Steeda Mach-E Adjustable Rear Sway Bar

[leeman]

Does anyone know how these modifications affect the warranty of the vehicle?

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[mkhuffman]

Does anyone know how these modifications affect the warranty of the vehicle?

Yes. If your have a suspension issue, they might not cover it if they can prove it was caused by the modification you did.

That said, it is worth it. I would never go back to the stock bars.

 

[azerik]

My dealer's Service advisor gave me a mouthful about needing to put them back to stock before bringing it in for service (I had 2 broken half shafts causing all sorts of noise, he was trying to blame the bars). In the end I just took it in. Reality is they won't void any warranty other than the sway bar (which these replace) or the endlinks. Which are cheap. They might go around in circles trying to blame them but they'd be hard pressed to get anywhere with that blame.

 

[azerik]

I just looked at my rear sway bar and didn't see any damage. Never heard any clanging either. My wife and kid always ride in the back.



See that little light spot furthest NE on the bar? Close to the black piece? Take a look again. I just got off the phone with Mark. Mine hits both sides.

NOTE: This is only when loaded and hitting something hard. I have purposely tried to sky this car to put the Koni's through some rough testing.

Here's mine, same notch on both sides. Bar set to softest, so it moves the furthest up. (I'm also 1 inch short on the bump stops for the rear shocks. I'm going to pull them and put my factory premium cut bump on them.)

Reality is I might tap these spots daily pulling out of the driveway with people in the back.

 

[mkhuffman]

See that little light spot furthest NE on the bar? Close to the black piece? Take a look again. I just got off the phone with Mark. Mine hits both sides.

NOTE: This is only when loaded and hitting something hard. I have purposely tried to sky this car to put the Koni's through some rough testing.

Here's mine, same notch on both sides. Bar set to softest, so it moves the furthest up. (I'm also 1 inch short on the bump stops for the rear shocks. I'm going to pull them and put my factory premium cut bump on them.)

Reality is I might tap these spots daily pulling out of the driveway with people in the back.

Well, this sucks. I threw away all the stock parts. I hope that wasn't a big mistake.

I plan to inspect both bars this weekend when I put the Konis on the rear. I hear noises sometimes from the front but I have not noticed rear noise. My bars are on the stiffest setting.

 

[azerik]

The dealers idle threats. Don't worry about a thing until they try to blame your frunk not opening from FP on the bars ?

 

[markboris]

In case some did not read my post a couple of pages back, here was my rear bar with rub marks on if from contacting the body. #54 Shocks are stock but did add lowering springs which brought the body closer to the bar by half inch. I remedied this by changing out the rear OEM end links with adjustable ones and set them to about 3/4" longer than the OEM's. Just checked mine and looks like the body hasn't touched it since. That was two months ago.

 

[mkhuffman]

In case some did not read my post a couple of pages back, here was my rear bar with rub marks on if from contacting the body. #54 Shocks are stock but did add lowering springs which brought the body closer to the bar by half inch. I remedied this by changing out the rear OEM end links with adjustable ones and set them to about 3/4" longer than the OEM's. Just checked mine and looks like the body hasn't touched it since. That was two months ago.

I was hoping your issue was related to the lowering springs, and not the bars, and that my car would be OK.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I was hoping your issue was related to the lowering springs, and not the bars, and that my car would be OK.

I am at stock ride height and so far (knock on the tree I just peed on) there is no interference. I have not really hit the jounce bumpers on my car however, so I can’t say that I won’t have contact. I probably should just get some longer end links to be sure. ?‍?

 

[21st Century Pony]

So I found this thread interesting because over the past two days I adjusted the spring tension on my KW v3 coilovers, and only in the rear. I wanted to set the ride height in the rear to the highest setting permissible by the KW design (not "the highest setting possible", just the highest setting within the KW setup instructions). In practical terms,this gave me another 1/4 inch of added height in the rear.

My KW coilovers have been on my Mach E since December 2022, or for about 16 thousand miles. I had two separate well-rated shops perform alignment on the wheels, all within the 1st 2 thousand miles.

My car is an AWD with the extended battery, so it's the heaviest variant of the Mach E. It now has over 31 thousand miles on the odometer. I installed the Steeda anti-sway bars back in Summer 2022, when the Steeda bars 1st came out and several thousand miles before I threw the KW coilovers on.

Of note, I put a lot of miles on my Mach E this past year, at times in Winter snow and ice road conditions around Lake Superior.

While adjusting my rear KW springs for a higher setting, I found two damage areas on the Steeda rear bar:

1. A notable bend in one end of the bar where the mounting holes are. I have no idea how this got there, and the only explanation I can think of is some severe ice ridges I remember driving over on a country road in northern Wisconsin. The attached pic 1 and pic 2 show the bend on the end of the bar, from the bottom looking up and from the top looking down. NOTE: this bend is only on the passenger end.

However this bending happened, I welcome comments and thoughts going forward, i.e. "live with..." at least for a while, or take the bar out and straighten it, or swap out with a new bar? BTW the endlink seems fine.

2. Paint notches on both ends of the sway bar, on its top side, which look exactly like the paint notches in the pic within markboris's Post #54. Ditto for a corresponding flattening of the circular lip protecting the big body bolt, right above the bar, again on both sides of the car. This damage is shown in the attached Pic #3, with the red circle around the flattened lip part on the car's body (looking up from below).

