http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...QrdZ1

i would like some info from u guys... i dont really want to spend that much for this. will this really help my ride?

 

99% chance no, they will not.

The remaining 1% depends on whether or not your car is so well setup, and you are such a good driver that you would be able to accurately say that the miniscule difference in handling can be attributed to the monkey bars, and not a change in tire pressures, tire temperatues, wind speed, wind direction, slightly different line through one corner, less fuel in the tank, etc.

 

On my ex's saturn a set of cheapo ebay sturt bars (had to custom one for the rear) changed it's handling like night n day. And on my buddies 96 tegra again it improved the cars handling, making a lot stiffer specially under hard turning.

Me personally I like using braces but I'm looking more towards solid units over the bolted together and adjustable ones....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CarbonizedDX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">On my ex's saturn a set of cheapo ebay sturt bars (had to custom one for the rear) changed it's handling like night n day. And on my buddies 96 tegra again it improved the cars handling, making a lot stiffer specially under hard turning.

Me personally I like using braces but I'm looking more towards solid units over the bolted together and adjustable ones....</TD></TR></TABLE>


Thats just hard to believe, I've taken struts bars on and off my car for years, and have yet to feel a differce. The only "bar" that made a difference on my car was my 6pt Kirk cage.

 

monkeybars are good for playgrounds. not cars.

 

wow $70+shipping for that lol. If you have your heart set on strut bars I recently started apprenticing for fabrication and made a passwordjdm style rear strut bar for my del sol. Although it doesnt look beautiful like the password one, the function is still there. Id be happy to to make you one for the cost of the materials simply for the fact of me practicing. Ill post pictures of mine soon.

But like these guys are saying, i believe to even need these bars you would have to do some agressive driving and then there is probaly still a small margin of how much they help. Wheels/tires and a good spring/shock combo is the best way to go.

 

Very minimal difference.

Funny but it actually helped my friend's 95 z24 cavalier a lot. It tightened the steering a bit and felt more solid. (stock height)

 

for cars with mcpherson struts, there is a greater benefit from running STB's. for a car with double wishbones, it's pretty pointless.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bad-monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">for cars with mcpherson struts, there is a greater benefit from running STB's. for a car with double wishbones, it's pretty pointless.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Why is that? Can you further explain it?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jeremy D. Swain &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thats just hard to believe, I've taken struts bars on and off my car for years, and have yet to feel a differce. The only "bar" that made a difference on my car was my 6pt Kirk cage. </TD></TR></TABLE>


My ex's saturn had a creepy soft feel and had a sluggish or mushy feedback from the steering wheel. Once we installed the bars the steering responce was dramaticly better, more responsive as well as the car felt a lot more stable while turning and such. It went from knowing generally where the car was and when it was going to start breaking loose to know exactly which where the wheels where and which one(s) were losing traction.

It may be hard to believe but I speak from first hand experiance....

 

ok i think i dont want a set anymore. maybe ill find one front strut bar that goes under the hood then ST front and rear sway bar. what do u think of that set up?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CarbonizedDX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> My ex's saturn had a creepy soft feel and had a sluggish or mushy feedback from the steering wheel. Once we installed the bars the steering responce was dramaticly better, more responsive as well as the car felt a lot more stable while turning and such. It went from knowing generally where the car was and when it was going to start breaking loose to know exactly which where the wheels where and which one(s) were losing traction.

It may be hard to believe but I speak from first hand experiance....</TD></TR></TABLE>

was the wheel/tire package still stock? with stock tires I just can't see it. they give back little to no feedback.

 

I had these back in the day, let me tell you that I could fricking make those biznatches move while bolted on the car. I could grab the front strut bar with my hand and move the damn thing! They were sooo flimsy. So, they do not work.

 

One of the cars down sides were the factory fire hawks ( I think that was thier name) they has crappy traction to beguin with but don't forget the fact that the saturns body pannels (except for the hood, roof and trunk) are all plastic so most of it's strenght is from it's frame and that's not a whole lot (plus a sun roof to boot). The car was running the factory tire set ups on the factory rims (15").

I know it sound too much like bs that the braces ACTUALLY did something but in this case YES they did, I drove the car before and afterwards and it was a dramatic difference. Also the car uses struts so it's already suffering a lower quality susupension set up........ I can't explain it any further than that, mainly because I no longer see her nor the car to get all the specs.


