How do i adjust my sway bars to make my suspension tighter?

Question

I have a set of adjustable front and rear H&R sway bars on my bmw. The nuts are set in the holes closest toward the center. Is this the tightest setting?

Answer 1

Yes, the further in towards the center of the bar the greater the stiffness of the bar.

Stiffer is not necessarily better however. The point of the adjustments is to fine-tune the handling for optimum BALANCE between front and rear grip. The stiffest setting does not always provide that. My old MGB had a home-made adjustable rear stabilizer bar set up and a low-rent adjustable front bar (set up to rapidly change between rubber and hard urethane frame mount bushings) and I rarely had both bars set at full stiff for track use.

Answer 2

If your anti-roll bar doesn't already have them switch all grommets and bushings to urethane. Your setting in reference to the bolt holes is correct. The shorter the the lever arm the stiffer the bar.

If this situation doesn't suit you check Addco, Hellwig or Eibach for a touch larger front and rear bar. It's very important to not get too carried away with a large diameter rear bar because the car will get loose in the rear in the rain or snowy roads. Eibach rear bars for your car has adjusting holes so you can talor the amount of rear roll stiffness you want.

Eibach offers a pro-kit which is a set of four progressively wound coil springs which lowers your car slightly but appears not to damage your ride. The spring rates would offer slightly higher rates than your standard springs. Intrax makes progressively wound springs also.