New springs on all four corners took a little more than 3 hours with 2 people. My buddy Andy has a good set of jacks and stands and we used his dad’s impact wrench to tighten up the coil compressor. It was an uneventful installation; luckily there weren’t any stripped nuts or rusted bolts to contend with. I shot pics and video.

The lowering springs I ordered last week from ipd came in. They’re so pretty in blue. Can’t wait to see how they complement everything else.

FCP Groton started a new Volvo forum, Volvolution. To gain readership they created a contest to find the best blog post. I entered a couple of posts, including  “Where Do You Put Your Latte, You Freak“.

You’ll need to register with the site, which is a quick username and password setup. The prize is a $200 credit, which is just the price of the lowering springs I’m looking at. I promise to document and post the installation, so vote now!

UPDATE: Voting is over. I tied for second place. Thanks!

I installed anti-sway bars with my buddy Andy last summer and they ride nice, but aren’t as dramatic a change as I expected.

More details and pics after the jump.

You can see the dramatic difference in diameter between the old and new sway bars. Beefier bars mean less body roll and more responsive steering.

The new bars come with poly bushings and new hardware.

The exhaust flows under the rear bar.

Installation would have been better if we had secured the differential before pulling the old rear sway bar bolts out. The car was on a lift and we practically dropped the rear axle down to the ground. Luckily we caught it and supported it.

I don’t feel a huge difference in the way it drives. I don’t know if it’s because I had gotten new shocks a year ago and the bars weren’t as dramatic a change. For me the biggest difference in handling happened when I got Boge turbo gas struts. My brick used to dive into exit ramps and understeer like crazy. The old struts were toast and the new ones made a huge difference. The new anti-sways are like icing on the cake, but didn’t make as big a difference as I expected.

My friend Andy keeps his Porsche at a garage about a 1/2 hour away and I drove out there to use the hydraulic lift. We jacked the Brick up in the air and pulled off the old bars. I thought we wouldn’t need to take off the front wheels but I was wrong. We had a minor disaster where we almost dropped the rear differential; I ended up supporting the rear on my shoulders while Andy ran to get a jack. Other than that, installation was straight forward and simple.

When I hit the road I had a tough time noticing a difference. You really have to try to rock the car side-to-side to feel the improvement. There’s no difference when cruising straight down the road, but hitting exit/entrance ramps is a marked change. It wasn’t as dramatic as I expected; the bars really make the car drive like it should, rather than being a big performance boost. Lane changes and turns feel safer and I’m now aware of how poorly it handled without them. I can only imagine how bad the older bricks were that didn’t have anti-sways, or had ones that were thin as paper clips.