Rear Sway Bar On 2004/2005 Passat

Has anyone installed the rear sway from Nuespeed on their Passat? Anyone ridden in one with the sway bar? How difficult of an installation?
I am interested in the 28mm swaybar for the rear of my 2005 Passat Wagon. It seems a bit loose in the hind end and could use a bit more rigidity.

I have a Neuspeed 28mm sway bar on my Passat! Install is simple took 1/2 hour and it flattens the ride nicely really makes off ramps nice!
Check this thread Here
and another

I put one on our Passat and the results are superb! It really flattens the intense body roll that is induced in curves. It is not difficult at all to install. I bought mine off of group buy on clubb5.com. There are links to a website that has pics of the install either here or on that website. Do a search and you should be able to locate it.

Do you think the rear 28 mm sway bar is adequate or does one need to install the 27 mm front bar as well?

I do not push the car really hard, but I can tell the rear end is loose and does not track the best.

Thanks,
Deming

PS. I value your opinion on this subject.

Rear is sufficient IMO.No need to change the front.

Sounds good to me! I just wish it ws not $225.00. A lot of money for no more than you are getting.

Anyone else have some pics I can see of the Neuspeed installed on their Passat? I've seen HermanH's PASSAT Site with his install pics but I'm having a hard time seeing how much it is going to hang down. I was thinking of getting hung up on something but maybe that's not a big deal since it is between the wheels.

At $225 it does seem like a lot of money since I can get a one for my F250 for under $150.

I don't have a picture but I can email you some if you PM me....it doesn't hang down that much. All I can say is it's worth the money!

Just curious - why did everyone seem to opt for the 28mm? Is it the fact that the additional cost is so small? Seems like I'd only need the 25mm if I'm not adding one in the front.

Thanks!

I talked to someone at Nuespeed and they recommended the 28mm sway bar. Of anything you can do to modify your Passat, it's the biggest bang for the buck. My wagon handles like a sports car with the 28mm sway bar in the middle setting. GET ONE.

Are you just installing one in the rear of your wagon or are you planning to install one in the front as well?
Just curious.

My plan was to install one in the rear.

There is already one in the front and it doesn't need to be changed. The back bar addition makes a great improvemnet.

Resurrecting this old thread. does someone have a link to the exact bar I need for the rear of my '05 Passat 2.0 tdi wagon?

Is this it? :

http://www.neuspeed.com/2502283-neuspeed-race-series-rear-anti-sway-bar-28mm.html

Thanks, Dave.

that one is not for the rear

afarfalla said:

that one is not for the rear

Click to expand...

It clearly says "rear". Not sure if it is the right one though. When I look up suspension for FWD B5.5 I see no rear bar available.

Google search found this:

https://www.kermatdi.com/i-902-b5-5-bhw-shine-rear-sway-bar.html

And this:

https://www.urotuning.com/Autotech-Swaybar-Rear-Passat-B5-28mm-p/10.525.1628k.htm

And this:

https://www.etektuning.com/autotech-clubsport-28mm-hollow-rear-swaybar-for-2wd-b5-b5g-passat/

Turns out that Nuspeed one's for B6, not 5/5.5.

I'll look at your links: thank you.


Dave

Sway (antiroll for engineers) bar on a torsion beam rear suspension? Not very common. While the beam does have some flexibility it's not that much. Jack one side of the front of the car up and see how quickly the rear tire comes off the ground.

In fact the flexibility was engineered to balance oversteer. The cross section of the beam is also engineered to induce a slight toe change on cornering that results in the rear axle steering to the outside of the turn thus thus increasing oversteer.

Increasing roll stiffness on the front tends to understeer. Increasing roll stiffness on the rear tends to oversteer.

On our FWD B5.5s increasing rear roll stiffness might not result in as much oversteer increase / understeer decrease as expected since it would also decrease the toe change.

If the picture is correct that Nuespeed part does not look like it fits a B5.5 FWD Passat rear. The description says Audi A3/TT and VW MKV/VI FWD applications ONLY and 2011-12 Tiguan FWD.

If you really want a rear sway bar this might be an option.
https://www.urotuning.com/Autotech-Swaybar-Rear-Passat-B5-28mm-p/10.525.1628k.htm

MEgearhead said:

Sway (antiroll for engineers) bar on a torsion beam rear suspension? Not very common.

Click to expand...

