IPD upgrade swaybars MY04.. Any thoughts?

[xraybob]

I have a very nice driving MY04 XC70 with 138K miles on it now. Somewhere around 150K, unless something changes earlier, I'm going to replace my front and rear shocks/struts with the setup IPD sells that's OEM. I was thinking of replacing my front and rear swaybars with their upgraded HD sways at the same time. Any thoughts on if these HD sways will help my overall ride?

[JRL]

It will handle about 1000 times better!
Otherwise your ride should not suffer

[Xheart]

I am not sure about the IPD item, what I can tell you is that I am having lotsa fun after replacing ALL suspension and steering parts (not steering gear) with OE/OEM to the knuckle with one exception, using MEYLE HD for LCAs. It would be close to $2400 for a DIY if you include the hub assembly.
+ New tires and complete alignment, replace ALL engine mounts and pads, nuts and bolts, now it will be close $3400 and like a newer ride.

Replace all four axles and propeller shaft for another $2000 and it would be a joy for another 100,000 miles headache free provided Tranny, AG and Haldex is good to last.

ALL four wheels are Akebono on Zimmerman with ATE/OE for parking brake.
It will read 150,000 miles by June 2014.

[CKAVolvo]

I added the front and rear with the IPD bars a week after I picked up Mi 2007 Xc . I also did the sub-frame bushing inserts and WHAT a difference. That floaty ride was gone. The car felt a lot more solid in lance changes and cornering

[men2be]

Jrl, if you were to do this, what brand would you use? I have read about using OEM
bars from an R model also. Appreciate your thoughts!

[JRL]

I have a OEM S60 rear only bar, it helps but nothing like the IPD bars, they're bigger, go with those.
JRL not Jrl if you want to ask me something

[swimNdrive]

It looks to me, on my 04 XC70, the front swaybar is about 24mm. That's about the same as the one on V70R, right? The rear one is way too small. It's like 13.5mm. I am thinking to replace it with V70R rear swaybar. Is the V70R rear swaybar bigger than the S60R rear one or they are the same?

[JRL]

As I said, I installed a rear S60R rear bar, it matches a stock front bar better and is more balanced.
Rear bar is stupid small like 14mm, the S60R rear bar is 20-21, V70R rear bar is 22 or 23.
I had all the specs for all bars, OEM and ipd, but somehow I deleted the sheet *(&^#(&*#$^
A stock XC front bar is not that big
I think it's 22

[Tonyx]

I would caution against putting larger rear sway bar. Due to the range of loads put on rear axle, being it a station wagon, there will be range of front to rear weight distribution that will load the outside rear tires more than fronts. If one exceeds the available traction, the car will oversteer. Most likely in an adverse condition like accident avoidance situations.

I can see V70R for it's handling characteristic and subsequent larger(F&R) sway bars but XC70 isn't suited for that.

[Astro14]

The IPD bars dramatically changed the handling of my T5. It's flatter, firmer and the steering is more responsive. It was firmer than the XC before the IPD bars, so I suspect that the improvement on an XC would be more noticeable. I like the T5 with the IPD bars. But it's noticeably more harsh over one wheel bumps...so this wouldn't be a set up I would recommend if you see a lot of poor quality roads.

I would only install both bars to keep the handling balanced. Changing one bar or another gets you into "test pilot" territory...and I prefer to avoid that with my daily driver.

The OEM struts on the XC (Sachs) were a nice improvement when I put them on at 150,000. More control, no increased harshness. Highly recommended.

Cheers,
Astro

[JRL]

I can see V70R for it's handling characteristic and subsequent larger(F&R) sway bars but XC70 isn't suited for that.

It IS and it's just fine so please don't go spouting stuff that you have no idea about.
Several hundred XC's have ipd bars with no ill effects whatsoever except as was mentioned above. Lf you happen to hit a harsh one wheel (rear) bump/pothole/whatever then you will feel it a bit.