Excellent shipping info - from seller took about 2 days on one of the items but got it - very happy with their follow up

 

Just got my shipping notification this morning. Should be here next Wednesday.

 

woodi keep us posted on how the install goes.. I know it's asking a lot but could you takes some pics of your install process?

 

Install i super easy unbolt 4 bolts and bolt bar in place

 

Installed front 4 point lower brace on car today - seems to handle the bumps even better than before. As far as handling does seem to do a whole lot. but you can feel that it adds to the rigitdity of the car. Rear lower brace still the best for the buck all around

 

Took me about 20 minutes to install

 

att. woodi - any feed back to offer?

 

Sorry I'm a little slow getting some feedback on here. I was out of town until wednesday evening. When I got home I had 3 fedex notifications on the door, the third of course being the "final notification." I hopped in the car and drove over to the local FedEx hub and picked up my bar no trouble. This is what you'll get in the mail if you order your bar on ebay...

After spending 10 minutes with a pair of scissors and lots of tearing to get all the plastic wrap and bubble wrap of you should have these two items

Okay so now we got the hard part out of the way time to put it on the car. Grab your sockets and lay down next to the car. Look just in front of the rear tires under the car and you should see this bracket.

Remove the two bolts holding the bracket in place and pull it off (not sure if all Fortes are undercoated or if it was something my dealer does to all it's cars and didn't tell me about but be ready to be covered in black gunk if yours is undercoated). There is a small washer that holds the ebrake cable to the bottom of the bracket that you'll need to work off with a screw driver (maybe, one took some work and one just fell off on mine) to get it free. Repeat on the other side. You should now have this

Line up the ebrake cable mounting bracket with the hole and make sure the little key on it is in it's appropriate hole. Then grab the bar and slide it under the car. Lift up the bar and install the outer most bolt using the new bolts from ultra racing and both washers (little closest to the head and bigger one on top of that). Just install the bolt loosely then go to the other side and install the outer bolt on that one.

Now move to the inner bolts. You'll want to lift up the back edge of the bar and wiggle everything around to get the inner bolts started. They should go nice and easy if they are tight at all stop and make sure you aren't cross threading them. It took some wiggling of the bar bolt and ebrake cable bracket to get the bolts started but eventually they went. Once you've got all the bolts started snug everything up (I went back and forth a few times working up to full tightness to allow the bar to sit just where it wanted to). Now it should look something like this.

So Now the important part... How does it ride... It definitely improves the handling of the fote significantly. High speeds on rough roads are still bouncy but I think a bit more controlled. The reduction in frame flex is definitely noticeable. The place this thing really shines is in the turns. The unnerving tail wag is greatly reduced and it stays nice and flat and fairly composed through the turns. I was running it fast and hard through some back roads after putting it on and it was cornering beautifully. The ESC kicked on in a few particularly spirited turns and you could hear the rear tires grabbing asphalt.

The rear doesn't really seem to jump around much anymore. The soft EX shocks allow for a fair amount of bounce but smaller bumps that made the Forte skitter around before seem to be dampened out better by the suspension and allow for smoother handling.

I would say for $110 and 20 minutes of your time this is definitely a good way to improve the handling of your Forte.

 

I would say for $110 and 20 minutes of your time this is definitely a good way to improve the handling of your Forte.

The eBay listing is $130+ to buy it now, did you offer them $110 and they accepted?

 

Scottieboi - did you get yours installed on the SX yet?

 

ebay listing was for $110 buy it now when I got mine. I offered them $100 to see if I could get it cheaper. They countered $108 and I said what the heck $8 really doesn't matter and I bought it for that.

 

Woodi - great install info - glad you like the improvement

 

Hello, I just bought a SX for my daughter - no plan to mod it for her LOL but just thought I would add a comment here as I modified my own sports car rather extensively. Just trying to help here - no flame please.

A rear anti roll bar reduces lateral weight transfer (side to side roll) and therefore would help make a softly sprung car a lot more fun in the twisties. With respect to road bumps, an anti roll bar, because it effectively stiffens the rear suspension, if anything would make the SX more choppy (not less) when there are bumps on road surface, no?
One thing I would add is that when you stiffen rear anti-roll setting and leave the front unchanged, you reduce understeer (more oversteer) and that might be another reason (besides the reduce body roll) for the improvement in handling that people have noticed. A front wheel car likes the Forte has natural tendency to understeer, and adding oversteer is of course the counter move. Of course, more oversteer means that the rear is more likely to step out - but in a front wheel car with relative little power like this Forte, the concern of more oversteer is of course less than with say a Nissan Z.

