Hello everyone, 

 

So back in October last year I put Eibach 20mm lowering springs (Pro Kit, not the Performance Sportline ones) on my Mk2 Octy 170PD and replaced the shocks. I also put 15mm spacers on the front wheels and 20mm spacers on the rear (both H&R).  The object of this exercise was primarily to even the arch gap and get the wheels to sit flush, as I think this just looks so much better. For the most part I have had no issues, but every once in a while I'll round a corner a little too quickly, and cringe as one of the rear tires clips the inside of the arch.  

 

I've been trying to figure out the best way to avoid this happening in the future - please don't say, "slow down" :-) - without having to go for coilovers, revert to OEM springs or remove the wheel spacers, and it seems that a stiffer sway bar on the rear might reduce roll enough to stop this from happening. But despite several hours of Googling and YouTube hunting, I still haven't been able to figure out if this is indeed the case. 

 

I guess my first question would be, has lowering the car by 20mm had any effect on the rear OEM sway bar? Is it stiffer now? Or softer? 

 

Also, would using shorter (adjustable) drop links have the same effect as using an adjustable sway bar on a stiffer setting? I've been looking at the Whiteline bar, which has three holes at the ends. It seems to me that both of these things achieve the same effect, ie. reducing the distance between the mounting point of the bar on the chassis and where it sits on the suspension arm. 

 

I would really appreciate some advice here as I don't want to blow a couple of hundred quid on parts that aren't going to solve the problem. 

• The anti-roll bar works by resisting opposing wheel travel, so in theory it will have the same impact whatever your ride height. Stiffening up the springs means less roll anyway, so its effect is diminished; fitting a stiffer uprated bar should restore its relative effect.

Thank you! So the bar, not the adjustable drop links?

I guess so. Not sure that the other option would or would not fix the problem either though! Fitting an uprated Rear ARB will obviously affect the handling, but you've already changed the springs and dampers so it's non standard anyway. 

If you assume the ends of your sway bars are horizontal before you lowered it now they are deflected by whatever you lowered it.

to get them back to how they should be you need to fit shortened  drop links to restore the alignment. 

Makes sense. Thank you!