Hello all,

As I sit here in my 1999 Honda Accord EX, I am curious: does one really notice a dramatic improvement switching to something like the ST rear sway bar vs the stock bar? The car is fine, I believe rear bar improvement would most likely be the area to do, along with maybe poly bushings in the back, but I don't want to waste my time or money if it is a very small bump, only if it really seems to sharpen the car's demeanor. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it on anyone's car to ask, so I thought I would ask it here.

Car is totally stock, most suspension things replaced recently due to maintenance, with KYB shocks and springs put in all around, front upper and lower control arms, front sway barr end links, tie rod ends, new Michelin tires. Now that it's time to look at the rear control arms and sway bar bushings, it has me wondering if I might as well swap the bar while I am at it or it just isn't worth it.

Not going racing or anything, just looking at improvements if it's helpful for normal street driving.

Thanks

 

For normal street driving you won't notice anything. But if you are going through corners close to the limit, it will make the car rotate sooner and stop some of the pushing.

 

A long time ago I had a CRX Si which already handled very well and comfortable with just an upgrade to high performance tires. Later, I started by adding larger wheels (Momo) and tires, then Tokico shocks and ST lowering springs. After that the car handled better than stock, but didn't feel right. It was only after I changed the front and rear stock sway bars to ST sway bars did the car feel better (stiff ride; but, felt connected and responded well). In my case, changing both sways bars did make a noticeable difference even in normal driving. My set-up made for a very nice handling car, but a stiff ride (the stiff ride gets tiring on long drives though).

 

If you go from a car without a rear sway bar to adding one it will make a huge difference. Your EX likely has a stock(albeit small diameter) rear sway bar so you may not notice as much of a difference.

My turbo 95 LX didn't have one from the factory and adding a rear ST sway bar was easily one of the best and most noticeable mods I did to the car. The car stays way flatter and more composed during high speed cornering like merging onto the highway, backroads romps, etc etc. It was a huge difference and really added a more confident and stable feel to the whole experience.

That said, if you don't drive it hard it's not really worth doing for normal street driving.

 

OK, makes sense, I saw that I had the bar, I'm not doing anything even close to hard driving with this. I'll leave it alone and just focus on the bushings, links, and such.

Thanks everyone!