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Under "normal" driving conditions (not "spirited" driving) do front or rear sway bars really make a real difference or is the feeling merely psychological?
What I Own: 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis GS
What I Help Maintain: 1996 CV / 1988 CV / 1988 Tempo
Under "normal" driving conditions (not "spirited" driving) do front or rear sway bars really make a real difference or is the feeling merely psychological?
If you have cloverleaf interchanges where you live, the presence of a rear bar increases the speed you can take the curve at with confidence. Whether this is a good thing or not, is a different story.
My Lincoln got the big bars, front and rear, and it was like driving a different car before/after. It still has body roll, of course, but not nearly as much.
Standard city driving? All it'll do is keep the inside rear corner from lifting as much in turns. Depending on your driving style you may not notice a meaningful difference. I take turns reasonably aggressively and I certainly noticed it.
+1 If you experience rear wheel spin when cornering, thicker bars help keep the tires planted since it reduces body roll. If you don't change the springs, regular roadway feel (bumps and such) should be the same.
Yup the Lincoln is a different car with a bigger rear bar and better meats. As sly said unless you alter the springs and maybe put in stiff shocks it does not make the ride harsh.
One note of caution a very heavy sway in the rear without a good sway in the front can lead to oversteer in extreme conditions. That is counterintuitive to me but you can check it on the Addco sight iirc.
That said it never happened when I added a police spec rear bar to the wagon and upgraded the rear wimpy TC sway to heavy Addco unit. I guess the existing front sways were heavy enough to keep the cars with slight understeer.
03 Marauder DPB, HS, 6disk, Organizer Mods> LED's in & Out, M&Z rear control arms, Oil deflector, U-Haul Trans Pan, Blue Fuzzy Dice 02 SL500 Silver Arrow 08 TC Signature Limited, HID's Mods>235/55-17 Z rated BFG G-Force Comp-2 A/S Plus, Addco 1" rear Sway, Posi Carrier, Compustar Remote Start, floor liners, trunk organizer, Two part Sun Visors, B&M Trans drain Plug, Winter=05 Mustang GT rims, Nokian Hakkapeliitta R-2 235/55-17 12 Escape Limited V6 AWD, 225/65R17 Vredestein Quatrac Pro, Winter 235/70-16 Conti Viking Contact7 Mods>Beamtech LED headlight bulbs, Husky floor liners
My car had a decent sized front bar and nothing in the rear. Taking curves on the highway to Post gave enough body roll that I felt the need to slow up a bit. After installing the smaller rear sway bar that roll was pretty well taken care of and I could cruise through those same curves at speed.
That's not a very scientific result, and I'm hardly Mario Andretti when driving the Town Car. But even without doing a lot of spirited driving I felt enough of a difference to recommend the rear bar. And that wasn't even with the bigger, police bar. Anything back there helps.
yes i find it difficult to understand how ford thought it was not worth the extra money to put them in everything given the obvious handling improvement.
03 Marauder DPB, HS, 6disk, Organizer Mods> LED's in & Out, M&Z rear control arms, Oil deflector, U-Haul Trans Pan, Blue Fuzzy Dice 02 SL500 Silver Arrow 08 TC Signature Limited, HID's Mods>235/55-17 Z rated BFG G-Force Comp-2 A/S Plus, Addco 1" rear Sway, Posi Carrier, Compustar Remote Start, floor liners, trunk organizer, Two part Sun Visors, B&M Trans drain Plug, Winter=05 Mustang GT rims, Nokian Hakkapeliitta R-2 235/55-17 12 Escape Limited V6 AWD, 225/65R17 Vredestein Quatrac Pro, Winter 235/70-16 Conti Viking Contact7 Mods>Beamtech LED headlight bulbs, Husky floor liners
yes i find it difficult to understand how ford thought it was not worth the extra money to put them in everything given the obvious handling improvement.
Most likely was an economic decision.
What I Own: 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis GS
What I Help Maintain: 1996 CV / 1988 CV / 1988 Tempo
Had a look and my parts car does not have a rear sway bar. Weird as it has the trailer package (I think. Has a transmission and steering cooler, and a big hitch), but definitely no rear sway bar.
1986 lincoln towncar signature series. 5.0 HO with thumper performance ported e7 heads, 1.7 roller rockers, warm air intake, 65mm throttle body, 1/2" intake spacer, ported intakes, 3.73 rear with trac lock, 98-02 front brake conversion, 92-97 rear disc conversion, 1" rear swaybar, 1 3/16" front swaybar, 16" wheels and tires, loud ass stereo system, badass cb, best time to date 15.94 at 87 mph. lots of mods in the works 221.8 rwhp 278 rwt
2006 Lincoln Town Car Signature. Stock for now
1989 Ford F-250 4x4 much much more to come, sefi converted so far.
1986 Toyota pickup with LSC wheels and 225/60/16 tires.
2008 Hyundai Elantra future Revcon toad
1987 TriBurner and 1986 Alaska stokers keeping me warm. (and some pesky oil heat)
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