The Ford Performance Front & Rear Sway Bars are a great choice for any '05 to '14 GT Coupe
owner looking to improve their Mustang's handling and performance around corners.
This set offers an adjustable front bar to help fine-tune its anti-roll characteristics.
The installation is pretty simple so I'm giving it one out of three wrenches on our difficulty
meter.
Sway bars do exactly what they sound like they do.
They help keep your car lever throughout the turns for a better handling and driving experience.
Now, the larger the bar, the more effective they'll be in doing so.
Also known as anti-roll bars, they'll help keep your Mustang linear throughout each turn,
which helps with not only traction but control as well.
The sportier feel that Ford Performance provides with these bars will definitely make your
ride a whole lot more enjoyable and you'll be able to attack tighter turns more aggressively
with better steering response as well.
Now the stock front sway bar in the '05 to '10 GT is 34-millimeters in diameter and the
rear is 22-millimeters, which is exactly what I have here for comparison.
Now, the '11 to '14 GT is also 34 in the front, but the rear is only 20.
These upgrades from Ford Performance have a small bump in the front to 35-millimeters
while the rear is 22.
So this is actually going to be the one from Ford Performance, obviously, because it's
blue.
And the black one you see next to me is a rear sway bar from an '05 to '10 GT which
is also 22.
You can see that they are both the same size and diameter.
This one is made from a lot more of a heavy-duty steel, including its urethane bushings as
an upgrade as well.
So this, although is the same size as your '05 to '10 GT sway bar, it's definitely gonna
be a huge improvement quality-wise.
This is 2-millimeters bigger in diameter than your '11 to '14 option so you're getting a
clear upgrade there as well.
Now, the adjustments in the front sway bar allow you to fine tune between a super firm
setting for a stiffer ride quality and least body roll, while the middle setting is a more
neutral balance and the softer sitting for a more fluid ride, which you can see in the
corners up here.
The bushings help provide minimal suspension deflection and increase the stiffness even
further.
These have a blue powder-coated finish, which not only looks pretty cool, but it helps,
more importantly, with corrosion resistance as well.
Now, because these are genuine Ford racing parts made for both street and strip applications,
you can expect a hefty price tag to follow.
This kit runs at just about 400 bucks, which in my opinion is to be expected with quality
like this.
There are other kits out there that might be a little bit more affordable, but they
might not offer the larger diameter like these, which is extremely effective and they might
not offer adjustability like performance options do here from Ford.
Now, it definitely depends on what you're looking for from your ride and from your upgrade.
The installation isn't too bad for these, getting one out of three wrenches on our difficulty
meter.
From start to finish, you're looking at about two hours or so with simple hand tools like
a ratchet and socket set, a jack and jack stands, and maybe some PB B'laster or WD40
for the bolts and bushings if they're giving you a little bit of trouble.
You can tackle the rear sway bars first by jacking up the rear end and supporting it
on jack stands.
Remove the rear wheels to gain access to the suspension components.
Start by greasing up the bushings on end links and bolting them down to the factor locations
where the middle brackets were located before.
Grease up the sway bar bushings and put them onto the bar.
Then mount the sway bar onto open ends of the end links and tighten them down with your
torque spit.
The brackets for the ends of the sway bar will sandwich the bar between the outer bracket
and the inner plate at the bottom of the shock on each side.
Once the sway bar is secured and torqued down to spec, you can throw the wheels back on
and drop the rear end down.
You can finish up the installation by swapping out the front sway bar.
You'll start off the same way, of course, get the car up on the air, support it on jack
stands, and then you'll unbolt the sway bar end link.
You can just remove the factory sway bar by removing the two nuts on the brackets on each
side.
Since the new sway bar is three-way adjustable, you'll wanna determine where you wanna put
your end links.
The third hole in the sway bar farthest to the outside is the firmest setting.
The middle is more neutral, again, like I said earlier, and the inside hole is the softest.
Now, I'd suggest the same thing here, putting it in the middle to see how it feels when
you make your adjustments later based on your preferences.
Grease up the bushings and put them back on the bar, then attach the bracket.
Slide the bar into place and bolt it down to the middle stud then attach the end links
to the struts.
Once everything is torqued down properly and back together, wheels and tires are on, you're
good to go.
Just to wrap things up here, if you're the owner of an '05 to '14 GT Coupe then you might
wanna check out the Ford Performance Front & Rear Sway Bars, which are available right
here at americanmuscle.com.