Has anyone any comments on the IPD, Inc. sway bar installation and performance?

(I'd like to lessen the body lean of the V40 in turns).

I understand there is some drilling required to install.

Thanks for any info from people with handson experience.



Don

'00 V40l

Don

I personally have the S40 but I assume the underpinnings of the V40 shuld be about the same as the S40.

The drilling is located on the two metal pieces currently holding the small OEM swaybar in place now.

It was easy to remove these two pieces to allow drilling for the new sway bar holding straps. It was very easy to do. I also felt that if I did make a mistake the cost to replace one or both of these two metal pieces would be cheap anyway. I take it you don't want to drill into the car itself. Me too.

As far as the feel after the replacement of the bar, it was tremendously better.
Taking corners a little faster than normal and the car had almost no lean at all compared to the small bar originally on the car.

DO IT, you'll love the difference.

One more caveat, during the installation onto the droplinks the bushings are too big, read thick, and I needed to shave them down to allow the reuse of the bushings, the bar is also thicker. They will also be very hard with almost no resilience to them. Maybe if you get new bushings it might work easier. Anyhow, it took maybe 2-2.5 hours to complete the job. But I was being extremely cautious. MEASURE TWICE, DRILL ONCE.

Miker

My experience was the same. Took me 3 hours, and it was pretty easy. I'd recommend getting some poly bushings rather than cutting down the OEM bushings- they're easier to cut. The car is still very comfortable (with the otherwise stock suspension) on rough roads, too.

I'd also recommend a strut tower brace- it makes a big difference in handling, as well, with no disadvantages other than you have to remove it to check/replace fuses in the engine compartment, but that's easy. I bought the ipd brace.

Steve

Now that you brought it up, how easy was it to put on the tower brace ?

Was it a noticable improvement over the sway bar improvement ?

Was it as simple as they say regarding not worrying about realignment of the wheels if you perform the placement correctly? Did you need to realign ?

Where did you get the poly bushings ? "he asked sheepishly" I can't find bushings that exactly fit this car.

My word, do I ask a lot of questions ?

TIA

Miker

Miker
Thanks for your info on the bar installation.
I'm going for it!

By the way, how much clearance did you lose under the bar? Significant?

Don

Don

With the OEM springs and shocks the swaybar left about approximately 1.0" of clearance with no problem whatsoever with the bar hitting the exhaust pipe.

Glad to hear you are going to put it on. Find a curvy road and drive it with the old bar on then change the bar and take the same road. WOW !

One caveat I found when first driving the car, and maybe it's me, but I tended to oversteer the car into curves. I actually had to compensate the other way to straighten out the car. Don't take this as a problem, just remember the car WILL have a different handling characteristic. After you are used to it you'll wonder why they don't put these on ALL cars for Pete's Sake.

Good Luck and have fun with the upgrade. Let me know how it works out for you.

Miker

Miker,

I have a question I have a S40 2000 and I have heard people replacing the springs with IPD sport springs. Just curious if you or anyone you know has done this, and what do you think? was it worth it?

I have looked into this and the cost is around 550.00 kind of steep. but they say it makes a world of difference,

thanks for the reply,

Bret K.

Miker,

IPD d/c springs for the 2000 S40. There was a problem of some sort. You would have to check with H&R or other companies.

Bret

I personally have not replaced the springs on my 2000 S40. I haven't heard any bad reports though either. Although the lowered stance of the car would help with the handling, I sometimes encounter snow that is unplowed and am usually driving before the plows come out. I appreciate the higher ride height. Mind you I realize this is not a 4x4 but the higher the better for me.

You might do a search on here to see others experience with the replacement.

Did you put on the swaybar from IPD ? I think that if you do have the thicker swaybar plus the lowered springs there might be a problem with clearance between the exhaust and the swaybar. As it is now with my OEM exhaust and IPD bar, it's a close fit.

Miker