REVIEW: Hotchkis rear sway bar

[jeff]

There are a few other threads on this but I figured I'd add a bit more detail and provide a fun read for members.

So today I installed the Hotchkis rear sway bar. As many know these have been around for a good while (years I believe) and were suddenly selling for $86 shipped and a member mentioned it and then suddenly Hotchkis sold a few dozen within a week as we all jumped on the bandwagon. Me myself I couldn't resist the deal, and despite naysayers talking about understeer and ruining the perfect stock suspension setup I bought one.

SWAY BAR THEORY 101
My theory here is that it's the down low suspension mods that make a difference. My rear torsion bar helped turn/traction feel so I assume this will do the same. Plus here's the thing, let's say this mod does cause the back end to slip out more - why does it do that? It does that because the driver is now dealing with a car that loses itself easier...the reason for that is that better turning feel might cause the driver to overcorrect when turning and therefore result in the back end sliding. So my belief here is that the bar changes the car, and the driver changes with it. The benefit is that the car feels tighter, but the driver must accommodate or that new confidence will result in disaster. For me, I prefer the car to be tighter and make the corrections myself, but I'm a purist.

All of that could be different from your opinion, which is fine.

PRICE
Again $86, though now they're $179 so I guess I got a deal. This was not a "second" - quality is perfect.

QUALITY
10/10 - perfect paint, fit, welds, everything. Bar is hollow. Packaging was overkill. You get stickers and even instructions and a warranty card.

INSTALL
You will need a lift or ramps or a pit; the car needs to be at normal driving height. You will need an assortment of 15mm and 19mm sockets/wrenches. I used a breaker bar to remove the stock shock bolts. Installs in 20 minutes, piece of cake even for the novice. I am lowered on Mountune springs BTW.

1. Get car up
2. Remove 15mm stock shock bolts, one per side
3. Push shock to the side while you work
4. Fit sway bar and use stock shock bolts to hold it in place - tighten hand tight as far as you can go. This aligns the bar so the other 4 bolts align correctly.
5. Use provided 19mm bolts/nuts to secure, two per side. When doing this step you'll see in the pictures how I used a magnet to grab the bolts from underneath and then pull them down into their holes. It's a tight area so this trick helped. Also when tightening these, you're in the same tight area and it's tough to grab the bolt so make sure you have an assortment of wrenches to get in that tight space.
6. Now remove stock shock bolts, re-install shock, and replace stock shock bolts, get everything nice and tight.
7. Apply your Hotchkis sticker somewhere and be happy, you just added 10 pounds to your car.

REVIEW
Well I haven't driven it yet, it was dinner time and my wife wanted sushi so off we went in the minivan. I'll post some thoughts next week after some spirited driving.



PICS

 

[Truth in Ruin]

Really good write-up, Jeff. I’m looking forward to your final thoughts.

 

[HardBoiledEgg]

You say review......but there is no review lol

 

[GTP]

You say review......but there is no review lol

C'mon-great table top review. If you're married-you know when the wife calls for errands she has to run. All production and reviews stop

He'll let us know driving thoughts real soon. This I felt -was a fantastic review of the installation, quality and theory of a rear sway bar. Great job Jeff!

 

[svtcanuck]

I thought I'd put my 2 cents into this review.

I have a stock suspension 14 ST, with upgraded intake, exhaust and tune. I've taken it autocrossing several times already and haven't been super happy with the rear stability. My Focus SVT (which I've autocrossed for many years) is super planted in the rear. I can toss it back and forth and it's solid, predictable and easy to deal with when it gets a little sideways. The Fiesta hasn't been. I put the pierce torsion bar in and honestly didn't really notice much difference, especially on the road.
My install experience/procedure was pretty similar to Jeff's. I installed it saturday and did autox sunday. Instantly noticed a difference on the road, the rear feels stiffer, more stable. On course, phenominal improvement. Much closer to my SVT. 3 wheeling is reduced in height and hang time, inside rear lands much faster. Wiggly bits through the slalom are far less sketchy, more planted. I can definitely push harder in the corners. It was cold so grip was low and the RT615K don't grip as well as RE71R but I didn't have any issues with oversteer.

 

[jeff]

I thought I'd put my 2 cents into this review.

I have a stock suspension 14 ST, with upgraded intake, exhaust and tune. I've taken it autocrossing several times already and haven't been super happy with the rear stability. My Focus SVT (which I've autocrossed for many years) is super planted in the rear. I can toss it back and forth and it's solid, predictable and easy to deal with when it gets a little sideways. The Fiesta hasn't been. I put the pierce torsion bar in and honestly didn't really notice much difference, especially on the road.
My install experience/procedure was pretty similar to Jeff's. I installed it saturday and did autox sunday. Instantly noticed a difference on the road, the rear feels stiffer, more stable. On course, phenominal improvement. Much closer to my SVT. 3 wheeling is reduced in height and hang time, inside rear lands much faster. Wiggly bits through the slalom are far less sketchy, more planted. I can definitely push harder in the corners. It was cold so grip was low and the RT615K don't grip as well as RE71R but I didn't have any issues with oversteer.

