I was just wondering what exactly upgrading the sway bars will do for the performance of the car? Can someone explain what these do? Will this help to make the steering feel more responsive? I have a 02 A4 and love it, but the steering has always felt alittle vague at higher speeds.... other than that... I live for the QUATTRO...

Thanks.............digabel

 

I am not a mechanic nor a race car driver, but I recently installed front and rear H&R sways to my car. I have read that many owners just installed the rear RS4 sway. The sways reduce the amount of body roll when cornering. They can be adjusted to give you more understeer.

However, I opted for the basic setup and drive the car for a while before any adjustments. The car does feel more nimble and less floaty on the corners. In terms of improving your driving experience, they are good bang for the buck.

 

As drevil2k2 said, sway bar reduces body roll. Sway bars are a compromise, especially for a road car: by linking the left and right wheels by a sway bar, the effective spring rate for when the car is in a corner is higher than just the springs can achieve. This means a softer spring can be used, and thus the ride wouldn't be as jarring. However, this also means the independence of the wheels are compromised.

There are 2 purposes for upgrading the sway bars. The most obvious is, as has been said, to reduce body roll. The 2nd is the change the dynamics of the car: if you stiffen up the rear suspension significantly (in this case using a sway bar), the rear would break loose more easily, ie, it'd reduce the inherent understeer in our cars. This is why a good number of A4 owners upgrade to just the RS4 rear sways.

Sway bars wouldn't improve steering feel, however; it can improve the car's responsiveness to steering input though, which is a result of the effectively stiffer suspension.

 

i just recently bought the TT so i dont know which sway bars are famous among TT owners. What do you recommend and what is the price?