2digits

I was just wonder why many people say that if you lower your S197 you will need a adjustable panhard bar, and how low can go, and get away without replacing it?

Can you just get an alignment to straighten it out since everything in theory is square

From the little bit I know doesn't a panhard bar prevent front and back movement. So how does lowering your car affect this? And why is it a good idea to replace your OEM one?

Argonaut

The PHB controls lateral motion (left, right). One end bolts to the axle on the left side of the car, the other to the chassis on the right side of the car. Because the PHB moves in an arc about its mount point on the chassis its axle end moves left and right as the suspension goes up and down. When you lower the car, the axle moves up and the PHB forces the rear axle to the left. Thus if you lower the car too far, you can notice that the left (drivers side) tire might stick out of or be close to the fender, where the right tire is moved inboard away from the fender. An alignment can not correct this, the only correction is an adjustable PHB - you can set it shorter than stock, thus pulling the axle back to the center of the car. HTH.

dvs4.6

Thanks for that no so scientific explanation as to what this PHB is and does.
some of us are just getting started and we can use all the x-plain we can get.

tx_zstang

Depending on how much you lower, you might not really need one. But if you want to make sure the rear end is sideways-lined-up properly, you'll need one.
When I lowered mine, the rear lowered 1.25" and the rear end moved out I think 3/16". Not much. I did use an adjustable phb to recenter it.

BleedinBlue

I'll expand on this question a bit.

My understanding is an adjustable panhard is definitely necessary if you go with wider wheels and tires than stock. If this is the case, will a tire shop adjust the panhard when installing tires, or will an alignment shop adjust it when aligning the car? If not...how hard is it to adjust yourself?

Doogie65

Every car is different as even the 1in drop from the Roush rear springs caused about a 1/2in shift to the drivers side on my car. And although not a big issue yet, with wider tires/wheels in my future I went ahead and installed one.

Should you decide to buy one, keep in mind the adjustment differences as some like the Steeda and CHE bars have the adjustments on the ends making on car changes a PITA. Whereas the BMR and UMI bars have the adjuster more towards the middle. I included an example of both below.

r3velation

if you lower just the rear, will you still need a phb? i'm thinking about getting the roush rear coils that will lower the rear just about an inch.

Doogie65

mine did as it shifted about a 1/2in with rears only. Granted, this was only a cosmetic issue for now, but with wider tires/rims down the road I wanted things centered.

Texotic

The alignment shop will do the panhard bar adjustment. It is only absolutely necessary depending on how wide you go, but even if you don't HAVE to have it for alignment purposes, when you go with wider tires, there's less of a gap from the inside of the fender to the outside of the tire, so any shift is more noticeable to the eye.

BleedinBlue

Right on, good info. Thanks.