The SX does have a stiffer ride compared to other economy cars (the same reason why it's so much fun and handles so well for an economy car in the twisties), and I attribute this to stiffer springs, larger wheel (17 versus 16), and the very low profile stock tire. There have been several posts on the Good Year tires of course, and how replacing it with Continental tire would greatly improve the stiff, choppy ride.
For those who think the EX is too soft, yes, this anti roll bar should help reduce the body roll (no personal experience with using anti-roll bar in this car, or in any car with Torsion beam rear suspension). For those with SX who think it is too choppy, consider replacing the Good Year with Continental; I am not sure adding this bar would help the ride. The other way to reducing stiffnes of course is to lower tire pressure - to the lowest level that's still safe. Tire preessure has significant effect on the ride stiffness of any car. Turn up the radio seems to help too LOL - so you don't concentrate so much on the noise of the road bumps.

 

Cannga. The lower rear bar that Woodi and Tools have installed does not appear to be an anti-roll bar, more of a chassis stiffener. After driving my SX about 17k miles, I have noticed that the rear of the car will jump around on certain bumpy roads and it feels as if the rear is over sprung and the chassis not stiff enough. I'm waiting for Scottiboi to install the bar on his SX and see if this stiffener takes care of this problem. The SX definitely does not need a rear anti-roll bar.

 

Walpole5, I just looked at the ebay diagram and the car again; you're absolutely correct & thanks for the correction. Hmm.... the bar merely connects to the chassis, it seems?
At the risk of putting my foot in my mouth yet again , assuming this bar does stiffen the chassis, I would think it still might not be the answer to the choppy rear. Any stiffening of chassis would further reduce compliance and worsens the symptom, no?
I still believe the culprit is the 17 inch wheel and very low profile tire. I've looked at tire size of competitive car such as Mazda 3, etc., the Forte has the lowest profile tire of all.

Same old suspension dilemma, ride vs. handling. In my 911, as I stiffen the car with after-market coilover, it corners as if on rail but road compliance also goes out the windows. It likes to go airborne a lot more with high speed road irregularities.

 

I think the only answer will come from Scottieboi's experience.

 

It will be interesting to see what Scottieboi finds when he installs it on the SX. I think as counter intutive as it sounds the bar does help the suspension to work better in the rear end of the these chassis. My theory as to what is happening is there is a lot (I mean a lot) of chassis flex in the rear of these cars from the factory. When you run it through some bumps or push it through some bumps in the turns the chassis actually reacts to a fair amount of the bumps as well as the shocks. The chassis is basically an undamped spring so when it flexes back it isn't controlled by a suspensions damper but springs back and cause the car to jitter like it's riding on an undamped overly stiff spring. Adding the stiffener bar helps to stiffen up the chassis and allows the suspension to work as it was intended rather than sharing the job with the chassis.

 

Woodi, I think you are absolutely right. Even my wife notices the chassis flex in the rear.

 

I sent an email inquiring about a bundle deal (5-bars total) for my wifes SX, I am certain I could sneak them on there without her knowing. I still need to get her tint done and the calipers painted.

 

So I installed the bar on our car while my wife was out of town (without telling her). She got back over the weekend and started driving the car again. Yesterday she gets home from work and says "I think something with the suspension is getting better as the car breaks in, it seems more fun to drive now." I smiled then pointed out the bar...

Now there was a 2 week gap since she last drove the car but she was fairly certain she felt a difference in the handling before I told her I had changed anything. So I'd say for sure this thing improves the car. She said it felt much "sportier and fun to drive in the turns"

I still want to upgrade shocks and springs for the rough roads but for cornering and general handling this thing really does a good job.

 

I am hoping that a shock upgrade (anyone know of one yet?? Not interested in coilovers) will cure the terrible handing of the 5-door EX. Going around corners with bumps/holes in the road is kinda exhilarating to say the least for me....scary for my passengers.

 

I've thought about contacting the Kia parts department for a quote on buying a full set of SX shocks and springs... I'm kinda afraid of what the number would be though...

 

I have been waiting for them to get an SX in stock so I can take it for a spirited ride to compare whether it's any better over the bumps.

 

Just put one on my sedan - everything was just as woodi described.

In my excitement to put it on I forgot to grab the serial number off the bar, I guess I'll be reaching underneath with a camera to try and get it...

Haven't thrown it into a corner yet to see how it does, but the car feels more settled now during my daily drive.

 

Ordered the bar today. I'll get it installed on my SX and let you guys know how it works. If I get it by this weekend, it will go on then.

 

The big knock against the EX by reviewers was its poor handling. I'm anxiously awaiting Scottieboi's review to see if its worth it for the SX.

 

I like my SX's handling, but the structure in the back of the car seems pretty flexible. I think the bar should stiffen this area up and help the skittishness over multiple, smaller bumps. I hope I'm not throwing my money away, but since this is my only real complaint, it seemed worth it.