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Rear Sway or Rear Shocks?

2.9K views 11 replies 4 participants last post by  Tweak  
#1 ·
Hello all
We have Vogtland lowering springs and Abarth shocks and struts on our 500. I've also got a front upper strut brace installed. Running 17's also.
I have not driven the car about a month (it's my wife's) and yesterday was driving and could not believe how much the car is tossed about as it goes over any bumps in the road... this is magnified on any turns... feels as if the rear end is going to come around on you... I know this is inherent of short wheel based vehicles... (I drove a wrangler for a year and it was similar).

Any improvement to this by running even better rear shocks? Koni? Does a rear sway improve this?

Just looking for feedback.. maybe a different tire pressure set up? I'm running 38F 33R right now.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
Koni shocks will definitely help. But I would go all out, and replace all four if I were you. Rear anti-sway bar also helps plant the rear end better. Front upper fender holder doesn't really do a whole lot other than looks really cool. I went through a few different set-ups and ended up with Eibach pro kit, Koni shocks and rear anti-sway bar. Mind, the ride is still bouncy, due to the short wheelbase and the reduction in suspension travel, not a whole lot you can do about that, but Koni has kind of uncanny capability of eliminating the secondary pitch movement, which at least makes it more predictable going over a bump in a middle of a corner.
 
#3 ·
Thanks!!
I'll say this - the abarth shocks and struts are light-years better than the pop shocks and struts we were running... but I probably should have just bitten the bullet and done the Koni's all round... I'm surprised at how expensive they are for this application though which is why I went with Abarth set up on the cheap...

The upper front brace I noticed improved initial turn in... but marginally... for $100 I figured why not give it a go :)
Maybe I'll give the rear sway a go first then perhaps do the Koni's next ... but maybe it's just the dynamics of the car...
 
#4 ·
I would do the rear bar if I were you. That makes a world of difference. There are reasons why Abarths come with them as standard equipment. The rebound bounciness is partly due to the weak shocks and Abarth shocks will be better than what you had previously. Rear Koni's will help a lot, but front Koni's are optional IMHO. They would be nice to have, but they are expensive. The bounciness is also the result of power surges with the factory ECU tune, so unless you are going to throw an ECU tune on it you will likely always get some bounciness.
 
#5 ·
Didn't know there were tunes available for the pop... Thought just the turbo cars had tunes available.
I'll start with the rear sway and see how that sorts it out. Then rear shocks...
Thanks!
 
#12 ·
I think a few might have mentioned it but I can't say I have read of any issues so far but also no really detailed reviews. I have to admit though I really haven't been paying much attention lately so I haven't followed it well enough to know for sure of anything specific. On the other forum there is a lot more info obviously and if I happen to see anything useful I will try to remember to relay it back to you here. If you are on that forum you may have already seen some info or may see some soon I would imagine.