hey clublexus,

has anyone here on the forum installed a oem sway bar to your ls430? as shown on the sewell?

http://lexus.sewellparts.com/accesso...2001/4639.html

any reviews?

thanks

jd

 

Refer to this thread:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...-handling.html

 

Was about to say the same thing. Basically, a member (Caddyowner) upgraded to slightly thicker rear swaybar and felt it made the car feel more stable at highway speeds.

 

Isnt it only a mm thicker than the standard bar? If so, it would realistically be extremely difficult to discern any real difference. I also dont believe it even comes with PU bushings.

 

The new bushings were a bit stiffer to my feel, but not PU. It was very easy for me to discern a difference with the new sway bar. I hated the way my car handled in crosswinds before the change. Now it is fine. I still feel the wind, but the car doesn't try to change direction on its own.

 

As my car has a 'Sport Edition' suspension it came w/ the thicker rear bar, stiffer bushings, slightly higher rear spring rate and shock settings. Even w/ this so-called 'upgraded' package the wallow and tail lagging understeer made steady state cornering challenging and transitions were even worse. I felt like I really had to anticipate my entry, line and exit for each turn...and remember to go slow. And this was at a moderate, not fast pace at all.
I can't imagine how soft the non-sport and air suspensions are.

The stiffness of the sway bars are reduced by the squishy rubber bushings. I'd really like to see durometer numbers on the sport and non-sport bushings as even the 'sport' ones are really quite soft and easy to deform by hand squeezing. The good thing about this is that they are easy to remove. When the much stiffer REAR polyurethane bushings were switched in handling tightened up considerably, giving flatter cornering and better transitions. When the FRONT PU bushings were installed turn-in became noticeably sharper or at least not vague feeling anymore. At this point I forgot about anticipating the turns so much and driving this big car became much more enjoyable.

In the past couple of weeks I have gone from 225/55/17 Michelin Primacys to 245/45/18 Hankook EVO 12 on 8" wide wheels. What was the change? There is more readily available grip, the ride is a bit more comfy, but w/ a very slight increase in noise. I was expecting an improvement in turn-in response, but maybe I gotta give the tires a chance to break-in? I've only got about 250 miles or so on them. Air pressure was 37 to 38psi for both sets of tires and I probably should play w/ this also.

 

So would this be useless on the air suspension setup?

 

I just did this mod about a week ago. Even though the new bar is only 1mm larger diameter, it translates to about an 18% increase in stiffness. So, noticable but not a huge difference.

As far as driving I could definitely tell the difference but again it was not huge. Stock the rear seems to lean a lot more than the front, with the new sport rear bar the front and back are more equal. Still some lean of course but less than before. Ride comfort seems the same.

For just over $100 with the CL discount, do this mod. There is essentially no comfort penalty but you do get at least a small handing improvement.

 

The air suspension is basically the same except for the air bags and electronically-controlled shocks. In sport mode the UL is damped quite a bit firmer than the base suspension, in normal mode it feels about the same but with more road surface isolation (I can't speak to the "euro sport suspension"). In both modes the damping adjusts dynamically based on several driving variables to increase responsiveness and minimize body roll. So depending on what mode you're in a UL might even get more benefit out of a stiffer rear bar - it'll depend on the synergies.

I'd try the stiffer rear on my UL just for kicks.

 

$116 shipped from Sewell for the upgrade. Ill be installing it in the coming weeks. With pics etc..
For the price, it is a great upgrade. Im looking forward to see if it makes an improvement

 

Thanks. Please keep us posted - sounds like a great mod if its not too hard to do - the parts price is certainly good from Sewell.

 

Hey if i was to get swaybars on a car with bags, would it bed or shift the bars and mess it up?

 

no it will be fine. When i had my caprice, i had an 1 5/16" bar on the front and an 1 1/2" bar on the rear, and that car was body dropped. it rode great.

 

but how about if i lower one half of the car and not the other, would that make a difference?

 

I don't see why it would. I have air suspension on mine. I'm installing the sway bar, 3K HID fogs, and my Wald Duchatelet 3pc this weekend...pending the arrival of my tires. I'll post some pics of the sway bar install later on