bamflee84

I was looking into purchasing sway bars for my 03 protege, i already have tokico blues and eibach pros on the car. I noticed for the racing beat it comes with both front and rear bars and the rear bar you need to replace the crossmember for the bar to fit. The awr sway bar comes in 19 and 21.5. I'm not racing the car on the track so i was going to go for the 19 but if the 21.5 handles that much better then i would go for that. I wanted to know if anyone knows which one handles better between these sway bars.

rustychops41

I know the front bar replacement will make you "invent new cuss words." An apparent nightmare job from what I've seen on these forums. (there are pics and a play by play on the front bar somewhere out there ) The AWR 21 is adjustable so you could make it more/less squirrely to suit your tastes. AWR's solid end links highly advised for either bar.

spclagenth

Got you so i've heard that the front sway bar on the racing beat set does not do much but increase the thinkness of the piping. How would you say the 19mm awr bars are in performance with the adjustable endlinks.

rustychops41

The adjustable end-links are merely for elliminating any "pre-load" on the bar itself left-to-right and for making sure the bar clears everything. I cut my 19MM bar behind the firm setting cuz I was having a hell of a time keeping it from banging into the rear-most lateral links no matter how I did it, so that don't matter. I went with a "bigger rear bar only" for auto-x where a tail happy car is a plus. I'd never used the "soft" setting, but the firm setting does help the car rotate and also helps the wheelspin somewhat.

bamflee84

I was just reading rustychops41 you originally had problems installing the 19mm bar. what did u find was the problem when you first installed the bar. If its that much trouble to set the bar up i might go for something else.

bamflee84

Another question is that i'm not really understanding the sliders and how to use them.

rustychops41

The original problem was that I was trying to use the OEM end links. While AWR doesn't say that you HAVE to use thier solid links, I since found out that you'd better use them or risk busting the OEMs. And with thier solid ones being adjustable in length, I probably would not have had the fit problems. The fit problem I did have (w/OEM links) was that no matter what combination I tried, I.E. tabs down w/ stand-offs, Tabs up with, tabs up without, tabs down without, under the rear lateral link, over it, on and on.... the bar would hit the rear lateral link during suspension travel, actually binding up the suspension. So I cut the sucker off behind the "firm" setting tabs for gauranteed clearance. Then I snapped the stock endlink clean off first time I drove it. Got solid links now and all is fine. I would say dont mess with OEM links and you shouldn't have fitment problems since you can change length of links.

bamflee84

Thank you that helps a lot, so if i were to buy the 19mm i should also get the ADJUSTABLE END LINK KIT. How much does the endlink kit sell for on the 19mm and where is a good place to get these parts for a good price. I was looking at protege5online but i haven't really checked out any place else. Srmotorsports has this bar i believe.

a223818

Does the AWR 19 or 21 bar come with endlinks or no?

rustychops41

The 21 does come with the endlinks due to the design. The 19 does not. The 19MM pieces can be purchased from AWR, but they are hard to find on the site. You go to "AWR Store", click pull down parts menu "AWR", then they are on page 3 or 4. Not cheap either. You can call Tony also, he is really friendly/helpful guy.

rustychops41

The 21 does come with the endlinks due to the design. The 19 does not. The 19MM pieces can be purchased from AWR, but they are hard to find on the site. You go to "AWR Store", click pull down parts menu "AWR", then they are on page 3 or 4. Not cheap either. You can call Tony also, he is really friendly/helpful guy.

a223818

Thanks