Product Reviews

034 Motorsport Rear Sway Bar

2013-06-14 09.15.36

I recently took advantage of a group buy on Audizine to buy the new 034 Motorsport rear sway bar for the B6/B7 Audi A4/S4/RS4 platform and am quite pleased with the mod and wanted to share some thoughts here, in usual Nick’s Car blog fashion…

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I was quite pleased with my suspension setup already thanks to a dialed in set of STaSIS Coilovers with Swift Springs, and for a while I wasn’t sure if I really *needed* to upgrade my sway bar or not, as my suspension was pretty stiff. Like most modifications, it wasn’t really a “need” that drove the purchase, but at a relatively affordable price point (<$200) it seemed like a good thing to cross of the list. When the group buy was offered for a third time, I finally bit the bullet to cross the last item off my list for my S4’s suspension.

034 Sway Bar

The kit comes with all of the hardware and stronger urethane bushings on top of the thicker 25mm sway bar. The OEM sway bar on the A4 is just 16-18mm (depending on if you have the Sport suspension or not), while the S4 came with a 20-22mm sway bar depending on the year. Several aftermarket rear sway bars vary from 22mm-29mm in thickness, so I found the 034 sway bar to be a good “in between.” I know several people who run the 29mm rear sway bar, and I’d heard that it was so stiff it made the ride quality of the car much worse and sometimes even broke or snapped out of place, so 29mm seemed too aggressive for my taste. Many choose to upgrade to the 22mm RS4 rear sway bar, which is what I did my A4, but I liked that the 034 sway bar was a little beefier and also had some adjustability and more robust bushings…after driving with it for a week or two, I can confirm it’s pretty much the “Goldilocks” of sway bars, with no noticeable decrease in ride quality, but a noticeable improvement reducing body roll in hard cornering and aggressive maneuvering.

My B7 S4 Rolling

I am excited to hit the track or autocross soon, as that will really demonstrate the improvements of the sway bar, as well as the Big Brake Kit I had installed (but have refrained on reviewing quite yet, as I haven’t had a chance to really test its capabilities yet either). Like the 034 Motorsport website mentions, this upgraded rear sway bar works quite nicely with the OEM front sway bar, and the car feels well balanced and brings confidence to the driver. I haven’t tried adjusting the sway bar to the aggressive setting yet, but that is also a possibility with this sway bar, which was a nice feature I thought. Below is a picture at my last autocross event, before I had the sway bar on but after I had done my suspension – as you can see, I still had quite a bit of body roll, so I’m excited to see the impact this should make, especially in the more aggressive setting:

Audi S4 Autocross

Installation was quite easy, with everything you need to install included in the kit, included lube/grease for the bushings. We had to move around the bracket for my Milltek exhaust ever so slightly to avoid rubbing, but otherwise it was a very easy and painless install that can be done in under 1 hour with the right tools.

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If you’re interested, check out this part on the 034 website here: http://www.034motorsport.com/chassis-components-audi-a4s4a6s6-034motorsport-solid-rear-sway-bar-b6b7-audi-a4s4rs4-quattro-fwd-adjustable-p-23007.html

Nick Roshon

Nick has been an Audi owner and fanatic for the last 10 years, and started Nick's Car Blog in 2009 to share DIYs and pictures of his A4. Currently he drives a 2012 Audi TT-RS, and has previously owned a B7 S4, B7 A4, and an 82 Audi Coupe (GT) LeMons race car. In his day job, Nick is a digital marketer and lives in San Diego, CA, USA.

9 Comments

  1. Hi Nick. I think the 034 might be too aggressive for my mostly-stock 2006 A4, but I am planning to upgrade to the OEM RS4 rear sway bar. Am I fine to re-use my rear sway-bar end links or should I upgrade when I install the new sway bar?

  2. Ryan, you’re fine to re-use the stock end links and TBH upgrading them probably won’t provide any noticeable improvements in your case (unless you plan to corner balance or something like that), so I’d almost recommend leaving those as-is.

  3. Hey Nick,
    I know above you mentioned that the rear end links are fine for the RS4 sway bar but I am thinking about purchasing the 034 sway bar. Do you think I need the aftermarket links that 034 sells especially if I am going on the aggressive setting? Also since this thread is now a year old do you have any change of opinion on the 034 bar? Any and all feedback is much appreciated. Thanks!!

  4. Still very happy with the 034 RSB, no regrets 🙂 In terms of the end links, I’ve heard differing opinions. The shop I take my car to thought the end links probably weren’t necessary unless I planned to adjust the sway bar from aggressive to street on a more frequent basis, or if I planned to get the car corner balanced. Short of these scenarios (neither of which applied to me), their recommendation was that it probably wasn’t worth it.

  5. Hi Nick,

    I have an ’07 A4 on H&R Sport Springs and upgraded control arms. Found a local seller with RS4 front and rear sway bars. I’m reading that most people say putting the front RS4 sway bar on is pointless due to the weight difference between the 4.2 and 2.0, but I’m leaning toward buying the rear one. I’m only asking because you noted in this blog that you had the rs4 RSB on at one point on your A4? How was that, and why did you change to the 034 afterwards?

    Thanks!

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