The Long-term Effects of Torsion Bar Adjustment

I remember when I was still in my late teens and early 20s, I was very much into car racing since my circle of friends back in college are mostly car enthusiasts and almost all of us have our own cars. My car is a utility vehicle and is in no way, shape or form a vehicle made for racing of any type nor is it in any condition to be in a car show. But my passion for racing was a bit too much back then so I made a few modifications to my car.

I bought some aftermarket parts to at least try and make it a little faster. I installed racing air filters, changed the mufflers, increased the diameter of the exhaust pipe and I bought expensive spark plugs. Then I used high performance engine oil and the most expensive high-octane fuel. And of course, to make my car look good, I had my car's torsion bar adjusted so that it will have a low ride height. Until now, I haven't brought it back up to its normal right height and I'm seeing so many problems.

Roads aren't perfect. There are pot holes, bumps and debris everywhere and with a low ride height, you can feel almost all of them. The car has become uncomfortable to drive on city roads. With a low ride height, your suspension has very little room to adjust.

Also, because the ride height is low, when you turn your wheels to either direction, it hits the fenders quite often especially on humps. This could result in unnecessary scrapes on your wheels or it may damage the fenders or even tear it off eventually.

Probably the most dangerous effect of having a low ride height is when you have a lot of passengers. I'm not just talking about 4 or 5 persons. Since I have a utility vehicle, it can practically accommodate 11 persons. And since I have a high seating capacity, most of the people who want to take a ride with me expect that I will be able to accommodate all of them.

What they don't understand is that it's quite dangerous for my car since it has an adjusted torsion bar. The torsion bar, as well as any other type of vehicle suspension, serves as shock absorbers. If it's pushed to its maximum load, the force of a serious bump will transmit to the body. It could either damage the torsion bar or the vehicle's main chassis and body.

Lastly, as the years passed by, the ride height seemed to go lower by itself. I remember the first time I had the torsion bar adjusted. I can stick a finger between the wheels and the fenders. Now, I can't. I tried but my fingers are already pointing upwards. It doesn't look good anymore since the rear wheels still have a high right height. The car looks like a dragster but again it's a utility vehicle and it's not appealing anymore.

I'm now saving up money to have everything checked since the mechanics at the service center told me that they would have to adjust the camber as well to make sure that the orientation of the front wheels are level. Before you adjust your car's torsion bars, make sure that you know the possible consequences in doing so. It may improve the handling of your car especially on high speed turns but comfort may be compromised. Nothing beats a safe, smooth and a very comfortable drive.

Source:
Wikipedia - Torsion Bar Suspension
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsion_bar_suspension