Strut bar vs conversion kit

[shinola]

Long story short my prior car was a B5 S4 Avant and while i sure don't miss the lack of space and cost of ownership i do miss how it handled and the power. Decided that performance orientated cars should be put on the back burner for a bit until I make it out of school and then following that grad school, thus the purchase of my 2006 VOR instead of an R.
Regardless i am starting to get the upgrade itch! I have read a few things about ipd's strut bar conversion kit and it sounds like a pretty good idea, yet why not just put a real strut bar on it? Est makes one that in my mind is pretty reasonably priced, can anybody chime in on a bar vs a conversion kit?
I know ipd's sways are the cats meow but the money on a college budget is not exactly that easy to spend, most importantly am i completely wasting time and money trying to make a XC more sporty?

Thanks,

Shinola

[JRL]

What's a VOR?
Do you mean 2006 XC70 O/R or Ocean Race?
Anyhow the poly strut bushings are fine.
Will they do very much on an XC, probably not, but they can't hurt

[dirtyd851]

If you're set on doing one or the other, I'd get the strut bar. The conversion kit will connect the upper engine mount solidly to the strut towers and the car shakes a bit at idle. If you want to do it on the cheap, you can buy four thick hardened washers, of the appropriate size, and sandwich a washer above and below the the stock bar on either side and see if you mind the added engine vibration. Sorry I dont remember the id size of the washers I used offhand but you may be able to find something on the forum that describes it better. The washers need to be thick enough to remove any play that the stock bushings allow...but if you're just doing it to see if you like it you can get away with just stacking some cheap hardware store washers to do a quick mock up. I will sat though that swaybars are very noticeable and worth the money...you could try and find a set of bars off an R model or at least the rear bar off an s60r or v70r...they're both substantially larger than the stock XC rear swaybar.

[JRL]

I installed an S60R rear bar only and it got it to neutral in a heartbeat

[dirtyd851]

I installed an S60R rear bar only and it got it to neutral in a heartbeat

Yup, I did the same thing!

[shinola]

What's a VOR?
Do you mean 2006 XC70 O/R or Ocean Race?
Ya sorry its an Ocean Race.
As far a sway bars go i really am liking the idea of an R bar in the back, did not realize an S60R bar would fit in the rear. Cant imagine its too difficult to pick up used R bars.
Any reason why you guys only did the rear and not the front as well?
dirtyd851, thanks for the advice on the strut bar. I was already leaning that way as for the price difference i cant see why somebody would not do the bar.

[dirtyd851]

The front bar is a more involved job and the swaybar diameter difference in the front isn't nearly as dramatic as the difference in the rear bars.

[shinola]

Just watched a video on replacing the rears, looks really simple!

[dirtyd851]

oh yeah, real easy and quite the upgrade. Like stated earlier it does help quite a bit with the ridiculous amount of understeer present in these cars as well. Your endlink are probably wore out and are worth replacing while doing the swaybar swap as well.

[JRL]

Front bar difference between an R and an XC is only 2mm or so
The rear is something like an 8mm difference, from an absurd 14mm to 20mm
I suggest unless you can buy a real low mileage bar (under 50K) buy a new one.
If you look underneath you will see you cannot change the bushings easily and once they fail, the entire bar should be replaced.
(Yes, it can be done but it takes a lot of work).
At wholesale, a rear bar is not that much (IIRC) my price was about $140 for a nice new bar.
You can also go with a rear V70R bar just be careful, at the tall XC ride height with the taller, and narrower tire, it can become a bit twichy especially at a high speed lane change

P2 Sway bar sizes

S60R
Stock front 23.5mm / rear 20mm ipd front 25mm / rear 25mm
V70R
Stock front 23.5mm / rear 22mm ipd front 25mm / rear 28mm
XC70
Stock front 22.7mm / rear 14.5 mm ipd front 25mm / rear 22mm

[shinola]

JRL,

Awesome info on the bar sizes, thank you!
I see the rears on the stock S60R are not quite as beefy as the stock V70R, are you saying above that the V70R bars might be to stiff?
Due to winter being around i currently have on my winter tires, otherwise i just picked up a new set of 225/55/17 Cooper Zeons (love them!)a few months ago that will go back on the car as soon as ski season is over. Would these slightly wider then stock tires make it safer to run the V70R stock bar or is the stock S60R one really the way to go?

[JRL]

Being I'm a dealer and don't keep "drivers" all that long, I erred on the conservative side where the handling is neutral.
If you put a V70R rear bar on it may lend towards oversteer which would be fine for me but perhaps not for the next buyer!
(On an 07 with standard DSTC this may not be an issue as the car will get itself out of potential trouble, but on 06s and earlier it may not)
Not having ever driven that combination I can't tell you how it will handle

[Astro14]

Just replaced the bars on the T5 with IPD bars. They have poly bushings that can be replaced. Vulcanized bushings on the stock bars were shot at 140K. Be advised that this is NOT an easy job, rear struts come out to wrestle the rear bar out, I dropped the exhaust as well...on the XC, you might have to drop the driveshaft. On the front, you have lower the subframe to get the bar out, this requires loosening the rack, removing the exhaust hangar, and a few other bits, then supporting the subframe...

You can cut and replace the bushing on the rear bar with new poly ones if you don't mind fabricating brackets...but the front would still require lowering the subframe just to gain access to the bushings to cut and replace...I would just go with IPDs...