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2001 - S 5MT - OEM Swaybar Upgrade questions?

65 views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  racerxr650  
#1 ·
Vehicle Details:
‘01 S
Transmission:
5spd
I’ve got two questions for you guys:
I replaced my lower control arms with new ACDelco units and my swaybar kept shifting to the drivers side and pulling out the passenger side link bushing. What could be causing this? I did one side at a time and replaced the swaybar bushing as well, and made sure the bar didn’t move left to right. Despite all this, a link bushing kept getting pulled out. I fixed it twice, then just removed the bar. Any ideas what’s causing this?

After removing the swaybar, because I couldn’t fix the above problem, I soon realized I needed some kind of swaybar. What larger OEM bar is a direct replacement and will I need beefier mounts?

I’ve seen Whitelinez equipment and I’m not ready to spend 700+ on Swaybars.

The car is stock height and daily driven.
 
#2 ·
I'm not aware of any aftermarket front sway bar mounts. The Whiteline bars use the factory mounts with sway bar bushings that have a bigger hole for the larger diameter bar.

From your description, I am not sure which bushing is getting pulled out. Each link has a bushing on each end. One end connects to the sway bar. The other end connects to the control arm. The sway bar itself has a driver and passenger side bushing. So, what is getting pulled out?

Is it possible you flipped the sway bay and installed it backwards? Not sure that is possible because I assume it would interfere with the steering tie rods. But, I do know I stuck it in backwards once and figured it out pretty quickly.

Here's a pic of my Whiteline bar mounted on the front end of my '01 Forester.
Image
 
#3 ·
@racerxr650
Whiteline offers thicker steel mounts. The factory mounts are foil compared to Whitelines mounts.

The passenger side sway bar side, link bushing was getting pulled out.

No, it’s impossible because I replaced one swaybar mount bushing at a time. I did notice that the ACDelco LCA was shorter from front to back. I’m not sure if that has anything to do with this.
 
#4 ·
I could definitely be wrong. But, I understood that Whiteline only sells rear sway bar mounts. The front sway bar mounts are welded to the front suspension/engine cradle cross member. So, it's not a simple bolt-in swap for those. You'd have to cut off the originals and weld in new ones. Or, you'd have to replace the whole cross member.
 
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