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Thread: DIY: Installing a Daox rear sway bar

  1. #151
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wallythacker View Post
    I think I may have determined why other bars are snapping. It's in the attachment to the bracket. A right angle weld around the circumference of the tube or bar is guaranteed to break as that is not the best idea for something under torsional stress.
    I would say the metal tube itself is pulled apart at the welds. I would not say the welds themselves broke on either of mine. The welding may have weakened the metal, however. If the rear sway bar wasn't attached to the rear of the bottom spring bracket, it wouldn't do much in regards to performance.

    I think the UR rear sway bar is on the right track. I tend to believe their bar will flex some with the rear axle under extreme conditions. There's also more area to weld the smaller, solid bar to the attachment plates. The bar is on the plates flat & welded on.

    I think my last one broke as I was pulling into a gas station that has a short steep entrance to climb the curb, crossing the sidewalk there, and entering their parking lot. When you come in somewhat sideways, that rear axle is really torquing.

    I had a small gravel pile in my yard, and I had backed my Mirage on the edge of it one day. I personally think that is when my first one cracked. If you avoid things like I just described, the Daox bar may last longer for you. The rubber cushions that were shared may help some, too.

    I don't want to deal with adding one during the winter months, but I do like the outcome of having one.



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  3. #152
    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
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    I haven't seen how a UR is welded but my guess is a fillet weld on either side of the bar which is lain flat against the bracket. The spring perch cracking is also a concern I have and again, if the bracket only contacts a part of the perch with the twisting the perch will crack at the edge of the bracket. Geez, I really wish it was April and not Dec. I'm so keen to give this a stab, with my 30mm lowering springs, 185-55/r15 tires my car should handle better.
    Zero, 2014 ES Plus 5MT, written off but not forgotten.
    Zero II, 2014 SE, 5MT, climate She's HOME now!
    Shelby AKA "Cute", 2017 ES 5MT, A/C.

    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
    We're driving the Beetle of the 21st century, the greatest small car now available!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


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    mohammad (12-24-2022)

  5. #153
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wallythacker View Post
    I haven't seen how a UR is welded but my guess is a fillet weld on either side of the bar which is lain flat against the bracket. The spring perch cracking is also a concern I have and again, if the bracket only contacts a part of the perch with the twisting the perch will crack at the edge of the bracket. Geez, I really wish it was April and not Dec. I'm so keen to give this a stab, with my 30mm lowering springs, 185-55/r15 tires my car should handle better.
    Since I have a picture in my brain of an UR rear sway bar also failing, I did a better search to find it.

    The plate that the metal rod is attached to is not flat like I thought. It has a right angle to it, but it still offers much more area to weld the metal rod to the bracket.

    If you look at the broken one someone shared (attached thread below), the bracket itself busted (not the weld).

    https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...way-bar-broke)

    Regardless of the design, they take on a lot of stress if they are doing their job well!

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    mohammad (12-30-2022)

  7. #154
    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
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    But that's the thing, the rear suspension is taking a lot of load under normal use without failing. The front sway bar on factory equipped Mirages has no history of failure. The sway bar (rear) on UK cars (did we ever ascertain UK spec cars have a rear sway bar?) is not failing. I'm confident the aftermarket failures are down to improper material choice, poor design of stress areas and perhaps profit over quality. Bah phooey, my solutions to these issues always surface at the worst time.
    Zero, 2014 ES Plus 5MT, written off but not forgotten.
    Zero II, 2014 SE, 5MT, climate She's HOME now!
    Shelby AKA "Cute", 2017 ES 5MT, A/C.

    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
    We're driving the Beetle of the 21st century, the greatest small car now available!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


  8. #155
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wallythacker View Post
    But that's the thing, the rear suspension is taking a lot of load under normal use without failing. The front sway bar on factory equipped Mirages has no history of failure. The sway bar (rear) on UK cars (did we ever ascertain UK spec cars have a rear sway bar?) is not failing. I'm confident the aftermarket failures are down to improper material choice, poor design of stress areas and perhaps profit over quality. Bah phooey, my solutions to these issues always surface at the worst time.
    I dont believe the mirage in any market has an OEM rear sway bar. Otherwise im sure someone would post a video about it or try to import it for themselves.
    please consider checking out my Mirage related youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6c...IEViRFw/videos

  9. #156
    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mohammad View Post
    I dont believe the mirage in any market has an OEM rear sway bar. Otherwise im sure someone would post a video about it or try to import it for themselves.
    Way back there was a thread looking for a UK member as it was thought they had a rear sway bar. I don't think we have any active UK members, especially with a 2014. Hey Mark, those photos are great, thanks and they support my suspicions why there are failures.
    Zero, 2014 ES Plus 5MT, written off but not forgotten.
    Zero II, 2014 SE, 5MT, climate She's HOME now!
    Shelby AKA "Cute", 2017 ES 5MT, A/C.

    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
    We're driving the Beetle of the 21st century, the greatest small car now available!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


  10. #157
    Senior Member PityOnU's Avatar
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    I have the UR rear sway bar and just wanted to inject here that in addition to the bar itself, it comes with two rather thick metal ring/disk inserts which sit inside the spring perch to try and distribute the additional load a bit. I'm not sure how it will hold up over time, as I have definitely seen pictures of people's torsion bar with the spring perches starting to crack/break off from the load the sway bar puts them under.

