92ehatch

Hello everyone, i have a quick question about this ex front swaybar on my 95 dx.

I had a stock 95 civic ex front swaybar given to me a little while ago. i have not put it on, as i need the control arms still.

my question is, is it even practical, or worth putting on.

im definitely putting on a rear swaybar to help with understeer, but ive been speaking with alot of people, and we are all just about agreeing that putting the swaybar on the front, would probably hurt more than it would help.

the swaybar im planning for the rear is ST 19mm rear swaybar

PIC apex coilovers for shock (dont have yet)

so what are your thoughts on this front sway? experiences?

right now im almost ready to sell the thing and forget a front sway

thanks guys

i autocross this car btw.

Gunmetal_B20_Hatch

iTrader: (9)

it will make the car handle more "neutral"

It is all in how you want the car to feel when cornering. Everyone has their own preference.

There are many people successfully tracking their cars on just a rear swaybar.

92ehatch

neutral is around what im looking for once all is said and done, possibly a little more oversteer than under. thanks for your reply

civicgsr

I don't agree with this at all. I've seen guys run a big rear sway bar with no bar in the front and it's wild to watch the snap oversteer. Running a stock EX bar in the front and a nice bar in the back will definitely help.

92ehatch

thanks for a useful reply.

this is why i asked the question.

i got the front bar for free, so ill use it if it will help

Imprezor

Remember you use sway bars to control ROLL (along with the springs), thus to keep camber in the controlled range and to mantain the roll center location within the desired range of movement. Reducing ROLL will control camber better, thus increasing cornering power. AFTER you control the ROLL of the car to the desired level, you then use the sway bars to balance the car because a sway bar substracts grip out of the pair of wheels it is working on, so you can balance the ammount of grip between the front and the rear adjusting the stiffness of the bar, either changing bar diameters or the bar's mechanical advantage. BALANCE is always more important than pure cornering power and will beat cornering power every time, but one has to go in hands with the other, casue you CAN have a balanced car that can't take turns as fast as it could.

Remember also that we assume that the roll of the car at the rear is that same roll at the front (rigid enough chassis), so you COULD control roll with just one sway bar, BUT you would need to use such a bigger sway bar that you would probably have the unladen wheel off the ground at every turn, and that pair of wheels (be it the front or the rear, whatever) would not grip AT ALL, thats why you use 2 sway bars. You COULD also control roll with just the springs but then the individual tire compliance would be virtualy zero thus each wheel will be having a very very hard time dealing with bumps.

MANY people think that running no sway bar at the front and running a huge rear makes the car faster through corners just cause you get oversteer and its a FWD car, that's a very common misconception. That's never going to win a RACE but maybe makes the car really fun to drive.

I would only agree with no running a front sway bar if you are in a race weekend, next to the race and for some reason (be it you don't have other bars/springs or you have some kind of weird problem on the susp) you haven't found the right balance for the car and it's slow or very difficult to drive and the only solution (not te best but the better solution you have) would be taking out the front sway bar.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

ej1love

^ good info. id put that bitch on, ****. i switched mine out for a gsr. i think its just 1 or 2mm bigger, def helps...

Imprezor

It should be ok. Anyway, if you are doing autocrosses consistently you should get at least 2 diferent sizes for front and rear. Go to a junk yard or something they shouldn't be expensive.

Talking about bars, I have a 93 CX (no bars stock) and I put rear GSR LCAs with a GSR rear sway bar about 2 months ago, and just today I put front GSR LCAs with a 18mm sway bar. I had been running just the rear for about 2 months cause I didn't have the front LCAs (I got my front sway bar from a friend just as you did). Now that I have both sway bars the car corners A LOT faster. I feel I could use a slightly bigger rear sway bar just to give it a little bit more oversteer so I can put the power down earlier in the corner exit and to restrict roll a little more, but maybe 22mm Type R is a bit too much for street use, cause my springs are pretty stiff already.

Its a shame my front end links are a bit worn and they rattle when driving through little bumps or rough road.

Let me know how do you feel the car after installing the front sway bar and also try to measure both front and rear sway bar diameters, and find out your spring ratios.