Ok, I have a 00 civic 4door, it handles pretty good. I just put a ST front/rear swaybar kit on. I can tell the difference but, when I take a corner at 60+ the *** end feels like it wants to side out from under me. I never had this problem when I had the smaller swaybars on. Is this normal?
I have also heard that you should run a smaller swaybar or stock if the front. Will this help me with my problem?

 

Bump

 

Yes, its perfectly normal. When you increase the stiffness of the rear swaybar, it creates more over steer, which is what you are experiencing.

Its usually better to have more oversteer than understeer, but its also up to you and your personal preference.

 

What would be the effect of replacing the front with the stock swaybar?

 

if you stiffened the front sway bar, that should theoretically increase understeer. and if you put a smaller sway up front, then you would decrease the amount of understeer.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by veggiemaster &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if you stiffened the front sway bar, that should theoretically increase understeer. and if you put a smaller sway up front, then you would decrease the amount of understeer.</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's all normal. You just need to get used to it. I saw a guy with a stock front sway bar and 22 mm rear bar lift his rear wheel turning on the street. IMO, that's pretty tight.

 

It's a matter of how you drive and what you use it for. More understeer is safer and more predictable, so most street cars come with a lot of it. Introducing more oversteer can help your cornering if properly driven, but it is not as safe and less predictable. Too much oversteer can make your car a death trap.

I don't know if you get it to the track, but if you are seriously interested in improving your cars handling, I'd strongly recommend getting it to an autocross or HPDE event. Autocross especially will let you test the limits of the suspension in a safe environment. It's hard to do on the street because if you really exceed the limit, then you spin it out of control, and you never really know what the limits are until you exceed them.

I am currently running the stock front swaybar on a '99 Si with a Mugen 24mm rear bar. The rear is pretty lively, but I can take the corners more quickly than with the stock setup.

You may also want to try the road Racing/Autocross forum, as those people are all about handling/cornering issues.

So if you're not already, then get it to an autocross, find the limits of your setup (push it until it spins, if you don't lose control, then you weren't trying hard enough ), and get to an HPDE to learn about turn-in, apexing, lines, and all the other technical stuff that will help you cornar fast and stay in control.

 

Thanks for all the info. It has helped me a lot.