Super Cheap RSB hack-grade

So you wanted to try out a bigger rear sway bar on your legacy but you didn't really feel like spending more than $200? Well me either. So I went to the junkyard and found an LGT (I have a 2.5i) I thought, surely the GT must have a larger RSB than mine. So I pulled it, it was $50. Wellll turns out, it's exactly the same. So that was a bummer. Until my brother jokingly said "just put both on hahaha". Now I'm just the kind of crazy to try that, so here's what I did.

 

So here's the overall view under my nasty car. Note the hogzaust, classy.

http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae142/leviman2001/20131202_025354_zps90bcd990.jpg

 

What I did was just spread the extra bar around the stubs sticking out of the endlinks and then tie them together in the center with the two spare brackets/bushings which I grabbed from the junkyard. And two bolts as well. That was it! I also put a large cable tie around both bar on each end so as to limit it from coming off.

 

http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae142/leviman2001/20131202_025313_zps4c72e115.jpg

 

http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae142/leviman2001/20131202_024725_zps7bd22dd6.jpg

 

I don't have the cable ties yet here, but you can imagine them.

 

I think I could improve this with another set of bushings/brackets and moving them closer to the main brackets.

 

So how does it drive now? Well, it seems to oversteer more readily, I can get better donuts in the snow, but it's not to pronounced. We'll have to wait till summer to see if it slides a bit better.

 

Also! For the first few weeks I noticed some clunking, but now it seems to have "broken in" and I don't hear anymore noises! But hey, what can you expect?

Yes, I'm sure that your used sway at has really "broken in". Also, It usually tAkes about 100miles for zip-tie endlinks to seat properly. So expect even more oversteer once those are added. Next summer you can really hoon it up when testing how she slides. If only you added some UEL headers this setup would be complete!

So you wanted to try out a bigger rear sway bar on your legacy but you didn't really feel like spending more than $200?

 

It's a good thing used rear sway bars are well under $200 (I paid $100 for a whiteline adjustable), so I don't have to ghettoify my car this way.

Not to mention that those pesky rear sway bar mounts that are OBVIOUSLY in the way will soon be torn off nicely, allowing you to make a fabulous spark show when the sway bar(s) drag over speed bumps and the like.

 

First and foremost, your car was NOT built to work this way. Second, if you want to enhance your stock setup, $20 PU bushings and decent sway bar links will make a huge difference. Third, without some sort of reinforcement, the rear SB mounts will come off in an alarming hurry, causing a MUCH larger bill than $200 to repair (and it will also most likely NEVER be exactly correct again) not to mention the damage it can cause with the sway bar flopping around like a shark on a boat deck.

 

Personally, I would leave it on there. I mean, it's definitely unique in it's own right. Maybe to invest in a $12 set of digital calipers would have alleviated the problem of purchasing a sway bar that's identical in diameter. You spread the jaws wider than the sway bar and then close them on the sway bar, and then read the little TV that's on there and it will show you numbers. Compare the TV numbers on your sway bar to the TV numbers on the junkyard sway bar and if they're the same....hmmm....my guess, and this is of course, only a guess, is THAT IT'S THE SAME DAMN SWAY BAR! ! ! !

 

TAKE THAT OFF before it breaks everything in sight and ALSO that stupid connection mount in the middle punches a hole in your gas tank when it flops around and wedges under the car. If you're lucky, that's ALL that happens but you won't be. It will also nicely tear off your rear brake hoses, and most likely the E-brake cables too.

 

I generally don't flame people but this is self-induced. You deserve to be flamed with napalm and nuclear weapons for even doing this, and THEN to show it to everyone.

What's it gonna cost when you rip out your RSMs?

 

oh well. In for carnage!!

He's in Alaska, folks. He literally could not be further away from me and still be in the US. I was going to ask for a license plate so that I could be sure to stay more than 500' behind if I ever saw him... but... hell, have at it. Guys like this make shows like Tosh.0 possible.

Is this a joke?

Is this a joke?

