Miata Mailing List: September 1998, Message #137

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Previously on Part 2, KMKevin@aol.com said...

> ...  I find that most of the streets where I
> live are crappy (bumpy, holes, etc..) and the car seems a bit nervous
managing
> them, skitters about.  Will adding new sway bars make this worse??  If
so I
> might reconsider.  Or is that more a relationship to the springs and/or
> shocks?

It's both.  What the [anti] sway bars do is tie the left and right sides
of the suspension together.  It doesn't eliminate the suspension's ability
to act independently, but it reduces it sort of like a stiffer spring
reduces the suspension's ability to absorb bumps.  In order to force the
car to corner flatter, by reducing body roll, they are actually
restricting the outside suspension from compressing as far as it would
have.  They do this by connecting the lower A-arm to the chassis.  In
order for the suspension to move, the swaybar must flex.  The stiffer the
bar, the less motion you get.  Adding bigger sways will cause the
suspension to act less independently over bumps, and so while it will be
unaffected when crossing perpendicular to railroad tracks, potholes and
individual bumps will be more noticeable, as would something like crossing
a speed bump at an angle.  When you cross the bump, the sway bar will try
to keep the body level to the terrain beneath the wheels, and will cause
it to roll away from the bump (or into the hole) where mom's Chevy would
soak up the bump with the affected wheel.

So, short answer; yes, the swaybars will negatively affect the feel of the
car over rough roads.  How much is subjective and may be offset by the
benefit of better cornering.  Only you can decide this.  Springs and
shocks will also affect the ride on rough roads.  Interestingly, high
performance adjustable shocks like Konii and Illuminae can actually
improve the ride by allowing you to set them to their softest setting
which is softer than the factory shocks.  When you get to better roads,
it's easy to dial in more stiffness.

	-John

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John Freas (jfreas@earthlink.net)
Red '90 Base-ish #7690
Birmingham, AL
Team LS1, SP, the Gap...
Team dlralt, PBC, Roebuck, Voodoo...
"I have no idea what those dimple things on the windshield frame are for."
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