    That being said, I would go as far as to say that for driving USA-style at the speed people expect you to, the rear sway bar is absolutely necessary. The car is way too wibbly-wobbly otherwise, meaning that you need to slow down more around corners, and then you end up with people road raging at you or accidentally rear-ending you.

    When I purchased mine we were pretty well into the first throes of COVID shipping issues, so I ended up having to import it direct from whatever ASEAN country it is made in. I got a front strut brace at the same time. The items arrive pre-dropped/scratched, so I took it to a local place to redo the powder coating in black (why do they make it white????). Turned out the front strut brace was either damaged or just the plain wrong model, so it wouldn't fit. Like $300 wasted there.

    The rear sway bar is still in place and working well, though. I've lost traction with all 4 wheels more than a few times in the car at this point, and (happily) it remains controlled - just standard FWD understeer that just continues back on its way whenever it gets grippy again. Considering this and the fact that I am not dead yet, I've decided to just forgo trying to track down another front strut brace as things seem fine and balanced as they are already.

  11. #158
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    Quote Originally Posted by PityOnU View Post
    I have the UR rear sway bar and just wanted to inject here that in addition to the bar itself, it comes with two rather thick metal ring/disk inserts which sit inside the spring perch to try and distribute the additional load a bit. I'm not sure how it will hold up over time, as I have definitely seen pictures of people's torsion bar with the spring perches starting to crack/break off from the load the sway bar puts them under.

    That being said, I would go as far as to say that for driving USA-style at the speed people expect you to, the rear sway bar is absolutely necessary. The car is way too wibbly-wobbly otherwise, meaning that you need to slow down more around corners, and then you end up with people road raging at you or accidentally rear-ending you.

    When I purchased mine we were pretty well into the first throes of COVID shipping issues, so I ended up having to import it direct from whatever ASEAN country it is made in. I got a front strut brace at the same time. The items arrive pre-dropped/scratched, so I took it to a local place to redo the powder coating in black (why do they make it white????). Turned out the front strut brace was either damaged or just the plain wrong model, so it wouldn't fit. Like $300 wasted there.

    The rear sway bar is still in place and working well, though. I've lost traction with all 4 wheels more than a few times in the car at this point, and (happily) it remains controlled - just standard FWD understeer that just continues back on its way whenever it gets grippy again. Considering this and the fact that I am not dead yet, I've decided to just forgo trying to track down another front strut brace as things seem fine and balanced as they are already.
    If I can hot dip galvanize without losing structural integrity I will do so to minimize the corrosion. I don't know if I will power coat over it, that seems like overkill.

    Since I'm only planning to drop my rear axle once to install both my sway bar and the lowering spring kit I ordered from Amazon it will be difficult to determine if the sway bar or larger tires/new springs/heavier shocks are providing the majority of benefit. Oh well, maybe if I had unlimited time & energy I could step by step the installs. But I have to replace a clutch in a Saturn Vue, redo all the brake lines (more for me that the .gov) and check the rockers. A shop I don't know tried to tell my neighbor the rockers were gone, which is odd as the Saturn hasn't seen a winter since 2017 and they were solid then. I don't trust the guy about his brae line opinion either.

    Back the the bar. I've priced 4130 moly and wicks' prices are retarded. Perhap my buddy with the machine shop can get me a better deal on 4130. I can still manufacture 3 roughly for the price of 1 UR bar but I did head into this with the idea of making an AFFORDABLE bar like Daox started out doing. These $300 bar get on my nerves, so do the current $200 + lowering spring kits. I'd like to hear from anyone who used Yaris springs in their Mirage and opinions of them. They might be an affordable option.
    Zero, 2014 ES Plus 5MT, written off but not forgotten.
    Zero II, 2014 SE, 5MT, climate She's HOME now!
    Shelby AKA "Cute", 2017 ES 5MT, A/C.

    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
    We're driving the Beetle of the 21st century, the greatest small car now available!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


  12. #159
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wallythacker View Post
    I'd like to hear from anyone who used Yaris springs in their Mirage and opinions of them. They might be an affordable option.
    Lowering springs for the Mirage are $107 usd from amazon.ca for me: https://www.amazon.ca/Autostyle-IA-4.../dp/B0129SHD2I

    Note: ive never heard of the brand.
    please consider checking out my Mirage related youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6c...IEViRFw/videos

  13. #160
    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mohammad View Post
    Lowering springs for the Mirage are $107 usd from amazon.ca for me: https://www.amazon.ca/Autostyle-IA-4.../dp/B0129SHD2I

    Note: ive never heard of the brand.
    I had those ordered and Amazon cancelled on me. The importer is only doing cup holders and such nonsense these days.

    To add insult to injury my plasma cutter is dinked, I dunno what went wrong. And.....my buddy with the small shop tells me there is a backorder of 3-4 months on fairly priced 4130 moly material. It may be Sept before my 1st rear bar is fabricated. FML.

    oH, and I had foot surgery, I had a horrible bunion, so bad my left foot was useless and this was 2 years after an OP to fix it! A hack operated on me and made it worse. My most recent OP with a Prof of Ortho surgery hopefully went much better. I see him in 10-12 days for a 1st meeting after surgery. It's going to be 6-10 weeks before I can fully use my left foot again.

    I WILL NOT throw away another summer on a couch due to health problems.


    Zero, 2014 ES Plus 5MT, written off but not forgotten.
    Zero II, 2014 SE, 5MT, climate She's HOME now!
    Shelby AKA "Cute", 2017 ES 5MT, A/C.

    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
    We're driving the Beetle of the 21st century, the greatest small car now available!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


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