Finally got it installed this weekend with the invaluable help of Olegator and long distance counsel from Billman.

Let me start off with the pros on this transaction:

The bar is solid steel, 21 lbs and tames my tail-happy S very nicely. The shipping time was reasonable due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Now for the cons and warnings:

I was very disatisfied with Moddiction's lack of candor, when asked if it was a perfect install ie. easy swap with all parts included. After having researched previous threads on the original Saner bars probs, I didn't want to incur any of those problems and sought to clarify everything prior to purchase. Ryan(Moddiction) assured me EVERYTHING was good to go.

I later learned from Ryan(after purchase of course):

"I think a few of the brackets I got had the holes slightly off. About 1/4" off on each hole for the 2 brackets that hold the bushings and bar in place. I am waiting to hear back from the manufacturer on these. Unfortunately there is no way to tell for sure without removing the Oem brackets.

Once I hear back from the manufacturer I can work on getting the replacements. I know you don't want to but I'm sure the shop could if needed drill them out within a couple of minutes and would have zero negative affect on the brackets or anything. Just if you are in a time crunch. It would not affect the warranty. It also would not be visible once installed either. But I do completely understand not wanting to drill something that is new!"

So let me see, it's a perfect fitment but I need modification. Hmmmm... That would mean after I take it to a mechanic to put it on a lift and remove the stock bar is when I get to find out if it'll fit or not??? A week later still no replacement brackets so I turned to our local genius Olegator. That's when what usually takes an hour turns into an all day nightmare.

Taking off the stock bar was fine until we came up against a rusted/stripped endlink. The oem endlink requires a 5mm Allen which stripped out. The bolt needed to be cut off, but the location was too tight to access, so the endlink itself needed to be cut. Which basically meant no turning back if the new bar didn't fit.

Once we put the new bar on, sure enough I was one of the lucky ones who got the "few brackets" with holes slightly off. Olegator proceeded to drill them out larger and made them fit. The next surprise was finding out the endlinks were way too big to fit around my Buddy Club N+ Coilover. They literally grind against those beautiful coilovers. A call to Ryan to inquire if this was also a known issue yielded his VM and to this day no return phone call. Nice customer service. We therefore had to disturb Billman who's on the WestCoast wrenching his magic. He suggested we reversed the bolt washer order/sides(opposite from DIY directions on S2KI, this ship with no instructions and inquiries on this also yielded no response) to make it fit. It finally worked. The coilovers had to come out and put in last.

Bottom line, don't trust what you read about easy swap. I definitely wouldn't do this if I have the Buddy Club Coilover N+. Unless you enjoy seeing things get ground down. I was going to call the whole thing off until I remembered I'm hours from home with one less endlink />/>/>

I'm also appalled that a $320 item comes with zero instructions. No, downloading it from somewhere online is not acceptable. We all know about Xviper being pissed off and deleting all his DIYs from this forum. What kind of business can't think to print out some Zerox copies? He also didn't include the packet of grease that the Saner bars got. I sent him a link to the old thread and he said everything was complete. I don't like surprises.

Long story short, minus the bracket snafu, bar works and is well built(let's see what damage it does in the long haul to my coilovers), but I'm not impressed with this vendor. He was immediately responsive before the sale, not so when problems arose />/>/>/>/>/>/>/>/>/> />/>/>/>/>/>/>/>/>/>

 

Seriously? Not trying to be a dick, but you sound like you don't have much experience with aftermarket/custom parts.

Minimal instructions, slight modifications, and conflicts with other aftermarket parts are the norm for most aftermarket products (save for a few like SoS and PTuning). My car is highly modified and I can't think of anything that was completely perfect and didn't require any modification, or had perfect instructions with it (most of the time you are lucky to get any).

Not to mention this is not really Ryan's product. He didn't design it, he didn't manufacture it. He's basically just the middleman for people to purchase it. You should have known this going in (if you didn't, you didn't do enough research) and thus not expected a ton of support or a perfect product. To me, it sounds like he did everything he could and the only thing he is guilty of is possibly advertising it as slighly more of a "perfect" product than it is.

 

Spot on. I don't have much experience with aftermarket/custom parts. That's why I ask questions and send links insuring what I'm going to get prior to buying.

He's not only a middleman. He's the guy who told me it's all good and collected my $$ only to send me a "by the way" pm after the fact. Don't assume everyone's a professional wrencher or can shell out for one on what should basically be a straightforward swap. Tell the buyer up front if there are any surprises and let him decide whether or not he wants to go through with the transaction. Not after the fact. It's called good business practice.

 

Like I said, he may over-represented how much of a straight swap it would be. However, I highly doubt it was intentional.

Its hard to have any absolutes when you are the middleman. It wasn't his fault the brackets were mis-drilled. It sounds like he notified you as soon as he knew.

And as far as compatibility with your coilovers, that is not really his problem. If they were OEM coilovers I could understand your frustration, but there are tons of coilovers out there. He can't be expected to know the compatibility with what you are using.

 

To be clear, I'm not complaining about the coilover fitment so much as I'm reporting the Buddy Club N+ coilovers will get destroyed if connected to this swaybar. We're not talking about light rubbing issues here.

If he'd just learned about the bracket and sent me a notice than that is legit. However, if he'd known about their defects and let me buy them first prior to alerting me than that is wrong.

 

Obviously I can't say for sure, but I highly doubt that is the case.

 

Ryan is an awesome guy to deal with, been dealing with him a lot for a few years now. I cant name anyone else whos been better to deal with. I stand behind Ryan(Moddiction) 100%. Give the guy credit for coming and saying hey btw the holes may be off. Most retailers would say nothing. Like others have said, almost all aftermarket parts will still require some modification.

 

I was just about to order the bar too. Hmmmm.....If it's rubbing against your Buddyclubs, i'm going to assume it will rub on KW clubsports too. Ahhhh......I need a front sway bar. I was planning to install the bar myself too.

 

But, I think he should stop selling the bar until him and the manufacture company fixes the problem with the hole.

 

Sorry must have missed your phone call about them rubbing. I am not an expert when it comes to installing these bars. As mentioned above I do not make them but have a company that took over basically making the old saner bar and make it exclusively for me.

I had others install the bar prior to me listing them on my site and they installed correctly. One guy had the u bracket off. I contacted manufacturer and those were corrected.

After sending the 6 bars I had in stock out I had one customer contact me about the U brackets so I notified you about that. I just got the replacement U brackets in today.

As for grease according to the manufacturer of the bar it is not required with their bushings. Which is why it is not included.

Since there are a few issues from some guys we are waiting to do another batch and will work on making some possible changes to make it more of a perfect bolt up affair.

I have one of the customers testing a few things for me shortly.
Probably was a mistake for me not to personally test fit it on my car ( already have a saner bar on mine) but after hearing from others installing it and the manufacturer having it on one of their cars I went ahead with them.

Apologize for not getting back to you on your phone call. Been very busy with orders and being a one man business I am usually working on orders so hard to get the phone all the time.