The end links on my front anti-sway bar are broken. As long as I have to replace them, I thought it might make sense to install a stiffer front anti-sway bar. My sense is that the RX-8's back end can get a little loose and the car has a tendency toward oversteer, particularly in the wet. My thinking was that a stiffer front sway bar would help modify this toward more neutral handling.

What do you think? Has anyone replaced their front sway bar and have comments on this? What brand of sway bars or thickness would you recommend for a car that is a mostly a weekend car with occasional autocross?

 

If you are currently oversteering, one way to bring your system back to neutral is to increase front roll stiffness (larger front anti sway bar). It isn't the only way to accomplish this though. Alignments, staggered tires, front/rear spring rate, front anti-sway/rear anti-sway stiffness, tire pressures...etc. will all affect understeer/oversteer.

Before you jump on a front anti-sway bar, you may want to share your current setup so people can let you know if you are just masking another problem. For example, if you tell me you have brand new 245 wide Dunlop Star Specs on the front, and some crappy 245 Nankangs that are half worn on the rear.....then stock front sway bar isn't your issue.

A front sway bar is a moderately difficult installation job on the RX-8 (1-3 hours depending on experience), while the end links are a quick 30 minute job. Change your front anti-sway bar if you want, but don't do it for the sake of your broken end links.

 

Good advice. The car is stock and I have Continental all-season tires. I would get new wheels/race rubber and adjustable struts if I was to autocross the car more regularly in the future (I use my Miata for that currently) and stiffer, lower springs. So that's the longer view.

 

Well, the 8 is so called "front-mid-engine" so its polar moment of inertia allows for quick changes and the rear can get twitchie feeling. If you end up keeping the car stock a stiffer front bar will induce more understeer and dampen that, as well as reduce roll substantially. One of my 1st mods was a set of Whiteline adjustable sway bars, and for a couple hundred bucks - it was a more than worth it. The adjustablity was key, and allowed precise tuning (under/over/neutral) to get just the feel I wanted, no compromise. Further, later on the upgrade path as you see in my signature, those bar's adjustability pays dividends to accomodate my other suspension parts.