Great TRACK driving review. Thank you.

Here's my DAILY driving review.

Today I got to drive the car aggressively and feel the effects of this mod. In layman's terms, just like I reported years ago with the torsion brace, the rear sway causes the car to feel tighter in turns. It's like the seat is grabbing your butt/body more. It feels like the car is lower, like there is a 200 pound weight between the back wheels that is forcing it to hold the road better. But that feeling of a 200 pound weight doesn't mean the car feels heavier, only more stable. Sort of like when you put a bunch of concrete in the bed of your truck or van, it corners better. Only here you get the cornering benefit but not the weight increase that would slow the car down. For testing purposes I very safely took a U-turn faster than is legal and the car did not oversteer at all; the back end stayed planted. Usually in that sort of maneuver I get the yellow "you're on 3 wheels" light on my dashboard, but that didn't happen. Like dude said above, the car feels more planted, more together, more like you turn the steering wheel and the car goes exactly where you want it to; I imagine this mod would help a good bit in aggressive autocross driving for sure. Some have complained that RSBs bring understeer, but I don't think that's the case here. The Fiesta is a cost-cutter vehicle and that's why they went cheap with a rear torsion beam. The addition of a rear sway bar in my opinion makes it better. Even if it did cause understeer, it's up to the driver to drive in a way that makes best use of the hardware. I prefer feeling connected and controlling the car rather than letting the car be forgiving. Be warned, if you take that approach you need to drive safely, you're not in a video game and you can kill people with your reckless driving.

Overall, this isn't a must-do mod, but for the enthusiast who wants to "feel" the car more, it allows the driver more of a connection with the road, accentuating what is so great about the Fiesta ST already, that the car allows a visceral experience in which you feel the car is an extension of yourself when driving. If you like the "point and go" steering wheel feel, the Hotchkis RSB will give you more of what makes you happy.

 

[CSM]

Got mine a couple weeks ago but haven't had time to install. Might try this Sunday if I have time. I'll post thoughts when I have installed it!

 

[maestromaestro]

Well, I must be doing something wrong. I don’t do autox, but on the track I can’t get the car to rotate, no matter what I try - short of a Scandinavian flick. I have a rear and a front torsion bar. The FiST understeers a lot, but being a FWD, it doesn’t want to rotate.

I guess there are no sway bars for me....

 

[green_henry]

Well, I must be doing something wrong. I don’t do autox, but on the track I can’t get the car to rotate, no matter what I try - short of a Scandinavian flick. I have a rear and a front torsion bar. The FiST understeers a lot, but being a FWD, it doesn’t want to rotate.

I guess there are no sway bars for me....

What tire pressures are you running?

 

[maestromaestro]

What tire pressures are you running?

The pressure is commensurate with the tire and the temperature. I check how much the side wall is rolling after each session, and adjust accordingly.

 

[Dpro]

The pressure is commensurate with the tire and the temperature. I check how much the side wall is rolling after each session, and adjust accordingly.

What kind of tires, do you have any negative camber dialed? Whats your toe set at. For all intensive purposes the FiST is not dialed towards understand stock. Also what are entries like? That can have an effect on understeer if you go in hot without trailbraking or left foot braking.

 

[maestromaestro]

What kind of tires, do you have any negative camber dialed? Whats your toe set at. For all intensive purposes the FiST is not dialed towards understand stock. Also what are entries like? That can have an effect on understeer if you go in hot without trailbraking or left foot braking.

Tires don’t seem to have an effect. I use either R888 or Rival S or Azenis. The car has about -2.5 degrees camber upfront and the toe is set to neutral. Most cars from the factory are configured to mildly understeer. As to the turn-ins and trailbraking, that’s obviously dependent on the turn - but, no matter what I do (that or lift abruptly) there’s no rotation, or very little of it. The best condition for sliding into a turn is when the track is slightly wet...

 

[Plainrt]

What’s your suspension setup?

 

[maestromaestro]

What’s your suspension setup?

BC-2 c/o front, springs in the rear (forgot the rating on those - I followed 2JR recommendation). I played with the stiffness setting on the BC-2; that doesn't seem to make much difference on the oversteer. I wash out regularly...

I may be expecting too much from the FWD.

 

[Dpro]

Tires don’t seem to have an effect. I use either R888 or Rival S or Azenis. The car has about -2.5 degrees camber upfront and the toe is set to neutral. Most cars from the factory are configured to mildly understeer. As to the turn-ins and trailbraking, that’s obviously dependent on the turn - but, no matter what I do (that or lift abruptly) there’s no rotation, or very little of it. The best condition for sliding into a turn is when the track is slightly wet...

Well first off our cars are not most cars. Lol with that said I am not sure if you tracked or did spirited driving before you modified your suspension.

BC-2 c/o front, springs in the rear (forgot the rating on those - I followed 2JR recommendation). I played with the stiffness setting on the BC-2; that doesn't seem to make much difference on the oversteer. I wash out regularly...

