WarrenW

Okay, someone give me the good, bad & ugly on the Saner bar. I heard there's issues w/ the stock endlinks, true? Can you buy replacement ones? I saw somethign that suggested Saner may no longer be in business, is that true? Any thing else?

Thanks,
Warren

silvershadow

As far as I know - there have been three generations of Saner bar. With the major change being the endlinks.

I am VERY familiar with Gen II and III. I had a Gen II bar on my car for over a year, and my co-driver had a Gen III bar on his car. The major problems with the Saner bar are that the end links have to be played with to make sure they are not hitting the shock body. It sounds easy, but it can be quite fruistrating. I got REALLY sick of hearing clunking and knocking every time I went over a bump or in and out of a driveway.

With that said, the guy I sold my bar to has had no issues with it (that I know of). Perhaps there are manufacturing tolerances on the car that slightly change the position of the shock body, and mine was too close.

The GEN III bar has some modifications to the end link spacers which really add longevity. The shock body clearance issues are still there. It is also very difficult to use a Saner bar with aftermarket shocks with bigger bodies because of the clearance issues.

I bought a modified Saner bar from a guy here on the site. The bar ends have been machined down so they accept a McMaster-Carr endlink (much beefier than the ones from Saner). In addition, we added zircs to the bar mounts so that the bar can be lubed without removing it from the car.

Do a search for posts by Gloffer (co-drives with me) - he and I have written up a lot of the bar mods in detail.

silvershadow

Oh yeah, the Saner bar (like all the auto-X bars) helps to tame the snap oversteer that the 00-03's are prone to. I run my bar at the 3rd hole (my bar has four holes - the stock Saner bar has 3) as we auto-x on asphalt.

If you run the stock tire stagger (205/245) the bar will dial in a lot of understeer. I run 225/245 tire stagger and there is some initial understeer in tight corners, but you can get more power down faster in corners without the rear end snapping around or the inside rear tirer lifting.

DongTran

clack clack clack mine makes lots of noise clack clack clack

the car is much more fun with 225s in the front however.....i love having the inner rear wheel planted...

Surf2k

So is there any word from Saner on the updated bar/endlinks?

WarrenW

Never got a returned email.

Warren

jvils

I really liked it, and when I had Saner set it up and install the new hardware it was quiet and very stable.

WarrenW

I heard the Saner guy is hard to get a hold of. How hard did you have to try to get the new hardware?

Warren

biker1

Original Saner bar OK for me, no clearance issues but I must be one of the few that have after market dampers that have a "Smaller" body that stock.

I did alter the end link spacers as this did appear to be a weak point, but after having that done no probs.

jvils

His shop is only about 45min from my house. I called and offered to let him use my car to measure new endlinks, spacers, and bolts. So he called me back right away. He spent about 3 hrs cutting new bolts and lathing bigger spacers. So I had no trouble, but I'm about the only one that got any response. Pantyraider has my old setup. Maybe PM him to see how it's working on his car.