Modified by CarbonizedDX at 10:05 PM 11/18/2006

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by J.MONEY &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Why is that? Can you further explain it?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, if you look at the strut towers in a mac strut car, the strut towers are loaded from the suspension. Means that when you're turning, the resolved forces that the strut tower sees may cause some deflection in the chassis/frame/strut tower and require some bracing to prevent that from happening.

but in a double wishbone car, the shock towers are not loaded. the pickup points for the upper control arm are lower, and cornering forces are transmitted to the frame rails, or at least lower on the chassis, which means the total moment from the force is lower, because the lever arm is shorter, as well as the shape and overall rigidity of the pickup point prevent, or significantly diminish the deflections in the chassis, such that having a strut tower bar really won't add much rigidity to the car because a) it's placed in a position where it doesn't really lend much strength to the chassis and b) most strut tower bars deflect/buckle so easily that if the chassis is deflecting at the strut towers, they're not really going to do much anyway.

i won't say that they don't do anything, but they don't do enough to justify the cost on our cars (non ep3/dc5). And frankly are a last priority when it comes to make a car "handle better".

 

CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG
But if memory serves me correctly the upper control arms bolr to the top of the shock tower in most hondas.so the top of the tower will still deflect some.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SCIVIC94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG
But if memory serves me correctly the upper control arms bolr to the top of the shock tower in most hondas.so the top of the tower will still deflect some.</TD></TR></TABLE>

nope, it's not the top of the tower. it's a good 3 or 4" lower than the "top" of the shock tower.

 

SOME HOW IN MY 95 CIVIC AND THE 94-00 INTEGRAS THE UPPER A RRMS BOLT THROUGH THE TOP OF THE TOWER.THE NUTS ARE LOCATED ON THE OUTER CORNERS AT THE TOP OF THE TOWERS.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SCIVIC94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">SOME HOW IN MY 95 CIVIC AND THE 94-00 INTEGRAS THE UPPER A RRMS BOLT THROUGH THE TOP OF THE TOWER.THE NUTS ARE LOCATED ON THE OUTER CORNERS AT THE TOP OF THE TOWERS.</TD></TR></TABLE>

u sure those are the control arms and not the shock top hat?

 

THE SHOCK HAT IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TOWER AND ARE HELD IN WITH 14MM NUTS.ON THE OUTSIDE CORNERS AT THE TOP OF RHE TOWER IS THE NUTS FOR THE CONTROL ARM AND WERE WITHER 17MM 0R 19MM BOLTS.I KNOW 90-00 INTEGRAS ARE LIKE THIS AND 88-95 CIVICS ARE LIKE THIS.96-00 CIVIC WERE THE ONES THAT HAD THE WIERD POSITION OF BEING BOLTED THROUGH THE FRONT AND BACKSIDE OF THE SHOCK TOWERS..BUT ALL UNI BODY CARS NEED SOME FORM OF BRACING IF U WANT TO PUSH THEM IN CORNES. 2 POINT BARS ARE USELESS.IN THE FRONT A 3 POINT BAR IS BEST.IN THE REAR IT ALL DEPENDS IF U HAVE THE ROOM FOR A 4 POINT OR NOT.

 

dude... chassis reinforcements help. I went the same route you did, i went all ebay bars everywhere on my car. If your car is already lowered, then adding those ebay bars will help out and make the car feel more stiff. But I've changed out all my bars now to real ones, and they sooooo make the car feel much more rigid in the corners than the ebay stuff. Buying strut bars WILL help, but i recommend you do it right the first time and go for the good stuff. With suspension components, you really do get what you pay for. I drive an integ LS by the way.

 

Me personally..I wouldn't do it.I have a adjustable rear upper strut bar on me hatch and on my coupe.But I have solid units on the rear lower,and front upper.I feel that the adjustable ones don't hold up to well.I must agree,that the best upgrade I've noticed is when I put my 4 pt cage in.But if your gonna get strut bars,I would say get good ones for the rear lower and front upper.Just my opinion.

 

I got a FREE ebay strut bar, the one with pivot points. Should I put it on since its free?

Should the only thing I need to do is make sure once its installed, the pivot point is secured so damn tight that it could never move?

Sorry to raise this back to the top, but I couldnt justify making a new thread out of this.

Thanks

 

then what strut bar u can recommend... that will not cost me too much.. for front upper and rear lower.... is the gsr front upper is good one?

 

bottom line: they're weak but shiny

why spend $100+ on something you might not even feel.

get a rear sway bar and/or polyurethane bushings, you'll be glad you did.