Orginally posted by PMantis24
If you can do your CAI, you can do this. It takes a little bit of time, but it's not hard at all. Just need effort.
Both front and rear are pretty much the same procedure. Jack up the car (front or back), put the car on jack stands.
Note: Jack the front as high as you can, you'll need the extra clearance to snake the old sway bar out and put the new one in
Locate the endlinks, you'll see them, they are at the ends of the sway bar.
On the other side of those rubber ball joints, you'll see a nut. Only remove the nut that is attached to the sway bar. For the front it'll be the top one, for the rear it'll be the bottom one.
Ok, here's the tricky part. The nuts will probably be rusted a bit (my car only has 2000miles and it was rusted a little). You'll need to spray some rust eater on it and let it settle. Now you're ready to remove the nut. On the end of the bolt you'll notice a groove that can fit an allen key, find an allen key that'll fit. Insert the allen key into the groove on the bolt. Now while you hold the bolt from moving, remove the nut. This is the hardest part of the whole installation. It'll take a lot of energy outta you, so eat a good meal before hand . Ok, once the nuts on both sides of the sway bar are removed, you can move on to the brackets. This part is easy.
Below is a pic of the a bracket from the rear sway. The ones in the front look indentical to those is the rear.
Each bracket has 2 bolts, remove them and set the brackets and rubber bushings aside, you'll need to reuse them for the front sway bar. Be careful after the brackets are removed, don't let the bar just drop onto the heatshield, make sure you're supporting it. With the brackets removed, start to snake the stock front sway bar out, rememeber how you removed it, cause this is how you'll put the new one in.
Ok, once the stock one is out, snake the new one in place. First connect the ends of the sway bar to the end link bolts, put the nuts back on and tighten (29ft-lbs torque). Now that ends of tight, put the old bushings and brackets on the new sway bar and put the bolts (22ft-lbs) back on. Now put the retaining clips supplied on to the bar, you'll see this step in the supplied instructions. Now you're done with the front.
The rear is the EXACT same process. Only MAJOR difference is you'll be replacing the stock bushings, brackets and bolts with the new ones supplied by Comptech.
Get to the step of replacing the bushings. Make sure you use the lubricant supplied by Comptech to lube the new bushings on the area where they will make contact with the bar.
Below is a pic of the new poly bushing, brackets and bolts and the retaining clip.
Tighten all the bolts to factory specs and you're all done.
It's not hard at all. Hopefully some of these tips will help. I hope I didn't leave anything out, I'll add to it if I did. Good luck and tell us how it goes.
UPDATE
When I first wrote this install I had pics to go with it, but I've lost them since. Well thanks to abram I got some pics to throw in here to help you guys out. I wrote some stuff on the pics to help in figuring what everything is. If you need a pic of something specific from the install let me know. abram might have left me a pic to use
If you can do your CAI, you can do this. It takes a little bit of time, but it's not hard at all. Just need effort.
Both front and rear are pretty much the same procedure. Jack up the car (front or back), put the car on jack stands.
Note: Jack the front as high as you can, you'll need the extra clearance to snake the old sway bar out and put the new one in
Locate the endlinks, you'll see them, they are at the ends of the sway bar.
On the other side of those rubber ball joints, you'll see a nut. Only remove the nut that is attached to the sway bar. For the front it'll be the top one, for the rear it'll be the bottom one.
Ok, here's the tricky part. The nuts will probably be rusted a bit (my car only has 2000miles and it was rusted a little). You'll need to spray some rust eater on it and let it settle. Now you're ready to remove the nut. On the end of the bolt you'll notice a groove that can fit an allen key, find an allen key that'll fit. Insert the allen key into the groove on the bolt. Now while you hold the bolt from moving, remove the nut. This is the hardest part of the whole installation. It'll take a lot of energy outta you, so eat a good meal before hand . Ok, once the nuts on both sides of the sway bar are removed, you can move on to the brackets. This part is easy.
Below is a pic of the a bracket from the rear sway. The ones in the front look indentical to those is the rear.
Each bracket has 2 bolts, remove them and set the brackets and rubber bushings aside, you'll need to reuse them for the front sway bar. Be careful after the brackets are removed, don't let the bar just drop onto the heatshield, make sure you're supporting it. With the brackets removed, start to snake the stock front sway bar out, rememeber how you removed it, cause this is how you'll put the new one in.
Ok, once the stock one is out, snake the new one in place. First connect the ends of the sway bar to the end link bolts, put the nuts back on and tighten (29ft-lbs torque). Now that ends of tight, put the old bushings and brackets on the new sway bar and put the bolts (22ft-lbs) back on. Now put the retaining clips supplied on to the bar, you'll see this step in the supplied instructions. Now you're done with the front.
The rear is the EXACT same process. Only MAJOR difference is you'll be replacing the stock bushings, brackets and bolts with the new ones supplied by Comptech.
Get to the step of replacing the bushings. Make sure you use the lubricant supplied by Comptech to lube the new bushings on the area where they will make contact with the bar.
Below is a pic of the new poly bushing, brackets and bolts and the retaining clip.
Tighten all the bolts to factory specs and you're all done.
It's not hard at all. Hopefully some of these tips will help. I hope I didn't leave anything out, I'll add to it if I did. Good luck and tell us how it goes.
UPDATE
When I first wrote this install I had pics to go with it, but I've lost them since. Well thanks to abram I got some pics to throw in here to help you guys out. I wrote some stuff on the pics to help in figuring what everything is. If you need a pic of something specific from the install let me know. abram might have left me a pic to use