All of my Camaro's front suspension pieces make sense to me except the swaybar. I am looking for a good description of the effects of a swaybar on handling characteristics.

From looking at the swaybar I see that it has a rigid connection to the frame of the car (actually radiator support in front) laterally...but is able to rotate along the horizontal axis.

The swaybar connects to the A arms (in the front) by endlinks which allow lateral movement (it seems) but keeps the distance between the swaybar and A arm constant.

How does this help me as I drive my car aggressively around a road course? What would be the effect if I removed the swaybar and drove the same course (don't worry, I'm not going to do this.)

Thanks,
Adam

 

Think of it as what it really is...an anti-sway bar. It stops your car from swaying side to side when making corners. On a road race/auto-x car, you'd end up killing yourself without one. For normal street driving, you should have one as well, though its not necessarily required to have a very strong one, and for drag racing you don't need one at all because you don't take corners hard.

Basically it holds the body level to the ground via the A-arms. Your A-arms should always be on the ground when turning (duh! traction), so a straight line across them would be parallel. By having the bar mount in two locations on the body and then ending at the A-arms, it reduces body roll. A bigger bar will be stronger and allow less body roll than a thinner bar.

Keep in mind, you should tune your car's swaybar size to what springs you have installed. Stiffer springs need a less stiff swaybar, and softer springs need a stronger swaybar.

Oh and also keep in mind, the stronger the swaybar, the "tighter" your car will ride. A larger bar makes our independent front suspension somewhat non-independent. Though, stiffer springs make the ride rough too.

Enough of what it does and how it works for now...

 

Sway bars are just torsional springs. They help to support the suspension of the car.

 

As you corner, the body wants to roll towards the outside of the curve, causing a lifting force on the suspension on the inside wheels and a lowering force on the suspension on the outside wheels. The swaybar transmits these forces between sides to keep the car more level.

The swaybar will bend and twist under load slightly, allowing some body roll. The thicker the bar, the less it bends, and the more level the car stays.

 

As stated a sway bar is basically a spring. When cornering, one side of the car gets loaded (pressed down) and the other side gets un loaded (raised up). This action is described body roll. The sway bar transmits that load to the opsite side to "even" the car out. The bigger/stiffer the sway bar, the more load is transmitted to the other side, the less body roll you have.

edit: basically the same thing Apeiron said. I guess I missed that post.

 

Thanks guys...your descriptions clear it up for me.

 

Unbolt a side and drive around the block. Don't worry, you won't break/hurt anything. See how it responds differently. Then just bolt it back up. Its not that bad til you start making quick lane changes at 95-100MPH..then things get scary

I leave mine on all the time. Only had it off for 2-3 days when I was going to the track one weekend.

 

simple way I had it described to me

when you take a turn your outside tires get pushed up and since you have a bar that resist twisting there (sway bar) it will try to lift the inside tires trying to keep that bar untwisted all in all preventing body roll.


but doesn't really help with braking as much as springs and partly cause of that I would recomend using springs/dampers as main handling tools and sway bars as a fine adjustment piece