H&R 24mm Rear Sway Bar - Which setting and why?

[sowleman]

I have a 2011 VW CC Lux Plus and am planning to install a H&R 24mm Rear Sway Bar soon.

My CC is my daily driver and I don't want to affect ride comfort. All I'm looking for is a little less body roll during high speed turns - mainly around 70 to 80 mph on a particular winding stretch of toll road in Dallas. Which setting do you recommend and why? Should I go full firm setting on it, medium, or soft?

For those of you with the H&R Rear Sway or those of you who may not have this setup but have vast knowledge in the subject, what do you recommend? I want to set it and forget it. I don't want to keep jacking the car up and changing things around. I'm tempted to put it on medium as a good compromise.

What do you think?

[CC'ed]

I installed the HR 24mm rear bar on my 2010 sport, with the stiffest setting. It helps body roll, but not enough. I then replaced it with the B&H 27mm, also set to the stiffest setting. The B&H has better roll-control, but somewhat more would not hurt. I would go for the special H&R "Time Attack" version that AWE Tuning had made for them, which is 28mm.

The ride quality was hardly degraded by the H&R 24mm, or B&H 27mm. I would rate the ride changes as almost none. I put the H&R 24mm onto my wifes 2012, and she has not noticed (or mentioned) anything different concerning the ride comfort.

[sowleman]

CC'ed, thanks for your reply.

A representative from AWE posted on the GolfMK6 forum back in 2010 (http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9091)
and said this:
"For the street I'd stick with H&Rs 22 or 24mm rear swaybars. Our Time Attack bar is designed as a Motorsports piece and intended for track use because of the additional load it will place on your OE end links."

However, that was for the Golf. If used on a heavier car like the CC would it be ok for the streets or would it still place a heavy load on the OE or links? On another thread I remember reading where someone said they had the 27mm sway bar and wore out the stock shocks in just 10k miles. Was that you?

Keep in mind I'm on stock shocks and Eibach Pro-Kit springs. I don't want to have to replace my shocks in 10k miles.

There are 4 different bars offered on the AWE website for the CC (link below). I'm still confused as to which one for a street car/daily driver. I'm still leaning toward the 24mm.
http://www.awe-tuning.com/products/v...-swaybars.html

[Lucian1988]

i have the BSH 27mm rear sway on my car... and i daily it. i love it, but the only annoyance I have with it is that you need to regrease it, about every oil change. minor annoyance, but I love mine. not as much roll thru turns, and on/off ramps.

[CC'ed]

The rear sway bar will make no difference as to how long your shocks last. Concerning the end-links : Yes a stiffer bar puts more stress loading on the end links, but if they wear-out (you will hear them rattle), they are cheap and easy to replace. I don't expect the end-links to be a problem though.

[sowleman]

So I just noticed I was wrong about one thing in my previous post. The 26mm and 28mm listed on AWE Tuning website like that I posted above are for the FRONT, not the rear.

I only want to get a rear bar and give it a shot by itself before considering the front as well.

[CC'ed]

I also bought the 28mm H&R front bar.......tried to install is once, with all the hassle of lowering the front subframe, but discovered that H&R forgot to send me the correct brackets.......will try again when I get the time.

[LilJonny16]

I currently have that H&R bar on my CC. No difference in ride quality that will upset you. Body roll has decreased. The only negative is a certain driveway I pull out of. It's like a 2" drop below the road and I have to cross it in straight line. When i do, it's a nice solid thud coming from the rear. Almost like the rear end is a solid beam. It's only on that driveway though. I've never experienced anything of the sort any other time.

[snobrdrdan]

Exactly what I told you before man

The 24mm RSB won't change the ride quality

I ran mine on stiff on both of my GTI's and for a whole year on my CC as well.
Tried it on the soft setting during the last month of ownership on my CC...didn't notice any changes.

Just set it to full stiff

[sowleman]

Thanks again for your input Dan, and all of the others posters too. I appreciate it. I decided I had bugged you enough and I would see what everyone else's thoughts were as well.

I think I'm too concerned about the OE end links to go higher than the 24mm at the moment. I called H&R yesterday and inquired about their recommendations for my setup (Eibach springs and stock dampers).

I was told that Volkswagens tend to have a lot of understear and usually the rear bar is enough to balance out the car perfectly. I assume if they just wanted to sell product they would have told me to buy both the front and rear, but since they only recommended the rear I am going to trust their advice. I'll probably order the 24mm when the budget allows in the next few weeks.

On another subject, I just installed the APR Carbonio Stage I last weekend and reset the engine codes (I already have the Stage I ECU tune). I'm very happy with the sound. The jury is still out on the performance. Sometimes I think it help smooth out the engine and throttle response and other times (especially around 2,000 - 3,000 RPMS) I think I have more hesitation and lag than I had before. I reset the engine codes again this morning to see if that changes anything.

[snobrdrdan]

I was told that Volkswagens tend to have a lot of understear and usually the rear bar is enough to balance out the car perfectly.

TRUTH

[jspirate]

On another subject, I just installed the APR Carbonio Stage I last weekend and reset the engine codes (I already have the Stage I ECU tune). I'm very happy with the sound. The jury is still out on the performance. Sometimes I think it help smooth out the engine and throttle response and other times (especially around 2,000 - 3,000 RPMS) I think I have more hesitation and lag than I had before. I reset the engine codes again this morning to see if that changes anything.

This doesn't sound right. Better flow through the intake should not cause hesitation or lag. I am not sure you should notice an increase in performance, but you certainly should not see a decrease. Something else is amiss...

[sowleman]

This doesn't sound right. Better flow through the intake should not cause hesitation or lag. I am not sure you should notice an increase in performance, but you certainly should not see a decrease. Something else is amiss...

Sorry for the hijacked thread. There is no hesitation or lag in the 2000 - 3000 RPMs range if I keep the pedal down. However if I let off the gas a little (not a complete stop) to go over a speed bump or ease out in the median when turning onto a highway, then there is a lot of lag the next time I try to accelerate. And it's generally in the 2000 - 3000 RPMs range.

[snobrdrdan]

With an intake....there's a trade off

You give up some of that low end (torque) feeling to have more gains on the high end (hp)

So yeah, it can feel sluggish at lower RPM's but it'll pull better in the higher RPM's than the stock intake

[jspirate]

Sorry for the hijacked thread. There is no hesitation or lag in the 2000 - 3000 RPMs range if I keep the pedal down. However if I let off the gas a little (not a complete stop) to go over a speed bump or ease out in the median when turning onto a highway, then there is a lot of lag the next time I try to accelerate. And it's generally in the 2000 - 3000 RPMs range.

I didn't experience anything like this when I installed my intake. There was no loss of performance at any RPM.

[sowleman]

Even APR's graph (at the link below) for the carbonio clearly shows a loss of horsepower between 2500 and 3000 RPMS

http://www.goapr.com/products/intake...nio_20tsi.html