the car is a 93 accord ex coupe with h swap.


ive hear that aftermarket front sway bars cause more understeer. is this correct?
my car is an EX and already has a front sway bar, but id like too upgrade if possible.

 

generally speaking

stiffer front bar = more understeer
softer front bar = more oversteer

diameter is not always the best method of compair but sometimes it's the only thing we have to go on.

 

did those accord models ever come with stock rear sway bars? if not, i'd rather spend the money on a rear sway.

 

points noted guys. ill just get some urethane bushings for the end links.

 

according to the parts listings the 93 EX coupe did come with a rear sway. (sedan did not)

typically people upgrade the rear bar to get more oversteer since our cars are setup with a lot of understeer from the factory.

 

thats the exact reply i was looking for. ive heard the same thing. my rear sway bar needs new bushings. my whole car needs bushings.

 

Where can I get a front sway bar for a 93 honda civic sedan?
Also, what do you mean "stiffer" and "softer" - do you mean smaller/thinner sway bar = "softer" and "stiffer" sway bar = bigger/thicker sway bar?

Im not a big fan of understeer, but I shouldn't really stay with nothing in the front...

 

Sorry to bring this one up friom the dead, but I'm looking to upgrade the suspension on my 93 LX as well. Besides the spring/shock combo, what is a good rear sway bar to get for this one. I;m looking for something bolt on that I won't really have to do any mods on.

 

back when i had my accord, i used a progress rear sway. very nice and solid, but a little modification. you can do it, very easy.

 

Stiffer front ARB (anti roll bar aka swaybar) will tend to improve steering response, but a few metres into the corner the car will undesteer more than with a softer front ARB. A stiffer front ARB will also cause the inside front wheel to unload more when exiting corners.

I've completely removed the front ARB on my CB7 and much prefer the reduction in understeer. This (removing front ARB) does affect turn in sharpness, but you can sharpen it back up by stiffening up the front Konis (and pumping up the tyres). Removing the front ARB causes a surprisingly small increase in body roll, but a significantly large reduction in understeer.

Typically, for front drive cars it's better to increase rear ARB stiffness as this reduces understeer.

Something worth noting with these Accords (CB7 / CD5), but seems to be esoteric knowledge; the two brackets that hold the rear ARB to the rear subframe are very soft and flex a lot (not the 'D' clamps that hold the 'D' bushes, I mean the two brackets that attach to the subframe with three bolts). This is more of a problem the stiffer the ARB is.

This bracket flex behaves very much like you have very very soft ARB rubber 'D' bushes, and even if you fit harder poly D bushes here you still have this bracket flexure causing the ARB to act (at least in the initial phase of roll where it affects steering and handling response most adversely) as if it were substantially softer than it actually is (even if you've fitted a stiffer aftermarket ARB). The only way to fix this it to take the brackets out and re-inforce them by welding in extra bracing and thickness to the existing brackets.

To make matters even worse, where the rear ARB attaches to the trailing arm is poorly engineered (unless you want to 'dull' steering / handling response, which the designer may have wanted to do considering these aren't intended to be 'sports' cars). This also causes the ARB to act as if it were less stiff than it actually is.

The problem is that the 'stud' on each trailing arm to which the ARB link attaches is not properly braced, and as loads are passed between the trailing arm and the ARB the manner in which the stud is attached to the trailing arm causes the trailing arm to flex (the metal actually twisting to some degree). To fix this requires a brace to be attached to the inner end of the 'stud' and to the bottom edge of the trailing arm (triangulating the inner stud end to the bottom of the trailing arm).

When I stiffened up all these brackets and mounts associated with the rear ARB, there was a very significant improvement in steering / handling response, and in initial body roll, i.e. body roll is significantly less especially at lesser cornering force (i.e. lower lateral acceleration), as well as at higher accelerations (though it's still too much at higher accelerations as it still needs a stiffer rear ARB).

 

I read what johnlear posted and agree. And for the CD chassis the Progress rear sway addresses all the issues he noted (weak bushing mounting points, weak endlink mounting points)

You drill through the subframe to mount new bushing brackets and add a mounting point to the trailing arm.

 

MuffinMan,
Have you any pics of the Progress rear ARB set up?