If you flame me, I can take it....I've been around here long enough...

But here is goes:

What exactly do things like sway bars and strut tower braces do? What does getting longer (or shorter?) sway bars change? Does my car (94 civic ex coupe) come stock with sway bars?

Thanks a lot for any help you can provide me.

 

Anyone want to give a noobie a little help?

 

The "anti-sway bar," "stabilizer bar," or even (incorrectly) "roll-bar." It is usually a round bar which connects the left wheel suspension assembly with the right side. It may be found at the front and/or rear. Its main function is to keep both wheels rolling at the same rate when meeting bumps; but it also affects handling. A front anti-roll bar increases understeer and a rear bar increases oversteer.

Charicteristics of such can be defined by the thickness of the bar and how it affects handling.

Strut tower bars increase chasis rigidity and flex.

 

I have used a couple different set-ups and strut bars do make a difference...although i havent felt much diff. in the pricey ones and the 20.00 ones.

Get one for the upper front and feel the diff. its there. Put when on my eg a couple years ago (car has been since) and the wife drove it without knowledge of the bar...Anyways when she got home she comments on how much nicer the car handled. And performance aint her thing.

I usually run upper front, upper rear, and lower rear strut bars and a sway bar in the lower front.

 

Your 94 ex comes with a stock front swaybar (21mm?)

And you don't get longer or shorter bars, you get thicker ones. 21mm is the diameter.

 

Thanks for all the help, I've learned a lot.

What brands sway bars do people usually run (or doesn't it matter)? Is it worth it to get cheapy's off eBay. The same applies for the strut tower bars, I've seen a lot on eBay...are they o.k.?

 

As strut bars go I think the ones on ebay are ok.

Thers a diy on strut bars floating around on one of these forums right now.

 

I read that one, and that's what prompted this topic.

That one looks like a ton of work that I'd rather not do.