Originally Posted by zer099

I wanted to post some information a learned/gained during my quest to get my '09 X corner balanced. The biggest hurdle I had was the lack of any type of adjustable front sway link available for the AWD G. I imagine the aftermarket issue is due to lack of interest and also because the stock sway links are insanely short, making adjustability very difficult while keeping them strong. The answer I went with was to just custom up some of my own. I originally was going to replace both sides, and still might as I have the parts to do so, but instead opted to keep the stock on one side and make the other side custom to fit as needed.

On a side note, adjustable sway links are needed when corner balancing so that you can adjust the sway bar to remove all pre-load from the bar when the car is in a static state. Not removing the pre-load will leave the bar in a state of having tension on it. If designed correctly, the car from factory should be set with no pre-load, but the second you start messing with your suspension and ride height I promise you there is some type of load on it. The whole point of adjustable coilovers, at least as I see it, is that you can corner balance your car, adjust suspension droop, and adjust your car's center of gravity and roll center to a degree. Your car looking cooler by being lowered is all just a by-product of the intended purpose of the adjustable coilover system. Again, that's my opinion; but I too like the by-product of the car looking the sexy sitting all low and the sort.

Back on subject: I sourced out some pretty stout end links and components to make my own front end links and here are the results:







The shopping list for this project is as follows per link:

- Metric rod end retaining washers, 12mm x4 (#3068-M12) from Pegasus racing
- QA1-MXMR12 rod end x1
- QA1-MXFR12 rod end x1
- M12-1.25 x 70 Hex cap bolt, grade 8.8 or better x1
- M12-1.25 x 80 Hex cap bolt, grade 8.8 or better x1
- 12mm flat washers x4
- M12-1.25 nylon lock nut x2
- 12mm jam nut x1 (optional)
- At least 30mm of 12mm ID SS spacer tubing (will need a 15mm section and a 12mm section)

I bought these parts from a few different places, trying to keep price down and purchased enough for two end links. In the end I spent about $90 on the parts for the links.

For the spacers you need to cut a 15mm spacer for the up top (mount to the control arm) bolt and a 12mm spacer for the sway bar mounting bolt. Are the rod end failure washers required, no, but it gives me piece of mind.

I ended up just using one link and keeping the stock on the passenger side because I only needed to trim about 6mm off the male rod end threads to get the perfect length. Any more and I would have needed to shorten the female rod end, and honestly at that point I would have just opted to replace both sides to have full adjustability.

If you are a good DIY type of person, have the tools and time and own a X that you want to remove the preload off the front sway then I recommend this for you.


As for corner balancing: after two weeks of having to reschedule I finally got the car corner balanced yesterday. After trying three different lifts (we first were going to use the lift on the alignment rack but the car sits so low they couldn't get the lifts to turn over under it, the second lift was a much lower lift but had a wide platform that would have impacted the 2.5" FI exhaust, we went with the most obvious option then of driving up on 2x10s, using a normal car lift and then removing the wood and putting the scales under her) and a lunch break it took about 3 hours to dial her in but I finally got a perfect 50/50 with me in the car and half a tank of gas. I think it made a very notable difference. The height difference is slight, oddly, it sits a little lower on the drivers side now. Shes much more nimble in turns and highly more predictable in the turn-ins. I don't know if it's a result of everything being fine tuned or if its just my brain but she also seems to ride a little smoother too. It cost me roughly $350, that was for the balancing and the alignment afterwords. I forgot to take pictures of the setup, but I do have a copy of the numbers as we were changing things. In the beginning she was:

FL: 1044 FR: 1156
RL: 1018 RR: 850

That was with me in the car. Afterwards she was:

FL: 1078 FR: 1078
RL: 956 RR: 956

Again, with me in the car. Once we got her dialed we put the car on the alignment rack, performed the alignment, and finally I got in the car and we adjusted the sway bar end links to zero pre-load with me in the car and connected them to the sway bars.

I guess I should note my full suspension setup now as it matter:

- FA500 coil-overs, 10k/9k swift springs at +8/+11 dampening
-- Front preload is 5mm, and the rears have a 19mm droop
- Hotchkis sway bars, hardest setting up front, hardest in the rear
- Moonface roll center adjusters in the front and rear
- Moonface bump-adjusted tie-rod ends
- 370z forged rays 19" wheels
- 245/40 and 275/35 Michelin pilot super sports
- 20mm spacers up front
- Ultra Racing Rear Lower Bar and Rear Member Brace
- Z1 Front UCA (race version)
- SPC rear Camber arms
- SPL titanium mid link (swift springs part #Z65-178-090)
- SPL eccentric lockout kit
- Whiteline rear sway bar links
- Custom front sway bar link
- Front camber is @ -1.2; rear is -1.6
- Front toe is zeroed out, rear is 0.05 degrees toe-in
- Front caster is 8.7

Oddly, the car weighs 3884 pounds without me in it and with half a tank of gas, I was honestly expecting more. I still can't figure out what is weighing down the front passenger side so much but I guess the entire front drive system is on that side, plus the battery, the fuel pump and plumbing, so I guess it makes sense.

Was it worth it? For the way I drive and the fact I occasionally track her, yes. I live in a area with hills, twists, and turns; I want my car to be able to perform the best in it can in those scenarios and I think I've achieved that. Now it's time to work on other things. Would this be worth it to someone else? Hard to say. If your a handling snob then yes. If you think the G came from the factory handling like a boss, doubtful.