bcrdukes

Thanks Ahsai.

In this case, it looks like I cannot trade my sway bars with tooloud10, correct?

Ahsai

It's not clear to me at all. Seems to be better off investigating more thoroughly first before you trade or get any new bars as there are a few variations.

BTW, your front bar and tooloud10's front bar look identical?

bcrdukes

Ahsai,

I checked the sway bars - no green sticker or marks on them. The original part number/stick has been rubbed off due to wear/tear.

I believe you are right - the fronts look pretty much identical. I think what we can do is trade the rears but this requires much more sleuthing/detective work.

alpine003

Damn I'm on my phone again but are you referring to the top swaybar out of the three posted by OP?

I guess I'm confused as I thought the second bar was what he bought with the first bar being his original.

alpine003

What I meant by curve is the C4 bars are curved to clear the control arms.
These are some quick pics I can find that has a better angle to show difference.

C4:


Aftermarket C2 but shows that it's straighter towards the ends.


As for the rear bar having a bend in the middle, I've seen that before on some bars. I'm pretty sure this may be cross-referenced to other models that have a Mezger based motor for clearance issues but the attachment points are the same and should work on non-mezger motors. I've used Turbo model rear sway bars on my C2 before as a reference without any issues.

Ahsai

Ok, so in summary, both C2 and C4 use a curved front bar to clear the lower control arms and a straight bar at the rear.

C4s/turbo use a straight front bar and longer tie rods and a rear bar bent in the middle.

If the OP uses the bent rear bar, it will look odd as there's nothing to clear where the bend is. The OP may be able to use the front bar with longer tie-rods.

Did I get everything right?

alpine003

No.

The C2 and C4 bars are clearly different per my pics above. You can see they are curved differently. The C4 spindle/control arm setup is a bit different since it has to accomodate the front axles.

I agree from a looks perspective on using the bent rear bar but functionally it will still work.

OP may be able to use the C2 bar on his C4 only if he uses the curved swaybar end links supplied by various aftermarket companies but it's more trouble than it's worth.

He's better at trading the other guy if they both in fact have M030 setups or buying a m030 C2 specific front bar.

bcrdukes

Thanks for clearing this up, guys.

I'm not really sure what to think of these sway bars anymore. I have no real way to verify they are in fact M030 bars or not.

alpine003

Yes you do. Just get some digital calipers to measure them. Older bars may have marks worn off but you can always measure the diameter. If you don't have a digital caliper, head over to your local Harbor Freight or auto store. Shouldn't be more than $20 and you can use them later to measure various things like rotor thickness so you aren't unnecessarily replacing them based on mileage alone.

Ahsai

Actually the C2 front bar also curves the same way as the C4 bar in your photo Look at this one taken off from a C2 and I have a C2 bar lying on my garage floor now so I can confirm it curves https://rennlist.com/forums/parts-ma...sway-bars.html

The OP has a C2 .

alpine003

I think we maybe talking about two different kind of front bars. The one I took off my car looked like TooLoud's swaybar he posted and also the top swaybar in the OP's pic. It's possible that the C2 has both types of bars. I have a MK1 and mine came with the non curved one. I've also taken a friend's bar off and his was same as mine.

I do see that there could be 3 variations (awd, manual, auto) as there shows different part numbers for them.
Edit: the one in the classifieds appears to be for an automatic transmission car so maybe hence the curve?

OP's second swaybar down in the pic should fit TooLoud's C4 car. The pics that TooLoud posted should fit OP's car. That's all I was saying.

Ahsai, you have a mk2 c2 right? How does your bar look?

Ahsai

Mine is an mk2 and my front bar is curved. The OP also has an MkII. Now I see that OP's stock front curved bar may fit Tooloud's C4 as you explained but I still think the OP needs a curved front bar, unless he wants to use the non-curved one with non-stock tie-rods.

Man, this is getting complicated haha

bcrdukes

haha sorry guys, I didn't mean for this to spin out of control.

Ahsai is correct - I need a curved front bar. I do not want to use a non-curved front bar with non-stock tie rods. I was genuinely hoping for a remove and replace, bolt-on turn-key solution but unfortunately, this is not the case.

alpine003

No kidding. haha

You can use either one, you just need to match up the corresponding endlinks is all. I've seen quite a few of the non-curved bars on C2 models and am currently using a straight version myself on my C2. The GT3 bars for example, do not have any curves in them towards the ends as they are originally made for the 6spd manual 2wd models.

Ahsai

Just realized I keep calling the end links tie rods Lol