VAP

so I'm gonna post it here for everyone to see and debate if they wanna but there's no arguing it's merit.

Almost everyone installs their rear sway bar with same-setting on either end. Then proclaim worry/doubt about the credibility of those of us who run staggered settings on either side.
They worry about balance, imbalance, moment of inertia and arm lengths, fulcrum/axis effect and so on.

Then they proceed to drive their cars on a chassis lift or on jackstands and install their shiney new sway bar in the same hole at either end with blatant disregard for what happens to all that balance once the drivers butt hits the seat. The balance they've tried so hard to achieve has just been summarily thrown out the window. The Neuspeed 19mm rear bar is shaped so that the holes are equally aligned in both a horizontal and vertical axis, ie; equi-distant relationship to each other and from the rotational axis. The problem is once there is a 185lb driver in the car, the left side drops almost 3/16" and all that same-hole end-link balance is lost. Of course you get it back when a like-weighted passenger gets in the car but with just the driver you've now created the problem you'd most like to avoid. The Neuspeed bar has no pre-load tweaked into it as some precision race bars do... where one arm is staggered/offset higher/lower or with more holes to achieve an even greater degree of balance. Truth is it's very crudely made, as most one-piece bars are, although effective sway bar that accomplishes it's task at a fair price point.

But the truth lies in the installation. Drive the car up on a drive-up ramp as opposed to a chassis lift or jackstands. Install the bar with the passenger side set to 'soft' then put a driver in it... see which hole the end-link now 'wants' to fit in. Or put it in the stiff setting on the right side and see where the drivers side wants to go if there were a hole behind the stiff setting.

This isn't rocket-science... with one person in the car a staggered setting with drivers side set to 'firm' is empirically better balanced. No matter which side of the fence you stand on this, the math just wont add up that same-hole end-link anchoring is better balanced... unless there's NEVER less than two people in the car on opposite sides.

Silver Streakin'

thanks for the tip. when I do get around to changing it from soft to ?, I'll keep this in mind.

ex-quattro PETE

so driver side/medium and passenger side/soft would be a good staggered setting?

Digit@lex

such as coilovers and corner balancing arguments. Should the same logic be applied to C/Os (i,e, have the driver side preloaded before making adjustments?

VAP

if it had three holes like their larger diameter bars we'd have a little more adjustability tho I think only a few would take advantage of it.

You could also remove the bar, grind a 'flat' behind the firm settings on both sides, inside and outside the cripmed tang, and drill another hole for even firmer setting but I find the existing holes adequate for my needs tho I don't consider it a truly "adjustable bar" as the way I see it there's really only one setting thats optimal, ie; staggered.

Žob

No, it also has a medium setting, Use one outter and one inner hole and you'll get a medium setting

ex-quattro PETE

oh, I thought it had three settings.

ski ya later

So then, did Audi set-up the car in stock trim to account for more weight on drivers side??

Žob

It does, read a post or 2 down

VAP

about CO's is their ability to compensate for driver's side squat. Then you can effectively use a Neuspeed bar right outta the box with same hole anchoring at either end. For the most part once I've got a pair of CO's dialed in for the street, I never touch em again. So I've sorta stopped using them on my street cars tho I wouldn't be without them on a track car. They were a PITA to constantly adjust so once the novelty wore off I never adjusted them again and sold the cars with em on.

On the track you go for weight-balance over uniform height, forsaking "reasonable" ht differences. CO's allow for staggering bias for specific tracks, ie; is it mostly left turns, right turns, high-speed, off-camber, diminishing radius et al. But as with everything it's always a trade-off and a balancing act especially with front-engine cars. Now mid-engine is a WHOLE 'nother story