If so, kudos on the elaborate photoshop job.

 

If not, why haven't you doubled up on brake rotors or intercoolers? More is clearly better.

Haha, looks like i forgot how excitable subaru folks are. I guess if it's not made in a factory out of billet it's not good enough. If the rsb mounts rip off? I'll just weld them back on, maybe with some reinforcement. Also, could anyone really break down how the **** new endlinks and bushings would change anything at all given a stock bar? What? And to the guy who suggested digital calipers (and like everything else), you think i didn't realize how retarded that was? And i do have calipers. Also besides standard rsb mounts being weal and such (which does apply to evry single other stiffer rsb) , how would this make them any worse off?

Also besides standard rsb mounts being weal and such (which does apply to evry single other stiffer rsb) , how would this make them any worse off?

Well... in the off chance that this mod actually worked, the stiffer bar(s) will exert more force on the RSB mounts... which, if high school physics isn't failing me, would make them more likely to fail... which would make them worse off.

 

But the extra RSB probably isn't doing anything other than increasing weight and the odds of a catastrophic failure as described above. So you're probably fine.

surely the GT must have a larger RSB than mine.

Surely you could have looked on the same site where you found the "classy" hogzaust mod, which would have told you otherwise.

Also besides standard rsb mounts being weal and such (which does apply to evry single other stiffer rsb) , how would this make them any worse off?

 

This is exactly why the advice when doing with a (proper) stiffer rear sway bar is to add reinforcement brackets to the OEM mount points.

I'll just leave these here:

 

SGT Daddy's Hood Louvers

JmP6889928's Snowplow Splitter

Turbodog's Cut Springs

Leviman's RSBx2 Mod

In for the ensuing awesome.

:lol::lol:

Face palm.

SMH....this is something I'd expect in the 3rd gen forums. :meh:

Well... in the off chance that this mod actually worked, the stiffer bar(s) will exert more force on the RSB mounts... which, if high school physics isn't failing me, would make them more likely to fail... which would ma*them worse off.But the extra RSB probably isn't doing anything other than increasing weight and the odds of a catastrophic failure as described above. So you're probably fine.

 

Right, but, so would any other rsb, so what exactly is the big deal here? And i can tell that it does handle a bit different, certainly not squirrely but it doesn't push nearly as much. Also a swaybar mount failing is far from what i would consider a catastrophic failure. Also, serious much? I guess most people are loosing the humor in this 'mod'.

SMH....this is something I'd expect in the 3rd gen forums. :meh:

 

Haha well with a new generation about to come out, 4th gen will be like 3rd gen was, right?

The only time performance involves humor is when something's either stupidly fast or comically slow.

 

Or just a bad idea.

Genius. Two 20mm bars is the same as one 40, right?

 

Putting in an order with msprank NOW for 2x WL RSBs. I'll only have to buy twice as many of everything...

Hahahaha, well actually, if we want to get techincal, i think stiffness has something to do with cubes and what not when it comes down to cross sectional area. So I'm really not stiffening it too much more.

I'll just leave these here:

 

SGT Daddy's Hood Louvers

JmP6889928's Snowplow Splitter

Turbodog's Cut Springs

Leviman's RSBx2 Mod

 

Yeah, except the "snowplow" splitter has evolved into a completely refined design that works now. Boxkita has looked at it while visiting and I have a friend that's a SCCA driver that did A/B tests for me and he was impressed with the front stability it caused....SO THERE ! !

Yeah, except the "snowplow" splitter has evolved into a completely refined design that works now. Boxkita has looked at it while visiting and I have a friend that's a SCCA driver that did A/B tests for me and he was impressed with the front stability it caused....SO THERE ! !

 

"My friend said it was cool so it was cool"

 

Nice logic there, Captain Awesome.

a swaybar mount failing is far from what i would consider a catastrophic failure.

Oh, it's not, at all... but sending a length of tubular steel bouncing down the highway after it's relieved you of your rear brake lines has got to be something close to catastrophic... at least for the car behind you. Amirong?