I do remember a slight occasional judder-type noise from the rear end, only during hard acceleration, that started after I threw the KW coilovers on. Now with the rear raised 1/4 inch by compressing the rear springs more, this WOT judder is gone. So, I guess the car tends to "squat" just a tiny bit under a Wide Open Throttle, and the lowered posture after I had thrown the KW coilovers on allowed this interference... now eliminated by raising the rear end's height.

And thanks to the Army and the Air Force having now permanently closed all the Washington DC Beltway-area base auto craft shops, I tightened the coilover springs on my driveway with rental bust-yer-fingers hook-type spring compressors... oh what complete bastards oh how much fun McPherson springs can be, when you don't have access to a lift haha. I saw shades of my younger self, wrenching on that long-forgotten Mercury Comet... grrr Thank the Lord I had put plenty of anti-seize on the spring top plates when I threw the KW coilovers on the car back in December.

 

[kennethjk]

So I found this thread interesting because over the past two days I adjusted the spring tension on my KW v3 coilovers, and only in the rear. I wanted to set the ride height in the rear to the highest setting permissible by the KW design (not "the highest setting possible", just the highest setting within the KW setup instructions). In practical terms,this gave me another 1/4 inch of added height in the rear.

My KW coilovers have been on my Mach E since December 2022, or for about 16 thousand miles. I had two separate well-rated shops perform alignment on the wheels, all within the 1st 2 thousand miles.

My car is an AWD with the extended battery, so it's the heaviest variant of the Mach E. It now has over 31 thousand miles on the odometer. I installed the Steeda anti-sway bars back in Summer 2022, when the Steeda bars 1st came out and several thousand miles before I threw the KW coilovers on.

Of note, I put a lot of miles on my Mach E this past year, at times in Winter snow and ice road conditions around Lake Superior.

While adjusting my rear KW springs for a higher setting, I found two damage areas on the Steeda rear bar:

1. A notable bend in one end of the bar where the mounting holes are. I have no idea how this got there, and the only explanation I can think of is some severe ice ridges I remember driving over on a country road in northern Wisconsin. The attached pic 1 and pic 2 show the bend on the end of the bar, from the bottom looking up and from the top looking down. NOTE: this bend is only on the passenger end.

However this bending happened, I welcome comments and thoughts going forward, i.e. "live with..." at least for a while, or take the bar out and straighten it, or swap out with a new bar? BTW the endlink seems fine.

2. Paint notches on both ends of the sway bar, on its top side, which look exactly like the paint notches in the pic within markboris's Post #54. Ditto for a corresponding flattening of the circular lip protecting the big body bolt, right above the bar, again on both sides of the car. This damage is shown in the attached Pic #3, with the red circle around the flattened lip part on the car's body (looking up from below).

I do remember a slight occasional judder-type noise from the rear end, only during hard acceleration, that started after I threw the KW coilovers on. Now with the rear raised 1/4 inch by compressing the rear springs more, this WOT judder is gone. So, I guess the car tends to "squat" just a tiny bit under a Wide Open Throttle, and the lowered posture after I had thrown the KW coilovers on allowed this interference... now eliminated by raising the rear end's height.

And thanks to the Army and the Air Force having now permanently closed all the Washington DC Beltway-area base auto craft shops, I tightened the coilover springs on my driveway with rental bust-yer-fingers hook-type spring compressors... oh what complete bastards oh how much fun McPherson springs can be, when you don't have access to a lift haha. I saw shades of my younger self, wrenching on that long-forgotten Mercury Comet... grrr Thank the Lord I had put plenty of anti-seize on the spring top plates when I threw the KW coilovers on the car back in December.

That looks pretty bad. I have them set on the softest setting. Have to remember to check it out to see if I have any issues.

If so, wonder if it’s time to put old ones back on and then put koni shocks on

 

[21st Century Pony]

I just remembered - I ran over a stripped 18-wheeler tire cap sometime during my Winter travels. My speed was about 80 so I just crunched that tire remnant. I remember my right side took the bump. It actually broke my AOSK right front mudguard (since replaced). As the bent end of the Steeda rear bar is on the right side as well,I now think it likely that 18-wheeler tire might have caused the bend at the bar end.

 

[kennethjk]

I just remembered - I ran over a stripped 18-wheeler tire cap sometime during my Winter travels. My speed was about 80 so I just crunched that tire remnant. I remember my right side took the bump. It actually broke my AOSK right front mudguard (since replaced). As the bent end of the Steeda rear bar is on the right side as well,I now think it likely that 18-wheeler tire might have caused the bend at the bar end.

Wow, pretty scary, luckily not more damage and no injuries

do you need to replace Steeda bar?

 

[markboris]

Was on the phone with Erik earlier today discussing this rear sway bar issue. I’m fairly sure mine was happening because I lowered the car about 1/2” with H&R lowering springs. Erik said his contact the body (same spot) when he has passengers in the rear. Anton also has this noise only when passengers in the rear. Erik and I are convinced that Steeda tested the bars with only a driver and not a fully loaded car. I have since installed longer adjustable end links in the rear and no more noise or contact.

 

[kennethjk]

another answer is a weight limit in the back, no one over 100 lbs.

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