azerik
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Erik
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2023
- Threads
- 59
- Messages
- 3,104
- Reaction score
- 2,982
- Location
- Chandler/Flagstaff, AZ
- Vehicles
- '21 Spacey Prem4x, '21 RX450H, 13 Focus EV
- Occupation
- DevSecOps, General PITA
This is very true. Think of it as suspension friction. Any time your moveable parts are hard to move it causes slowness of the moving components.I attribute this to the Steeda bars having the typical type of bushings that allow the bar to easily move up and down. The OEM bars have bushings that are clamped to the bars and it is impossible for you to move those bars when they are mounted on the car (without the end links attached). To me, I would think that could cause a more harsh ride and also have something to do with bounce but I haven't noticed a change in that.
My Can-AM has 24 inches of travel in the rear. 2 feet. But when I updated my rear sway bar to an Eibach I (and everyone else that bought that bar) ended up with exactly this. The reason was the bushing was designed for the factory mount area. But 99% of us put a plate there to hold rockblockers to keep rocks out of the rear wheel. I hadn't thought about it until I drove the car around but once I took the end links off I couldn't budge the sway bar. And I weigh 240lbs. Pulled it off and sanded the bushing a bit so it'd fit better and allow the bar to move. These are hard shaped bushings, not urethane. Night and day difference. I had noticed after I put that bar on my suspension was only moving about 1/2 as much. Once the bar swung nicely the entire suspension was used again.
On the MachE I suspect someone got a sale on a bushing with 'X' internal dimension. But a bar with X OD. Thus it binds. It might be 'solvable' if someone just sanded the inside of the factory bushing and put it back in. But it won't be scientific and without there being 'it must be able to fit this Craftman 9/16 socket through it easily' it won't be internet mechanic friendly. I think the bushing would eventually wear in, probably around 50k to 100k, if one could wait that long.
The other thing I think is going on but would be a little hard to prove is: I think that previously mentioned 2.1 or 2.5 inches of chock travel Mark pointed out is being used as a suplemental sway bar. That coupled with a hard to move sway bar will caused a much stiffer ride with a lot more 'feel' of the road for anything that ai 1 inch ore bigger. Around Phoenix we have it all by way of total shit streets. Pot hole patching for the last 30 years, melted, yes, melted streets that have huge dips at the crosswalk because large trucks hitting brakes for decade have caused the softened asphalt to be pushed forward. Huge concrete over passes with inches of asphalt built up at them. (My Focus electric literally skips and triggers the ABS every, every single time I drive over those). 6 inches or more of just missing asphalt in car sized sections of the freeways. I've seriously found myself holding my breath waiting for my wife to mention how rough the ride is. My bars arrive Friday, hopefully I can get them on this weekend.
I didn't know about the bar binding until I hit this post. Thankfully I didn't go all the way off the deep end of trying to fix the rebound via shocks. Kind blows my mind that the bar mount would even be an issue. Some engineer probably said "well it's a heavy car, it'll move the bar one way or another"
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