I may be expecting too much from the FWD.

Hmmm well I would be looking closely at your suspension setup, Its unusual that you are picking up more understeer with your setup . I would expect it to track more towards neutral to oversteer.

Not only that but it sounds like you come from RWD like I did. FWD oversteer is induced on throttle lift off vs throttle on we are used to in RWD. It means we change our corner entry technique amd corner technique which is why I brought it up.

One of the things I love about my FiST is setting up for the corner by breaking at the last minute and just laying into the throttle hard letting it pull me through the corner. I found the car will slide a bit with light let off yet its not going to get sideways like you would in a RWD but will still give you that whole rotation vibe. Frisky is a way to describe it.
I can just haul through corners with the car and it acts quite neutral for the most part as long as I in the throttle. I do get the occasional you’re on three wheels light lol.
But I have been running it on stock suspenion while I decide the exact direction I am going with my spring shock setup.


I have no experience with 888r ‘s on my car, but know they are stickier that glue lol, had the benefit of being behind my friend with them on a less than perfect road. Those things threw rocks like a rapid fire machine gun.

I am not sure how much rotation you are loking for but its the understeer I find more perplexing.our cars love cormers amd understeer is not really evident in the cars DNA to begin with. Its one of the reasons I love them.
Understeer suggests your front suspension also needs serious tuning.

How low is your car, amd yes knowing your spring rates is important. I am personally not a fan of BC coilovers I know some people here have used them and had them perform and liked them.

A lot of these Asian aftermarket coilovers though perform great at first amd then go to hell in 5 months to a year. I had that experience with KBee’s on my 240sx. Put them on first six months they were great after that they just started to fail and yes that effected oversteer and understeer on the car.
That is why I am more a fan of European shocks amd coilovers. Aka Koni, Bilstein,Ohlin,KW etc...

Anyways I digress but I would be looking at your ride height and dampening and spring rates.

 

[maestromaestro]

Well first off our cars are not most cars. Lol with that said I am not sure if you tracked or did spirited driving before you modified your suspension.

I always drive spiritedly...

Having said this, I don't think I had the FiST on the track before the mods. Our cars are not like the most, that is true - but, they are FWD, so they push by default more than a RWD. Bringing the rear around is difficult, and I in particular have been rather unsuccessful.

I have a TB Performance front traction bar and a rear brace, so the car is a brick...

 

[Dpro]

I always drive spiritedly...

Having said this, I don't think I had the FiST on the track before the mods. Our cars are not like the most, that is true - but, they are FWD, so they push by default more than a RWD. Bringing the rear around is difficult, and I in particular have been rather unsuccessful.

I have a TB Performance front traction bar and a rear brace, so the car is a brick...

Heh maybe you are expecting too much and trying to hard to make it rotate? Seriously having slid cars since starting with a Datsun 510 and then moving to S30 Z cars and then on to S13 240sx’s I can honestly say while our cars do wag the tail in corners aka exhibt oversteer in corners its not what I am after with it.
If I was I woild be driving another Nissan or a BRZ with like a K20 swap lol.
I am driving the car because it is like a go kart and it just go through corners so fast its practically unreal. Its just so much fun to drive.
If my car was understeering constantly I would be one unhappy camper. Understeer is plow and plow is scary. Drive a S30 Z if you want experience mid to low speed understeer lol. It would probably scare the hell out of you plowing hard in a corner. The trick with that car was throttle on oversteer to correct it.

The only time I experienced understeer in my FiST was when I came in to a tight left hander in third and waited till the Apex to downshift and throttle on hard, once doing that It pulled me right out of,the understeer and frankly it was not my a shining moment in driving career lol.
Now in a RWD car that would have been mad sideways on exit in FWD it just pulled me through.

I tend to keep my revs up in corners as well bouncing between 4500-6k . I would rather be winding her out using my throttle and lower gears. Diferent strokes for different folks. In the end its what keeps you moving faster than than the other guy.

 

[jeffreylyon]

Well, I must be doing something wrong. I don’t do autox, but on the track I can’t get the car to rotate, no matter what I try - short of a Scandinavian flick. I have a rear and a front torsion bar. The FiST understeers a lot, but being a FWD, it doesn’t want to rotate.

I guess there are no sway bars for me....

A rear sway bar will help with rotation.

 

[Dpro]

A rear sway bar will help with rotation.

I agree wholeheartedly here!

 

[Plainrt]

Yeah I’d look at spring rates etc and maybe play around with more rear tire pressure and stiffness in rear. My buddy has been autocrossing rwd cars for years and is a great driver. He switched to a fist few years ago and just at the end of last season he said he finally figured out how to get car to rotate the way wanted it to. I have been mostly been autocrossing fwd cars and never could understand what he couldn’t get lol. With my car on stock suspension I can take on ramps winding out 2nd and at anytime I can get off gas then the rear will drift out even on tires like re71r’s etc. get back in gas and rear goes back straight. Maybe need more off throttle technique to get it to rotate on demand.