Then why does every torsion beam rear axle come with one already in it? Seems pretty common to me. Some are fatter than others.

The OP is asking about adding an additional one... and having owned twist beam FWD VAG products since the '80s, I can assure you it DOES make a difference... even on the B5.

Stop being logical hammer. If logical thinkng ever catches on people wouldn't put rear spoilers or 3000 dollar rims on 1500 dollar FWD cars

I find that on my '05 tdi passat wagon the front will push and the inside rear corner lift a lot in corners, and that tells me it needs a heavier/thicker rear sway bar -- or one at all, as I know a4-chassis vws pretty well, but little about the b5/5.5, yet.

Swaybars are like bandaids. You may want to start with a heavier spring rate if you drive that aggressive.

OH, I highly respect your opinion. I've learned more from your posts than any other single source. Apologies since the previous post was obviously not worded well. I was trying to say that "separate (as in easily replaceable)" sway bars are not common for torsion beam axles. The one and only B5.5 I have ever looked at does not have one. Were some VAG torsion beams provided with separate/replaceable sway bars?

I know VAG calls the part a rear axle beam with stabilizer, but c'mon it's a torsion beam. The roll stiffness is engineered into the design of the beam regardless if it has one round tube lateral member or two (a small round forward of the pivot and an irregular downward facing C-channel aft of the pivot). Okay,. I'll conceed it's a torsion beam with an integral (welded in) sway bar. Can I get at least a little break since I did include a link to an aftermarket version?

I also was just trying to caution the OP that changing the roll stiffness of one axel only will affect the under/over steer tendency of the vehicle. I definitely agree adding a rear sway bar will decrease roll, it might just make the car loose. My Passat is very well balanced with a slight tendency to oversteer. It never pushes (understeer). I do have 17" wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3+. Other tire sizes/models will have different behavior as the slip angles could be vastly different.

davran's observation of pushing (understeer) would on the surface indicate an increase in rear roll stiffness could help, but it's combined with a rear tire coming of the ground. Higher spring rates might be better as Uberhare suggested. Also, if this only happens under combined braking and cornering, the pushing might be more from brake bias than suspension.

Again, I apologize. I had no intention insinuating anyone didn't know what they were talking about. It just pains me to see or hear about folks bolting on parts that are not a good match (massive ugly wings on a FWD; dual carb high rise intake and headers on stock small valve heads; etc.). For mine a rear sway bar would not be a good match as it would likely be overly loose. I have considered higher spring rates using some of the info in MOGolf's rough road mod.

There are twist beams withOUT sway bars, and with. Some of the ones with are not integral. The ones I know off the top of my head that have a separate sway bar with a twist beam axle are on some GM products I think (Cruze maybe?) and maybe Toyota.

My only point was to say that having or adding a sway bar on something with a twist beam rear axle isn't unheard of or anything. On the A1 cars, it was pretty much a necessity if you wanted to improve the handling. The A1 Jettas already had one (from the factory), as did some GTIs. External, mounted by bushings and links, pretty much EXACTLY like the add on ones for the B5s available now.

VAG just improved the basic idea by integrating one as well as on A2/A3/A4/B3/B4 cars adding the track correcting factor by canting the bushings. The B5s do not have that part, as they for whatever reason just stuck with the old straight style setup like the A1s.

By the way, I added one of the factory Jetta 18mm sway bars to the back of my homely '79 diesel Rabbit. Even with the rest of the suspension totally stock, it VASTLY improved the handling of that car. Which was good, because with only 48hp on tap, you really didn't want to have to slow down for turns if you knew you'd have to get back up to speed afterwards.

Don't I feel like the fool posting something that in the context of a VW forum is complete nonsense. Thanks for making me do some research OH! Despite having never seen one on the cars I've worked on (I don't do this for a living so I should have known better), and my college textbook for Automotive Design 1 stating that the advantage of a torsion beam suspension is that they make anti-roll bars unnecessary, they are in fact very common, especially on VW's. Looking at the A1 beam I can see why one would be necessary. That angle iron beam does not look very stiff in torsion. I also found it interesting that the torsion beam seems to be showing up more in new designs. And yes, several of these have separate sway bars.

I decided to go with this Autotech swaybar, and I'll also be installing new KYB shocks. Everything should show up this-coming week:

https://autotech.com/passat/b5-1998...llow-rear-swaybar-b5-b5g-passat-2wd-only.html