Joshboody

and almost spun the rear around on my first aggressive turn. Seem to have a bunch more oversteer now... little surprising. Plastic to metal end links and poly bushings.

Stock c5 z51 suspension. I'm just now starting to learn about suspension stuff. What to do to reduce oversteer now? It's the reduced flex I take it.

Really like how it felt before, but was chasing a squeak (unsuccessful) and stock end link seals were done.

RX82Z06

Consider upgrading front links & bushings as well, should help to restore the balance you had previously. With the stiffer links and bushings car should transfer weight quicker so you will want to learn this new behavior in a 'safe' manner.

hungryhippo

Also, did you grease the poly bushings?

froggy47

Metal links are widely regarded as an upgrade to the plastic ones, but you have to do both ends.

In many cases a suspension improvement requires more driver "involvement" in controlling the car. Camrey's for example are pretty easy to handle, not requiring much driver skill.

If you really like the way it used to handle, just put 4 plastic links back on.



Good luck with the squeak. Makes me crazy too.

Joshboody

The stock fronts are metal and still in good shape so didn't change them yet... did do the front poly also.

Also increased neg camber on right side as it was off and pulling a little. Alignment is better now.

Need to read up on suspension theory. Strange that my handling decreased with these changes.

RX82Z06

Reading your first post again I see that you had oversteer to begin with. Can you share your alignment settings? These cars stock are set-up to understeer. Any other changes like wheel/tire sizes? Tire pressures equal front/rear?

Joshboody

I don't have too much experience yet in agg driving, so couldn't say whether I'm biased under or oversteer. On the street my turn in is mild and accelerate out of the turn... this is when the backend seems to have less traction now.

For alignment I'm right at -1.5deg camber and 1mm toe in. Haven't checked caster yet, cause it's tracking straight. It looks like I can get quite a bit more neg camber out of the LCAs.

el es tu

the stiffer your suspension setup gets, the quicker it will fall off once you reach the limits of grip. Take some time and get to know what the car feels like as you start to push it.

Good luck!

Solofast

It's mostly the bushings. Because these cars have relatively big bars, a small change in bushing stiffness make a big change in overall roll stiffness.

While bushings are a tuning too that can be quite effective in adjusting roll stiffness, sticking poly bushings in one end or the other by themselves can cause a big change in handling. I have a big coffee can full of bushings that I use to tune roll stiffness and it's amazing how much you can do with just a change in bushings.

If the car was a little loose and you put poly bushings in the rear it would get real loose. I would put the rubber bushings back in the back and if it is still loose, get a set of poly bushings for the front..

Bad Karma

How about the alignment at the rear?

cruzin2

stiffening the bushings of the bar also has the effect of making the roll bar transition coming in quicker and more abrupt.

Joshboody

Just under 0.5deg and 1-2mm toe in.

Bad Karma

How did you install the end links?

You want to install them with no preload on the bar.

yakisoba

Also, make sure the bar is not binding. It needs to move freely, and not be pre-loaded with the car sitting on the ground at normal height. If you put tension on the bar, it will be too tight when you go to put power down, and oversteer will result.

Joshboody

I just jacked up the rear installed bushings loose and end links, then torqued everything before lowering the car.

I have non-adjustable links, so can't see how they could be preloaded. Well I guess if side weighting or spring rates were different but i'm not to this point yet in suspension tuning. If I was though, would adjusting leaf spring height on each side be the same as adj-end links?

RX82Z06

To prevent preload, suspension components should be torqued fully loaded meaning you would lower the car and have it at normal ride height prior to torquing the sway bar brackets and end links. Typically you need ramps under the wheels so you can freely/safely access these points to torque them down.

In the end you may just have a rear end that is firmer and responding quicker due to the new components and so you transition to oversteer quicker then previous setup.