's rubbing on the suspension?

 

[markboris]

Has anyone contacted Steeda about removing that bit of the bar that's rubbing on the suspension?

Yes. A couple of us members here have and apparently they didn't seem to think there is a problem. I think where it stands now is, they are looking into it further.

 

[markboris]

Well today was finally the day: front and rear swap bar installation in Mark's amazing shop. OEM bars came off as easily as could be hoped for (no mishaps and hugely aided by Mark's awesome lift), and Steeda bars installed really smoothly and easily. To my surprise the job up from was much easier than the job in the rear, aided by the easy access to the end link nuts and the mounting brackets once the front tires were removed.

Set everything to the stiffest holes front and back and so far, me like! I drove 132 miles home from Mark's without stopping though unfortunately the majority of that was on roads that didn't allow the bars to really show their stuff. But on the roads that did, OMG they're great. I feel so much more confident corning at speed, the car is flatter and there is definitely less bounce. The suspension is stiff, and you feel the bumps, but pretty much gone is the harmonic crap that all too often gave me a queasy stomach. I will plan to take it out of some of the more challenging Bay Area twisties to see how it compares to the OEM bar days. I'll report back once I do.

No installation shots since so many have documented the process already, but here's a short video inside Mark's wonderful garage as Joy Heads Up...

A huge thank you to @markboris for all your help and hospitality. Mark helped me (in most cases did the majority of the work) install a total of six different types of mods/updates. People like you restore my faith in humanity. Thank you.

Thanks John for all the kind words but wouldn't say I did the majority of the work. I think it was more like 50/50. Sure is easier and especially more fun when there are two of us doing this. I rarely take photos when working on the car unless someone wants me to but always enjoy taking them of Riley. Also, I really really like the Iced Silver Blue.

I know you'll enjoy those bars even more in the next few days after you drive around on your familiar roads.

 

[MyLittlePony2022]

My bars come today, if FedEx holds up their end of the bargain. My question to the forum is

1) If wanted to keep from cutting the front tip off, how much would I have to grind? I saw @HuntingPudel took off 3/8" and that was not enough.
2) If I ground off 1/2" or even 3/4" is there enough metal left between the front hole and the end of the sway bar to be safe?

I am probably just going to cut the ends off since it is the safer solution and I, like everyone on the forum, is not going for the softest ride, so the hole is useless. I am just resisting it a bit.

 

[markboris]

My bars come today, if FedEx holds up their end of the bargain. My question to the forum is

1) If wanted to keep from cutting the front tip off, how much would I have to grind? I saw @HuntingPudel took off 3/8" and that was not enough.
2) If I ground off 1/2" or even 3/4" is there enough metal left between the front hole and the end of the sway bar to be safe?

I am probably just going to cut the ends off since it is the safer solution and I, like everyone on the forum, is not going for the softest ride, so the hole is useless. I am just resisting it a bit.

If you cut off that last hole (softest) like my self, John and others have, you will gain 1" which is more than enough and there will be no interference. At least non of us have seen any so far after doing this.

 

[HuntingPudel]

My bars come today, if FedEx holds up their end of the bargain. My question to the forum is

1) If wanted to keep from cutting the front tip off, how much would I have to grind? I saw @HuntingPudel took off 3/8" and that was not enough.
2) If I ground off 1/2" or even 3/4" is there enough metal left between the front hole and the end of the sway bar to be safe?

I am probably just going to cut the ends off since it is the safer solution and I, like everyone on the forum, is not going for the softest ride, so the hole is useless. I am just resisting it a bit.

At 3/4” you’re already impinging on the last hole so you might as well cut the whole hole out. Much easier proposition than trying to grind after the bar’s mounted in the car.

 

[tannerk89]

My bars come today, if FedEx holds up their end of the bargain. My question to the forum is

1) If wanted to keep from cutting the front tip off, how much would I have to grind? I saw @HuntingPudel took off 3/8" and that was not enough.
2) If I ground off 1/2" or even 3/4" is there enough metal left between the front hole and the end of the sway bar to be safe?

I am probably just going to cut the ends off since it is the safer solution and I, like everyone on the forum, is not going for the softest ride, so the hole is useless. I am just resisting it a bit.

I still need to check mine with some added paint and a couple of days of driving. I have some time this week so I should be able to verify.. You may not need to grind if setting on the medium/middle hole or softest/last hole. I don’t think () mine is touching and I haven’t ground it out. I’ll report back in a day or two if I have good results.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I still need to check mine with some added paint and a couple of days of driving. I have some time this week so I should be able to verify.. You may not need to grind if setting on the medium/middle hole or softest/last hole. I don’t think () mine is touching and I haven’t ground it out. I’ll report back in a day or two if I have good results.

Yeah, the end of the bar moves more if the end links are at the stiffest hole. Maybe you’re OK, maybe not.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

My bars come today, if FedEx holds up their end of the bargain. My question to the forum is

1) If wanted to keep from cutting the front tip off, how much would I have to grind? I saw @HuntingPudel took off 3/8" and that was not enough.
2) If I ground off 1/2" or even 3/4" is there enough metal left between the front hole and the end of the sway bar to be safe?

I am probably just going to cut the ends off since it is the safer solution and I, like everyone on the forum, is not going for the softest ride, so the hole is useless. I am just resisting it a bit.

William, if you were to use Hole 1, you would actually have a lighter setting than the OEM bars on the GTPE (280 vs the OEM 288). So you can completely lop off that hole and not lose any improved performance whatsoever. I used a sawzall with a fresh fine tooth blade its the actual cut took just a few seconds (before mounting onto the car, of course). A belt sander did the rest of the shaping.

Also, since you're about to have the new bars (yay!), I'm happy to come over and help you with the install, assuming you have the tools to do it. (From my day with Mark I know that I don't have all the needed tools, but at least now I've done the install with him so I can lend a hand.) I'm happy to bring down my sawzall and belt sander if you need to use them. I could probably go down to your place on Saturday (or earlier in the week if you're available). You'll want to get paint to coat the cutoff ends. Steve mentions the Rust-Oleum blue that matches pretty well...

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Thanks John for all the kind words but wouldn't say I did the majority of the work. I think it was more like 50/50. Sure is easier and especially more fun when there are two of us doing this. I rarely take photos when working on the car unless someone wants me to but always enjoy taking them of Riley. Also, I really really like the Iced Silver Blue.

I know you'll enjoy those bars even more in the next few days after you drive around on your familiar roads.

Riley is the best shop dog ever. She's such a sweetheart!

And yes, I'm really looking forward to an unbridled drive (or ten) on some local roads...