DIY Front Sway Bar Replacement by StealthyS60R

The forward jack points must be removed to disconnect the rear of the subframe, so I used some blocks of wood and jackstands to keep the front of the car elevated for the work and not damage the unibody.

To allow the subrame to drop sufficiently in the rear I loosened the front subframe bolts approximately 4 turns

To allow the subframe to drop in the rear enough to remove the bar, I had to unbolt and disconnect the following items from the subframe. Jackplates, front exhaust hangar bracket, steering rack, front engine mount (the one by the crank pulley) and the plastic brackets that secure the power steering and fuel lines to the right side of the subframe.

To keep the steering rack from dropping, I used a couple of tie downs to hold up the tie rod on each side of the rack.

Once everything was disconnected, I then secured the rear of the subframe with my jack, removed the rear subframe bolts and slowly lowered the subframe till it was almost a foot beneath the car. This gave me enough room to remove the mount bolts and remove the bar. You must be careful since the plastic fuel line is one of the few items which runs under the bar and will be pulled down with the frame. It also requires that you snake the bar around it when you finally manage to get it out of there and put the new one in.

Once the old one is out, getting it back together is just a case of exactly the reverse. As you jack the subframe back up, pay careful attention to the fuel and power steering lines. In my case one of the power steering lines almost got caught up in the wrong place between the oil pan and subframe, but fortunately I realized this before forcing it up and causing any damage. The engine may move around a little, and since it is connected to the steering rack via a motor mount, may make a little finessing required to get the rack bolts to line up correctly as you raise the subframe.

But enough of the descriptive part, here are the pics to help clarify the procedure.

My new purchases for my project:

Engine Support In Place:

Supporting The Car:

Securing The Steering Rack:

Lines To Watch & Brackets To Disconnect:

Lowering The Subframe:

Old Bar -vs- New:

New Bar Going In:

Bar Installed and Subframe Ready To Go Back Up, Pay Careful Attention To The Fuel Line Location Under the Bar and Above The Subframe.

Good luck to all my fellow R enthusiasts, on a job like this its best to be prepared. 

6-7-2010

Oh yes, definantly worth it. I used the stiffest setting in the front and the medium in the back which is a good balance.

I probably wouldn't have bought the engine support bar if not for needing to do the clutch down the road but it was nice to have so I didn't have to keep the engine supported from the bottom where I needed to roll around.

I know the endlinks will probably bite the dust sooner now, but even though they have 105K miles on them now they still ain't broke so I'm not going to fix them yet, lol.

I assumef the grease fitting is just a standard part on the bracket that they sourced for this thing. Who knows, perhaps you could get to them with the right kind of lube connector though.

The old front bar measures 23.85 mm.

The new bar is also designed differently at the ends and who knows what kind of material difference there might be as well.

In addition to the better roll controll, one of the best features is that the car is pretty close to neutral balance again as compared to the oversteering tendencies it had with just the rear bar in.

On big sweepers the front tires will now give a much better audible report when they are reaching their limits as well.

Just to put it into perspective, the big interstate exit sweeper I hit each day at a safe speed of 80 now feels just as well planted at 90, lol.