Poly bush'd bars on a budget

The HotBits Echo is soon to be the proud recipient of some Energy Suspension polyurethane bushings for the stock front swaybar. The OE rubber bushings are just a disaster... all cracked and compressed... who knows how linearly / predictably they respond to torsion... I also picked up a set of poly end links... again... because the stock rubber pieces were mangled and inconsistant - leading to poor driver feedback. These were cheap - landed in Canada cost about $55 or so for everything... and are greaseable.


I also found a guy locally who was selling a Whiteline rear sway bar for the Echo for $100. What a steal... it'd cost close to $300 normally... so I figured that even tho I was planning / hoping to be able to use "all springs" in the rear of the car, that this was such an inexpensive piece and so easy to install / remove if needed... that it would be a great piece to help tune with / play with setup choices.


As a side-benefit... I can use it with the stock springs and Scion dampers that are presently in the car for the winter (until the spring weather and the beautiful, shiny HotBits stuff arrives). This may help me for some winter auto-x's and "Slush 'n Slide" events that I'll be doing. On snow / ice... you want soft springs and a high CG to initiate a turn... but as there is low grip - you very quickly / easily wash out the front... so a large difference in roll stiffness front : rear will help keep the car turning in... and should help me put the power down a bit better.


It attaches in a really simple way - just some U-bolts that locate it within the torsion-beam rear suspension and make it that much stiffer / harder to twist. The other ends attach to the shock mount bolts.

Super easy to install.. and super easy to remove / test-and-tune with to help optimize for different conditions. (these last 2 pics taken from the web - not my car)

Front bushings and rear-bar will all be installed this week... and then hopefully a winter auto-x next weekend just to get it out of my system... (just for fun) A review of the bars and bushings will be added once I can play around with them on the car... Likely after the event.