Road Race Motorsports rear sway bar

red rider · Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:11 am

Purchased the rear sway bar for my 2011 Sport SLS and installed it today, definitely, not the 30-40 minute installation that the tech said it would be. A
little difficult at first, visualizing and trying to figure out how to mount it from reading the instructions. The mounting braces fits over the stock bracket mounts and you need a 22mm socket and breaker bar to loosen the subframe nut. The new bar is 3mm thicker than stock and otherwise is a perfect fit.
Took it out for a test drive on a twisty section of country road, wow, what a difference! I had taken this car out to Infineon raceway and I loved how it handled then. I bought the sway bar to minimze whatever residual body roll it has.
Frankly, it turned in quicker, (more oversteer), more bite, and the back felt flat as it rounded the curves. Also the front end felt lighter, almost go kartish, but planted, interesting sensation. This car begs to be driven fast on a twisty road.
I plan on doing Performance Driving 2 in the Fall, so it'll be interesting to see how it feels on the track. Overall, very pleased with the purchase.

eatrocks · Tue Apr 17, 2012 2:16 am

I'm really thinking off putting the rrm front strut brace and rear sway rrm. So there is a factory sway bar u must remove? Does the bar come with any mounting hardware and does it have to be installed up over the exhaust?

red rider · Wed Apr 18, 2012 5:31 am

I went with both the RRM front strut brace which is very simple to install although it has no instructions. There's a Youtube video on the Internet. As far as the rear roll bar's concerned it replaces the OEM bar, comes with instructions, will take you a couple of hours if not more. The bar is routed under the exhaust. The roll bar is 3mm thicker, comes with polyurethane bushings, mounting brackets, bushing brackets and a tube of lube for the bushings. It's important that you torque all the mounting hardware to factory specs. Frankly, I have noticed of late some creaking from the rear suspension when going over speed bumps and dips in driveways. I called the manufacturer who advised that I might have overtightened the bushing brackets, I called a suspension shop here in town and he suggested silicone spraying all the rubber mounting points. So, I'll keep you posted. Let me know if you have further ?'s.

eatrocks · Wed Apr 18, 2012 5:07 pm

Thanks, surprised it has a factory bar. I'm gonna put the front strut brave on first since its the cheapest and easiest. Hopefully it should make a noticeable diff

Firefly · Wed May 02, 2012 7:51 pm

red rider wrote:Frankly, I have noticed of late some creaking from the rear suspension when going over speed bumps and dips in driveways. I called the manufacturer who advised that I might have overtightened the bushing brackets, I called a suspension shop here in town and he suggested silicone spraying all the rubber mounting points.

Some of us have been noticing the rear suspension "creaking" - as posted elsewhere on the forums here. So it may not be your new bushings necessarily - but since there was no clear diagnosis on that, I may get out the silicone spray myself...

red rider · Wed May 02, 2012 9:12 pm

I got under the car last weekend, at first, couldn't duplicate the noise which was obvious when the rear suspension was in an off camber position. I pulled on the roll bar repeatedly by the mounting bracket and noticed the squeaking only on one side. Long story short, removed the wheels, retorqued the roll bar bushing bracket nuts to 37 ft lbs after applying loctite. Applied Silicone spray to the spring mounting points and the the end link bar rubber mounting points on the back of the wheel and where it attaches to the roll bar. I also noticed that the upper bushing bracket nut due to access isues wasn't torqued to the correct setting, hnece, the squeaking and the wheel removal. Result, smooth, quiet, rear suspension movement. Now, I don't know that other noise complaints are due to the loose roll bar mounting bracket, but, I would start there. Hope, it helps. PS, I can't say I noticed the rear suspension squeaking before I changed out the stock roll bar.

red rider · Wed May 02, 2012 9:16 pm

I got under the car last weekend, at first, couldn't duplicate the noise which was obvious when the rear suspension was in an off camber position. I pulled on the roll bar repeatedly by the mounting bracket and noticed the squeaking only on one side. Long story short, removed the wheels, retorqued the roll bar bushing bracket nuts to 37 ft lbs after applying loctite. Applied Silicone spray to the spring mounting points and the the end link bar rubber mounting points on the back of the wheel and where it attaches to the roll bar. I also noticed that the upper bushing bracket nut due to access isues wasn't torqued to the correct setting, hnece, the squeaking and the wheel removal. Result, smooth, quiet, rear suspension movement. Now, I don't know that other noise complaints are due to the loose roll bar mounting bracket, but, I would start there. Hope, it helps. PS, I can't say I noticed the rear suspension squeaking before I changed out the stock roll bar.

red rider · Thu May 03, 2012 1:17 am

Sorry for the duplicate post.

bjspinner1 · Thu May 17, 2012 6:05 am

red rider wrote:I got under the car last weekend, at first, couldn't duplicate the noise which was obvious when the rear suspension was in an off camber position. I pulled on the roll bar repeatedly by the mounting bracket and noticed the squeaking only on one side. Long story short, removed the wheels, retorqued the roll bar bushing bracket nuts to 37 ft lbs after applying loctite. Applied Silicone spray to the spring mounting points and the the end link bar rubber mounting points on the back of the wheel and where it attaches to the roll bar. I also noticed that the upper bushing bracket nut due to access isues wasn't torqued to the correct setting, hnece, the squeaking and the wheel removal. Result, smooth, quiet, rear suspension movement. Now, I don't know that other noise complaints are due to the loose roll bar mounting bracket, but, I would start there. Hope, it helps. PS, I can't say I noticed the rear suspension squeaking before I changed out the stock roll bar.

It will be the ureathane squeaking on the disc's welded on the RRM bar.

This will come back in time, I have found you need to keep using silicone grease on the ureathane once it wears away.

Silicone grease will not wear the ureathane bushes. This is a common complaint with ureathane suspension bushings

mgp123 · Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:49 am

Have a question some may think silly, but here it is. Does the anti sway bar hurt ride quality? I like the idea of less side to side roll and even a little oversteer, but I don't like the idea of the bumps getting harder. What's been the real world experience as to ride quality, not handling, after a stiffer bar has been put on the car?
Thanks