Quote:
Originally Posted by LarryBible
As far as the sway bars go, you didn't miss a thing. Since there is no difference in the rear bars, you were going to do nothing to your car except to make it understeer MORE...
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Sorry, for once, I can't totally agree with you. If what you say is true, then why does my coupe handle so much better by installing Sportline bars (front and rear) in lieu of the stock bars?
However, you are partially correct. The 2.6 front bar is 25mm at its thickest while the 2.2 diesel's bar is 22mm. That is a 14% increase in the maximum thickness for the front bar. But, the plan doesn't stop there. While the 2.6 rear bar is only 14mm, (only a 1mm increase over the 2.2 diesel bar), the 2.3-16 rear bar is 16mm, for an increase of 23% in maximum thickness.
So, yes, the front bar will be thicker, but the rear bar will be a "lot" thicker, relatively. 14% thicker on the front, 23% on the rear. But, that is not all.
In addition, I'm chucking the OEM struts/shocks and installing Bilstein HD struts/shocks. The Bilstein Comfort are the equivalent of the OEM struts/shocks and the Bilstein Sport are akin to MB Sportline. I have Bilstein HD on my 300CE, and couldn't be happier.
And one more. Going are the original 14" wheels that are only 5" wide. The recommended tire for the 14x5 ET50 OEM tire is 175/70R14. It can be pushed one size to run 185/65R14. I picked up two 15x6 ET49 wheels today with a 201 part number that has a recommended tire size of 185/65R15, which can be pushed one size to 195/60R15 (as the two I picked up have). What this means is that instead of a 7" wide tire with 6" in contact with the ground, I can now have a 7.75" wide tire with 7.25" on the ground. That is an increase of 21% more rubber in contact with the asphalt.
So, while agree with you that only doing the front bar is dangerous, going with thicker bars front and rear in addition to wider tires and HD shocks result in a package that will handle a whole lot better than the stock setup. Before making my changes to the coupe, it tended to drift on the road. After the suspension upgrade, it tracks straight and true. I noticed that the diesel will tend to drift too. Not as much as the coupe used to, but more than the coupe does now. With the full package, it should have a positive, confident handling characteristic to it.
Besides...with only 72 horsepower, I'm not going to be blasting through any mountain roads anytime soon. I just want more positive handling. It worked on the coupe, I have no doubt that with all three, (thicker bars, heavy duty struts/shocks, wider wheels/tires), that the diesel sedan will see a likewise improvement.