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2012 Sonata GLS suspension upgrades

3K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  himilcyclr 
#1 ·
I joined the forums yesterday, and read a bunch of posts about sway bars. Today, I can't find them. I'm new to forums, so maybe I'm missing something.

My car leans like a pig in a turn; it's NO FUN to drive. It only has 40k on it. I'm not looking for a stiffer ride; it's already stiffer than I'd like, but the understeer is terrible. It sounds like a bigger rear sway bar is what I need, but what size? Will a larger sway bar affect the ride quality? Is it possible to get too big a sway bar?
 
#2 ·
Sway bars

Greetings, Welcome to the forums. Rear swaybars are available for your vehicle. You can either go with a KIA version which is 18.0 mm if I'm not mistaken. I recommend the UltraRacing swaybars. I have the 20mm rear swaybar as well as a front strut bar. Great improvement and gives you the oversteer you seem to desire.

Swaybars do not change or affect the ride quality. Spring and shocks do that.

Good luck and enjoy!
 
#3 ·
Sure, the rear sway (stabilizer) bar can be TOO STIFF-- it depends on what you want to do with the car. The Sonata is a 4-door family sedan; I doubt you intend to road race it. The KIA Optima SX bar would be a very significant improvement.

Check out this thread
Which sway bar

The KIA Optima SX rear stabilizer bar is an excellent place to start. It will make a lot of difference in the cornering-- and at about $90, it is inexpensive. I have both a front strut brace (UltraRacing) and the SX rear stabilizer bar. I did the UR strut bar first . . . the improvement was minor. Changing the rear stabilizer bar made a very noticeable improvement in handling in corners.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Over/Under Steer...



Greetings, To increase oversteer your option is a larger rear sway bar. Bummer since you just purchased the Kia bar. I went with the UltraRacing rear bar which is 20mm. Overall the 18 mm Kia bar increase torsional rigidity by 60% compared to the UR bars increase of 144%. This using the NF's stock diameter of 16 mm.
Basically, rear sway bars increase oversteer while front sway bars increase under steer. I also have the UR 30mm front bar which when installed will increase the TRigidity by 77%. Still an overall gain of 67% TR and an increased oversteer about equal to what you are experiencing. :nerd: I hope this made sense and helped you understand more about sway bars what they do and don't do.
Also, sway bars do not affect ride quality.
 
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