Godspeed swaybars

[solidONE]

Originally Posted by Spinning Sushi

I know it sounds hard to believe but all the conditions were met and it bent the bar

This was a godspeed sway bar? If so, did they replace it under the lifetime warranty?

[guybo]

How is it so hard to believe that someone bought the absolute cheapest part on the market and that part bent when put to the test? Of course the Godspeed swaybar bent- it's cheap AF.

If you buy these swaybars just know they are cheap, not well made, the welds will be sub-par and the metal it's made from will be from a bin/lot that was the cheapest they could find. Will it work? Sure. Will it work well? Roll the dice and see.

I don't mind using el-cheapo crap for some stuff, but when it comes to suspensiojn I won't. On my last car I had a J2 Engineering exhaust (exhaust is not exactly mission critical and a failure won't kill me) and it turned out I had go over a few welds after they cracked. But it was plenty good enough. On my wife's car I have an el-cheapo intake, but the design is good, the heat shield seals off the engine and I used an old Injen filter instead of the el-crappo generic filter it came with.

Just know your enemy and be smart.

[Shady195]

They work just fine.

[venturaII]

Well, they've arrived. We'll see just how horrible they are when I get home tonight. lol

[venturaII]

So, I gave them a once-over yesterday after I got home. They're about what I expected; the paint is a bit thin, the welds are trade school quality at best, and the bar has a few gaffs in it where the bending equipment was clamped onto it. But TBH, I couldn't care less as long as they do what they're supposed to do. They're no worse looking than any of the other OEM suspension parts under the car, and since I DD my car year-round in the rust belt, paying lots of money for some suspension eye candy is kind of stupid. I might rattle can them with another layer of paint just to give them a little more protection, but honestly, it's not going to make a huge difference. I've had top-tier aftermarket suspension components on other cars, and they still look like shit after 2 winters, so worrying about looks is pretty pointless. Function first, for me.


Hopefully I'll get time to install them this weekend.

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by fumanchu1

what I meant with basic Taiwan stuff was generic low quality control stuff. If you think the facility that produces runs for tomei runs the same QC as one doing it for generic ebay brand #5124 then you are mistaken. That's what I meant with basic Taiwan shit, not that anything made there is shit

That's about as far away from the truth as you can be on the Tomei statement. I can't tell you any more, but I'll just leave you to ponder what you just wrote.

But, to add some thought to yours: what Tomei product? Don't answer this. Different product have different sources.

[venturaII]

I installed the swaybars this weekend. Car is totalled.

[NyC Zn6]

Originally Posted by venturaII

I installed the swaybars this weekend. Car is totalled.

Well godspeed on your next endeavor.

[venturaII]

Man - must be too early in the morning for sarcasm. The car is fine. Swaybar install went pretty much without a hitch except for the front one, which needed the holes enlarged...looked like they were drilled for 10mm bolts instead of 12mm. I'd rather them be too small than too big... Car rides nice - the new bars make a subtle but definitely noticeable difference. As far as I'm concerned, the suspension is done, in terms of modifications. Might do a Wilwood brake upgrade at a later date when it comes time to do service work, but I'm quite pleased with this little project. Certainly worth the 120 bucks spent, that's for sure.


Another thing I was actually quite happy with is that the bars came with rubber bushings, not the urethane that were advertised. I much prefer rubber for NVH and durability reasons.

[solidONE]

So the bushings are rubber but listed as urethane. It would not be surprising that they used mild steel to make the bars but listed them as chromoly. But hey, $120 lol.

[venturaII]

Originally Posted by solidONE

So the bushings are rubber but listed as urethane. It would not be surprising that they used mild steel to make the bars but listed them as chromoly. But hey, $120 lol.

You say that like rubber is a downgrade...lol. More expensive, better nvh, lasts longer....that all adds up to win in my book.

[venturaII]

So, swaybar update... With temps in the low 30's in the morning, the bushings have begin to squeak when going over speedbumps.. I'm wondering if the bushings really are urethane, as I don't ever recall rubber ones squeaking...they seemed awfully soft when I got them, which is why I thought they were rubber (and they were black and didn't have that glossy urethane look)... I'll probably just try some spray silicone lube and hope that it wicks in, but I'll likely have to disassemble and lube to do it right.

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by venturaII

You say that like rubber is a downgrade...lol. More expensive, better nvh, lasts longer....that all adds up to win in my book.

More deflection and makes the bar less effective and consistent are a loss IMO.

[venturaII]

Originally Posted by wparsons

More deflection and makes the bar less effective and consistent are a loss IMO.

As far as deflection/effectiveness go, someone on here (I forget who it was...I'm sure the topic could be searched up) measured the amount of deflection of the stock rubber bushing, which it even thicker and more compressible than one made for a thicker bar, using a dial indicator and jacking a corner of the car until the suspension was at full droop/and full compression. The reading was on the order of thousandths of an inch, which is negligible, to say the least. This is one reason I went with thicker bars, rather than simply changing the stock bushings to urethane - there was effectively zero advantage to using urethane over rubber. And I have no idea how you come up with rubber somehow being a less consistent material than urethane; it has a compression curve just as urethane does, and it will follow that curve just as urethane, or delrin or any other material would when compressed.