Well, I finally got around to putting on the Cobb sway bars both front and rear along with the adjustable mounts for the rear and I just wanted to give a little mini review to help others out and perhaps get some advice.

First off, Cobb needs to update their documentation. As some of you may have read in a past post, I ordered them for a 2006 STi, and after placing the order I was told that the '06 needs an adjustable mount and that it would cost an extra $100. I was a little annoyed but gave the ok on the upgrade as I wanted something that will properly fit my '06.

There were a couple differences between the 04-05 that the documentation is intended for and the '06. This was generally not a big deal. There are 2 more bolts on the sub-frame that need to be removed up front, and the center brace that covers the front sway bar is bigger and has 4 extra nuts (2 on the left and 2 on the right) than in the instructions. Also, the rear endlinks do not have an inside and outside nut on the '06s which actually makes it easier to detach.

The biggest problem with the documentation is that there is NO information about the adjustable mounts. You'd think that any cretan with a modicum of deductive reasoning skills could figure it out, but I ran into the following problems:

1) On the passenger side for the rear sway bar, the instructions call for putting the mount for the charcoal canister on top of the sway bar mount. I tried it this way, but the mount for the charcoal canister sat at a really odd angle when installed like this. Since the instructions were written for the heavy duty mounts and not for the adjustable ones, I tried putting the charcoal canister mount on top of the swaybar mount which seems to sit a little better but still looks a bit awkward. I'm also worried because I think this bolt might have gotten stripped it doesn't seem to want to tighten all the way, and I didn't want keep at it and make things worse. What's ironic is that I had 0 problems bolting in the front part of the mount (under the gas filler pipe), which a lot of people seem to have had troubles with in the past. Clearance was limited, but using an open socket, I got the bolt in and out with almost no problem.

2) Since there are no instructions for the adjustable mounts, there aren't any recommended settings for the mount adjustments relative to sway bar position (soft, medium, firm). This wasted a fair amount of time because I had to adjust the mount, lower the car, attach the end links and see if they were in the right position (if you attach the end links before putting the car on the ground the endlink position is misleading).

3) On the passenger side, you can only move the adjustment forward 1 notch from the factory setting as the gas filler pipe prevents it from being adjusted any further forward. This works when the swaybar attached to the endlinks at the middle position but it is too far back if you attach the endlinks at the firmest setting. What's the point of having an adjustable mount if you can't make adjustments?

4) On the driver’s side, the mount actually touches the stock muffler. The only way to prevent this would be to adjust the mount forward, however as mentioned previously, the passenger side cannot be adjusted more than 1 notch forward. If I moved the drivers side 2-3 notches forward so it clears the muffler, the left and right sides would be asymmetrical (which I think would be a bad thing). This is probably the most aggravating thing as I have a horrible clunking rattle from the mount hitting the can at certain RPM's. I'm not really sure how to fix this short of getting a hammer and putting a dent in the muffler where the mount touches. I guess this might be a good excuse to get a TBE with a smaller muffler.

I've installed sway bars on several cars and this "should" have been the simplest install of them all. Instead it ended up taking all day and I'm very concerned about all the problems with the mounts on the rear bar.

On a good note(because I hate ending on a bad one and I don't want people to think I'm hatin' on Cobb), I am VERY pleased with the Stage 1 Accessport. Straight out of the box (i.e. no pro tune), it's reduced turbo lag, smoothed out the power curve and the butt dyno say it feels more peppy. Power delivery is buttery smooth now and when you shift, you don't get the whiplash that it used to give people.

 

wow, I didn't know there were so many differences with the 06 model... can you post some pics of the trouble spots?

 

I just got off the phone with a gentleman from COBB and here's what I've learned:

1) The stock exhaust is not compatible with the adjustable sway bar mounts (which are neccisary for the 06 STi). If you have an 06 and a stock exaust you either need to wait until you get a new exhaust to install the rear sway or you need to buy new hangers first.

2) The charcoal canister mount goes on top of the sway bar mount. This may look odd or precarious but apparently this is how it's been done for a year and they haven't received any complaints yet on it falling apart.

3) They are unaware of the clearance issue on the passenger side and I was asked to take a photo of the mount on my car.

As for the other differences, I wouldn't really call them problems. I can't really take pics of the front without taking off a bunch of stuff, but I'll snap some photos of the rear clearance issues. As mentioned before the only differences in the front are 2 extra 17mm bolts on the subframe and the larger center brace (it's the jacking point for the front of the car). In the 04-05 it's a rectangular plate that runs from front to back with 2 bolts at the front and two at the rear. In the 06 it has the 2 bolts in the front and back as well as wings that extend out to the left and right with 2 nuts on either side (I suspect this was done to add rigidity).

 

As promised here are some pics of the issues. The first 4 are of the driver mount exhaust issue and fix. The last 4 show the passenger mount adjusted 1 notch forward of the factory setting and the clearance issue with the gas filler tube. This setting is passable for the medium(middle) setting on the sway bar, but the mount needs to adjust forward more to set the sway bar at the stiffest setting.

 

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