Sway bar options?

[Pilot of the Murdersofa]

I have an 8th-gen LeSabre, built on the same G/H/K platform as the Bonneville, and sway bars are cross-compatible.

That being said, my car has a, er, small amount of body roll.


Old picture, but you get the idea.

Right now I'm looking at buying this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/01-04-SEVILLE-A ... #vi-ilComp

for my car. From what I read on here, the FE1 is stock on the LeSabre, and FE2 is the "Grand Touring Handling" package, and FE3 is the *SeVilles* "Sport Handling" which is a step up from LeSabre "Grand Touring."

Does anyone have an FE3 in their Bonnie, and any pictures or stories on body roll reduction? At the very least I just want to be able to corner while daily driving without the car pitching about like a drunk sea-sick sailor.

[nos4blood70]

What you want to find is the FE5 sway bars off of 2004-2005 Pontiac Bonneville GXP. Instead of being hollow like FE1/2/3 they are solid.

[Pilot of the Murdersofa]

How difficult are those to find? I can't find a *dang* thing on eBay.

[nos4blood70]

They're somewhat rare, but from what I understand, they're really the only thing that you will notice.

[Pilot of the Murdersofa]

What's the difference between the FE3 from a Seville and an F41 from a Park Avenue Ultra? Those are the only two bars I can find on eBay, and nobody I know has a GXP in their salvage yards.

EDIT: For that matter, what's the difference between a GXP FE5 and a PAU F41? What I'm reading says the F41 PAU is a solid bar, unlike the FE3.

[nos4blood70]

If it's a solid bar, I'd jump on it. It will be an improvement over the hollow bar for sure.

[yourgrandma]

Check car part.com. basically any fe5 parts are gonna help you. I would also switch to urethane bushings on the end links and the mounts.

[ga93sle]

Not sure where you live or if it would be worth it, but the salvage yard that I work at (St Cloud, MN) has front and rear bars from a GXP. My software also shows the Buick F41 and GXP FE5 fronts as being the same part number, for what it's worth.

*Edit, and as far as rears, I show the GXP being the same as the 98-04 Seville FE3.

[Jrs3800]

The Seville would be a larger car.. so with FE3 it should be like the FE5..

The Pontiac FE2 and Buick F41 should be the the same.. I do agree the FE5 bars are going to be the only way to go.. But finding them could be a bit of a pain.. Sandrock( Brad, Rest in peace brother from another mother ) Found a GXP in Daytona and we managed to get all the suspension bits...

If at all possible, I would get the bars, bushings, brackets, shocks, struts, coil springs, coil spring rubbers and strut tower bar.. Might just as well have it all..

[Pilot of the Murdersofa]

So the Park Avenue Ultra F41 is the same thing as a Pontiac FE2, FE3, or FE5? I wish I could find people who actually owned these cars and could do a comparison for me

As for the entire suspension swap... not really in the cards. I'm likely going to be buying a PAU next spring, and just want my LeSabre a bit flatter in the corners until then.

[Jrs3800]

*shoot*... I may have read the buick part wrong..

Lets look at it like this... The Bonneville FE2 would be like a LeSabre having F41.. The Park Ave F41 may be the solid sway bar..

On the Pontiac Bonneville SLE and SSEi you generally have the FE2, the FE5 from the GXP equates to a much larger rear bar, and a solid front bar as opposed to hollow.. As well the shocks and struts on the FE5 are firmer as are the coil springs... FE5 is where its at..

But I can't say weather or not the larger Park Ave and Caddy's have the larger bars like the FE5.. Being that the cars are larger its possible that their FE3 could be the same as an FE5, but it hard to say with any real answer... Only one way to know is to pull parts and compare..lol

The Addco site shows them all using the same 32mm front and 22mm rear bars.. So I don't know.. Hard to say for certain.. I still say the 04-05 Bonneville GXP will have all the parts you'll want..

[Pilot of the Murdersofa]

Yeah, but considering I can get a Park Avenue F41 for $60 shipped, and I can't find GXP parts *anywhere* I might just go with that until I can get a Riviera later next year. I'm considering welding up my own rear sway bar, but it looks like my design would ram into the exhaust so that nixes that idea. Guess I'll be on the lookout for a Seville rear bar.
I'll need end links or something like that as well, right? I'm new to all of this suspension stuff.

[Jrs3800]

Do you have a rear bar at all? some of the FE1's didn't..

I'd say the F41 would work for you.. And for endlinks I would do poly where ever possible..

[2003 SSEi]

did you do a search on Car-part.com for any GXP's in your area??? That is usually the easiest way.

[Pilot of the Murdersofa]

I found an FE5 GXP front sway bar that should be shipping here later this week, and tomorrow I'm picking up an FE3 STS sway bar for the rear. I know I'm going to need end links and probably body bushings, but are there any parts other than that I'll need to stick these on my LeSabre?

[Jrs3800]

Center bar to frame bushings and endlinks.. I think your gonna like the difference..lol

[yourgrandma]

For the front, its pretty easy to bolt on the Energy poly bar to body bushing and mount. In rear I had to make a simple plate that would allow me to mount the two ended mount to the cars single bolt hole. I cant say anything about the difference between stock style and poly mounts because I did them all at the same time as replacing the sway bars.