I have yet to see any sway bar options for the IS500 - I want my ride to handle on rails! I know SICKI makes them for the IS350, I emailed them but never heard back. Any ideas?

 

I'm in the same boat and want aftermarket sway bars. The front will be easy to install. The rear will be quite a bit of work. I am thinking this would deter most IS500 owners from buying them.

When I have time, I want to determine what it would take to install the rear and weigh if the juice is worth the squeeze.

There were a couple of other threads on this topic a couple of months ago on this forum.

 

I am interested in this too. Only sway bar "upgrade" I've seen is possibly the Eibach anti-sway bars for the IS350. Has anyone confirmed they are stiffer that what comes on the IS500? I'm not sure if the IS350 and IS500 use the same stiffness sway bars from factory?

Following a couple of other threads on this. Sounds like Chewbrocca may be testing as a winter project.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...14-is-fit.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ars-is500.html

 

I ordered the TOM'S Racing - Lower Body Rear Brace for now to see if that helps....

 

FYI

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...l#post11993118

 

The reason nobody is making sway bars for this car is because the gas tank and a good chunk of the rear suspension have to be removed to swap out the rear sway bar. Unless you do it yourself that is a very hefty labor fee - on top of the cost of the sway bars. I have a mechanic/professional racer that I deal with and he is ready to fabricate a set for me, but it's going to cost around $5K. If I can get 10 or so people interested, he said he'd be willing to charge a more reasonable price for the kit since he'd make up a good chunk of his time investment with 10 sales.

According to my mechanic, his info indicates that the Eibach kit for the 350 is roughly equivalent to the stock IS 500 sway bars, so there may not be anything to be gained there. FYI: according to this same mechanic, some of the TOMS underbracing parts are actually for the 350, not specifically for the 500, and involve *removing* better bracing that is already on the IS 500.

I've been kicking around the idea of trying to find 10 interested buyers here on the forum, but I don't know what the rules are about things like this and I've been too busy to commit to the time necessary to organize everything. So, at this point, I'm not offering anything. But if enough people show enough interest, I'll make time and ping a mod and find out what the rules are and how to go about this.

 

From the parts list the rear sway is the same across all the IS models. The front is a questions mark. Eibach has a sale on and the set has been ordered. I will report back with findings.

 

i saw someone on facebook claim they installed OEM RCF sway bar and it made a noticeable difference to their vehicle.

 

Interesting concept since supposedly the IS500 uses front subframe from GSF...would make since they have the same sway bar... hmmmm

 

I definitely want to know how this turns out!!! Thank you for taking the leap for us.

 

I found the installation instructions for the rear sway bar for our cars on the Eibach website. While it is certainly an involved installation, it is not as terrible as I first suspected. The hardest part will be the supporting and lowering of the rear subframe, which isn't terrible.

I didn't bother to post the installation instructions for the front as it is easy and straight forward.

My hope would be that whatever bar is being installed will be worth the effort.

 

 

That someone also told me via DM on FB that it caused his car to understeer more than stock, but it was flatter during cornering. In order to correct this, he had wider tires and more negative cambers.

 

While I know that a RCF and IS500 front sway bar will most likely have a different PN, I am curious about the difference in diameter.


Does anybody have access to a RCF front sway bar to measure it and get the diameter?

What is the diameter of the front sway bar on an IS500?

 

The RC F has a 32 mm front bar
The GS F has a 30 mm front bar
The IS 500 has a 27 mm front bar (same OD as some RC/GS models, but with has a thicker wall I believe)

The front subframe is the same for the IS250, IS350, IS F, RC F, GS F for 2006-2025, though the bar itself actually mounts to the body not the subframe so it doesn't matter. The difference is the width, end angle, and control arm connection/end links.

I believe the angle the bar to end link is slightly different between the RC F/GS F and the non-F versions, but not so much that it wouldn't work.

On the rear, the angle difference seems larger, but you can't just use the F end links because the lower arm is also different.

Really the proper move is to just swap the entire suspension out for GS F suspension. Arms, links, bars, dampers, springs, knuckles, hubs, brakes. Just go all in. Front inner tie rods are a bit of a challenge without swapping to an RC F steering rack, but it's all possible.

Jeff