antiroll bar links and the effect on car handling?

[Olivier]

Hello,
My links are shot, this been a while, need to replace them, but I have a wee question, the car seems to skip a bit in bumpy roads and the steering wheel feel lighter too. Like the wheels jumped off the road.
I got low profile tyres, this doesn't help the bumps tho, and lately I changed the lower front wishbones, it was worse before the change tho, the question is as the title:
Are the antiroll bar links have a great effect on car handling on bumpy roads? ( Edinburgh is a nightmare , the roads are rotten )
Cheers.
Olivier

 

[Dieselman]

No.

 

[Olivier]

Cheers DM,
where should I start looking then?
The dampers are fairly new.
The springs are OK.
Should I look again at the wishbone position?
I did tied them up with the car on a natural position, and the car is sitting put in a proper position too... Not highter then it should.

 

[Dieselman]

Did you have the geometry setup after fitting the wishbones and are the wheels the same width and offest as standard?

 

[Olivier]

No geometrie set up as it was just bolt and play. No room to put it on the wrong place, I think...
the wheels are different, they are 18", but I got them with the car, nothing changed there.

 

[SilverSaloon]

i've heard holes in your exhaust can cause a bumpy ride... do you have any holes i your exhaust?

roads in edinburgh are terrible, thats when they are actually open for you to drive on them.

 

[jaymanek]

We often remove roll bar links completely when fault finding and the difference is hard to notice under normal driving.

 

[Dieselman]

We often remove roll bar links completely when fault finding and the difference is hard to notice under normal driving.

Good tip that...

I had one snap under hard and fast cornering and the car just leant over a little bit more, but not alarmingly so.

 

[Olivier]

Hard cornering I thought you were driving "easy" to achieve the best MPG
This might be why my links do not last? Never had one snapped but they do a year max and need changing, this is why I did the wishbone as I was told if they have a play this could enduce the wear on the links
I was warned 2 years ago anyway the the wishbones bushes were dead, it needed to be done...
DM and Jaymanek, could I remove the antiroll bar then if this is "not really " necessary?
Cheers.
Olivier

 

[johnsco]

These cars eat front drop-links.
They are cheap and easy to replace.
I would NOT remove the ARB, as it is a part of the car design-geometry..
It may not make a lot of difference, but it will make some difference.
Impaired handling at speed and increased tyre-wear may result.

Also ... Your insurer may not think much of the idea.

 

[millo777]

I'm probably way off the mark, but are you sure the problem is with the suspension and not the steering?

On my previous s124 I had the steering idler arm and steering damper changed and it made a world of difference to the steering feel. All the slop diasappeared. Both are on my list for my current 124.

 

[Dieselman]

Hard cornering I thought you were driving "easy" to achieve the best MPG

It wasn't in my car, it was in Mrs Dm's old one...

 

[johnsco]

Mrs J and I both ran E300TDs.
She regularly criticised me for not driving fast enough.
(Still does).

When my blue E300TD got wrecked, I took her silver E300TD as my work-horse and bought her a year 2001 E430.
She thinks it's wonderful.
Now she can radge round to her heart's-content.

She still criticises me for driving too-slowly.