Re: 90q20v rear sway bar

[Andrew Duane USG/PE <duane@zk3.dec.com>]

Hairy green toads from Mars made Tamas Bertenyi say:

> Greetings,
> My '90 90q20v is lovely little sport sedan but in enthusiastic driving 
> (is there any other kind?) it tends to roll like, well, like a great 
> big rolling thingy. Anyway, my careful scrutiny of the archives 
> revealed several references to completely unrelated subjects such as 
> men from mars and avocado choreography. Aside from these, though, I 
> did find the odd mention of sway bars. In particular, later models of 
> the 90 sedan apparently came from the factory with rear sway bars. Is 
> this true? Does this mean it is a relatively simple retrofit to an 
> earlier 90 sedan? I also found several discussions about the benefits 
> or disbenefits (I made that word up) of adding sway bars. Again, if 
> Audi decided to add them to their cars, does this come across as an 
> endorsement for retrofitting them to my car or did they also change 
> many other suspension bits such as the front sway bar diameter etc.?

Not being able to speak about the sway bars (Angela has the 20V
today, I have the 100Q), I can make some other suggestions.

When a car rolls a lot, there are several things to check first,
before you go mucking with the basic suspension geometry.

1) How old/soft are your shocks? Worn shocks will make your car
   handle like a beached whale. Replace or stiffen them (if adjustable).

2) How old are your suspension bushings? See #1. Is the front sway
   bar tight to the frame?

3) Tires? Are they too soft, too old, too crummy, too low on air?

Just adding rear stiffness with a roll bar may tame the sway, but
will severely increase your understeer (do I have that backward?).


-- 

Andrew L. Duane (JOT-7)			duane@zk3.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation		(603)-881-1294
110 Spit Brook Road
M/S ZKO3-3/U14
Nashua, NH    03062-2698

Only my cat shares my opinions, and she's too heavy to care.