Hi,

I've recently replaced the puny 17mm rear AR bar on my MY96 with the later 20mm one and also replaced the bushes with Powerflex ones. Last night I replaced the front AR bushes with Powerflex bushes as well. I noticed that the AR bush collars that bolt the bush to the support are, to put it mildly, a c&^% design in terms of preventing the bush moving sideways. In fact, one was fitted such that it was crushing the old bush.
The rear ones weren't much better.
A couple of minutes with a 2lb club hammer managed to bend the lugs over far enough to prevent the bush moving sideways but this is nothing like ideal.

The question is, do a) later models have a better mounting collar or b) does anyone make such items? I can get some made up myself but would like comments first.

Ta

Dave

Best solution I have seen as the later cars arnt fantstic either is to put a tie wrap around the base of the bush and this seems to hold it all in place. I destroyed my original rubber bushes at my first track day and replaced them with Powerflex ones and Pete Croney did the tie wrap trick to them and they havent moved since!

Darren

David,

have you noticed much difference in handling, most importantly body-roll, since youve ugraded to stiffer anti-roll bars?

I have a MY95 which seems to lean quite alarmingly when going round roundabouts! Where can I get such an upgrade from and how much are they?

Cheers,

Andy

Hi,

Fitting the rear 20mm bar from the MY97 (on) AND Powerflex bushes (all bushes - not just the main ones but the ones that go into the U bracket that connects the AR bar to the rear tie bar) made a major difference. Mine used to do the same as yours on bends (and | hate body roll) but is now much flatter.

Talk to Power Engineering for the bushes (I actually got mine from Demon Tweeks but they charge the same and add a load of carriage charges and get PE to send them out in a jiffy bag...).
As for the AR bar, mine was second hand - about £60 from some place in Scotland (I forget the name but they advertise in Autotrader). A new one is about £120 inc. from Subaru.

I replaced the front bushes last night and that made a noticable difference as well. I am concerned (apart from the query above) about the amount of play in the support bar at the end of the AR bar. Seems excessive to me but, at least for the front, I'm told that they are not rubber bushes. A strip down is required at the weekend me thinks...
And the link between the support bar and AR bar at the back is getting new stainless steel spacers plus bolts to stiffen that up.

So, to sum up, at the very least get Powerflex bushes all round. And a 20mm AR bar from a later car fits and makes amajor difference to body roll.

Cheers

Dave

David,

thanks for all the info - sounds like the upgrade I need to control-that-roll. Anyone with a 20mm AR bar going spare?

Andy

PS. Have you stuck with the original wheels or are you running bigger than the std 15"?

Hi,

Last bit first - I have gold 16" speedlines on the car - for now. I'm getting 17s - wanna buy some 16"ers?? (4 good P-Zeros as well - mail me off-list if you're interested).

As for the roll bar - I didn't have any trouble getting a second hand one (Autotrader). But I also seem to remember that a couple of people are getting the thicker ones from down under. Maybe they'll have 20mm ones spare after this? Try a Wanted add on the BBS and via IWOC.

Cheers

Dave

PS: when getting 2nd hand make sure you say it's from a MY97 on - and that it's 20mm. No excuses to get it wrong then!