I promised I would try and write-up my swaybar installation notes. I’ve attempted to boil down this to ‘just’ a few steps – with a few hindsight lesson learned at the end. Please note that any reference I make to drivers/passenger sides is done with the steering wheel on the proper/correct side of the car (rhd UK car)
Step 1 - Prep
Raise the front of the car, remove the wheels and place safely onto axle stands. Remove the under-tray and both front wheel arch covers (10mm, 12mm + lots of the plastic lugs with the pull-out centres)
Step 2 – Remove the drop-links
The top nut connecting the drop links to the OEM swaybar was too corroded for me to remove easily – so I just left them connected to the swaybar. I then went on to carefully remove the nut from the bottom of the drop-links (14mm ring spanner and 5mm allen/hex key in the end of the bolt to stop it turning). In hindsight, if these were also too corroded I would have just “hacksawed off’ the bottom bolt holding the drop-links as I ended up replacing the drop-links with these upgraded ones anyway. I think the photo might be the top-link at the rear - but it shows how to undo the nut..
Step 3 – Prep stuff so you can swing the steering column out & down out of the way of the swaybar.
3a. Set free the cable ties holding the wiring to the steering rack (I used a large screwdriver to lever them off).
3b. Remove the two mounting bolts holding the steering column to the subframe (19mm – I think). I was surprised to find the passenger side nut was not retained on top of the steering rack, so be careful to remove the nut from the top of the steering column and keep it in a safe place to re-install later.
3c. Remove the horn and plastic cover from the passenger side of the steering rack. Remove the plastic cover and earth strap from the driver’s side of the steering rack.
3d. Undo the nut holding the ABS wire on both the passenger and drivers side. This stops any damage when fighting (carefully) with the swaybar on its route in/out of the car.
3e. Disconnect the lower coolant hose clip (I used pliers to push the clip tabs together) and catch (most of the) anti-freeze in a bucket to either dispose of responsibly at your local recycling centre – or re-use the stuff you caught in the bucket when re-filling the coolant system. Now you can lift the plastic hose support that clips over the front of the steering rack and pull the passenger side of the steering rack towards the front of the car and then when it clears the sub-frame you can lower it on the passenger side by about 5cm – which creates enough room to clear the swaybar when removing and installing the shiny new one.
Step 4 – remove the oem swaybar, and place the new shiny one in position ready to bolt-on
I sawed the rubber mounting from the passenger side of OEM swaybar to make some more wriggle room (not sure if this was necessary – but it made it easier). Unbolt the swaybar brackets and then carefully extract the swaybar out through the driver’s side – this needs careful manipulation as it’s tricky but it can be done. I was concentrating / cursing too much and didn’t have enough hands to take any photos of this stage. However, I was following the route in the pictures 18-22 in this
Eibach guide. Carefully position the new shiny swaybar through using the same route (via the drivers side in a UK car) and make sure it’s orientated the same way as the OEM bar.
Step 5 – Bolt-on the swaybar
Grease the new shiny swaybar mounting with the provided grease, and bolt them on (14mm ring spanner and open ended spanner for the top nut). This is a tight squeeze to get the bracket over the top bolt, but it will fit. Adjust the upgraded drop-links to the same length as the OEM ones, then bolt the drop link to the top of the swaybar and secure the bottom of the droplinks (using an open-ended 14mm spanner and 14mm socket)
Step 6 – Put all the stuff you removed back
6a. Put back the passenger side of the steering rack back into position and bolt it up (using the nut you carefully saved from the top of the steering rack), re-attach the coolant pipe, plastic covers, horn, wiring clips, earth strap and abs wire retaining nuts.
6b. Put either new mixed anti-freeze (or re-use the stuff you caught in the bucket) back into the car. Ensure the heating control is on max heat. I filled it by taking the hose off coming from the bottom of the engine block to the expansion tank and sticking a funnel in the end of it….there’s probably a much better professional way of doing this
6c. Put the front wheel arch covers back, along with the under tray. Put the wheels back on, lower the car – now allow yourself a small smile the front swaybar is done!
Lessons Learned (using the power of hindsight)
1. I didn’t have to remove and re-install the tie-rod ends (as suggested in the Eibach guide). Removing these was a real pain as well, as the thread spun with the nut when I tried to remove and re-attach the nut. I used the ball-joint splitter (turned upside down) to add tension to the joint, this enabled me to loosen and tighten the nut. You’ll need to use the ball-joint splitter the right way round to split the tie-rod ends. But there's no need to do this at all.
https://youtu.be/075FSTwFl6M
2. I didn’t have to worry about the steering column position. Although I did mark it up and removed the bolt, this was not necessary on UK spec car – the drivers side of the steering rack can remain in place – so no alignment worries
3. When undoing the drop-links, I thought my 5mm hex/allen key was too big to put into the end of the threads on the bolt to stop it turing with the nut. I ended up trying to use an imperial one (~4.7mm). The 5mm isn’t too big, just work it carefully into the end of the thread (after using lots of WD40), then use the 14mm spanner to carefully take the nut off whilst holding the hex/allen key. You could re-use the oem drop-links, but mine were too rusty so I replaced them with upgrade ones.
4. I didn’t need to remove the Intercooler hose support bracket (on the driver’s side above the steering rack). This was a pain as well, as I had to undo and re-attach this support by feel. There should be enough wriggle room to remove the swaybar without removing this support bracket.
5. I need to find out how to fill and bleed the coolant properly. There must be a better way of doing this. I ended up filling it back up by detaching the hose from the engine to the bottom of the expansion tank (at the expansion tank end), sticking a funnel in the of this pipe, lifting it above the engine and filling it with anti-freeze.
Assumptions
I assume that the same trick can be done with LHD cars, the steering rack should be the other way round, so just moving the passenger (lhd) part of the steering rack out and down should provide enough clearance over the steering column motor – whilst leaving the driver’s side attached. But I can’t be sure, as mine is RHD – sorry.
I would just like to add a big THANK YOU to SJW and Greg (from EC) for their help via this fab forum during my install.
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