Zep Racing Adjustable Lateral Rod

After the installation of the heavy sound system in the boot of my car, and the new wider alloy wheels, I started having a problem when I had people sitting at the rear seats on a bumpy road. The driver’s side rear wheel was touching the inside arch of the fender, damaging the tire.

I was looking for a solution to this problem for MONTHS! Not to say years! I asked many mechanics and other “specialists” and I got tons of “solutions” from them.

• Put back the original alloy wheels
• Buy slimmer alloy wheels
• Remove a part from the inside of the “problematic” alloy, so the whole wheel will move away from the arch!!!
• Get a much stiffer suspension
• Cut off the fender’s arch
• Have my fenders slightly pulled out, risking to break the paint work!
• etc etc

It’s impressive how many “experts” in Cyprus can be so ignorant of their own jobs!!! After some research I discovered that this is a common problem for Glanzas/Starlets and other cars with a common rear axle suspension.

The video below explains the operation of this kind of rear suspension, and why this kind of problem occurs.

Right after that, I started looking for a lateral (panhard) rod. Such an item was nowhere to be found in Cyprus (OBVIOUSLY!!!). So my quest for buying a lateral bar off the internet, began.

Quickly I narrowed down my options to the following candidates:

• RS*R (a bit expensive but large availability)
• Cusco (very expensive and hard to be found)
• Whiteline (reasonable priced but hard to be found)
• Zep – with pillow-ball ends (expensive but pillow-ball ends and wide availability)
• Zep – with bushed ends (good price and wide availability)

After all, it’s just a metal bar more or less… so I went for the cheaper lateral rod by Zep Racing with bushed ends.

I had this new toy quickly installed and professionally adjusted… et voila! It’s a miracle! My tire won’t touch the fender’s arch anymore!!! At last! 🙂