Alright I know how they work and all but just never put one on my civic. I see alot of people throwing these on to get there car to handle better but WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

I've only had one experience with installing a sway bar on a car before and it just made the handling horrible. That was on a Fiero though so it probably wouldn't apply here really.

Maybe the fact that I'm running 450's up front and 550's in the rear with koni's keeps me from needing one.

Isn't adjusting corner weights and dampening enough to make your car do what you need? I don't claim to fully understand the black art of suspension but I fooled with it enough to get it to do what I want.


ALSO...
I asked this question before and was dubbed the Ricer and ultimately kicked from a site. Because I didn't agree with a Moderator. He almost demanded I put one on because he said I need one. HAHA

 

Borrowed from Howstuffworks.com

Stabilizer bars are part of a car's suspension system. They are sometimes also called anti-sway bars or anti-roll bars. Their purpose in life is to try to keep the car's body from "rolling" in a sharp turn.
Think about what happens to a car in a sharp turn. If you are inside the car, you know that your body gets pulled toward the outside of the turn. The same thing is happening to all the parts of the car. So the part of the car on the outside of the turn gets pushed down toward the road and the part of the car on the inside of the turn rises up. In other words, the body of the car "rolls" 10 or 20 or 30 degrees toward the outside of the turn. If you take a turn fast enough, the tires on the inside of the turn actually rise off the road and the car flips over.

Roll is bad. It tends to put more weight on the outside tires and less weigh on the inside tires, reducing traction. It also messes up steering. What you would like is for the body of the car to remain flat through a turn so that the weight stays distributed evenly on all four tires.

A stabilizer bar tries to keep the car's body flat by moving force from one side of the body to another. To picture how a stabilizer bar works, imagine a metal rod that is an inch or two (2 to 5 cm) in diameter. If your front tires are 5 feet (1.6 meters) apart, make the rod about 4 feet long. Attach the rod to the frame of the car in front of the front tires, but attach it with bushings in such a way that it can rotate. Now attach arms from the rod to the front suspension member on both sides. See the photos at the bottom of this page to visualize it.

When you go into a turn now, the front suspension member of the outside of the turn gets pushed upward. The arm of the sway bar gets pushed upward, and this applies torsion to the rod. The torsion them moves the arm at the other end of the rod, and this causes the suspension on the other side of the car to compress as well. The car's body tends to stay flat in the turn.

If you don't have a stabilizer bar, you tend to have a lot of trouble with body roll in a turn. If you have too much stabilizer bar, you tend to lose independence between the suspension members on both sides of the car. When one wheel hits a bump, the stabilizer bar transmits the bump to the other side of the car as well, which is not what you want. The ideal is to find a setting that reduces body roll but does not hurt the independence of the tires.

 

Only you can determine if you need a rear sway bar. Generally, Honda people add a rear sway bar to help the car roatate better (oversteer) and reduce understeer. Do you feel that your car understeers too much? If so, a rear swaybar is one of the things that will help.

With your spring rates, you may not need a rear sway bar. If your happy with the way the car handles, then leave it alone. If your not happy, post what you dislike about the current handling and the people on this board will help you fix the problem.

 

I almost have it like I want. Once I get it back from the shop (blew up motor) I'll finsih where I left off. For a change I actually made notes so when I get it back I will be able to do what I planned on.

The back isn't quite balanced so I have to lower the rear right side about 1 cm. And I'm lowering the front about 1/2 of a cm. The front camber seems fine but the rear needs to be changed alot. I'm not sure how much but right now it's at around 0 and it should probably be around -1.5.

I'm hoping this will finally get it perfect. it took me alot of trial and error to get it right.

It handles so good right now even my girlfriend was kicking *** in it and she has never been able to drive my car very well.


But I don't need a rear sway I feel. Unless it will keep my rear inside on the ground.


I really just ask because I always see alot of post about people modding the suspension and they always say they are going to get a sway bar.


[Modified by turboman, 8:49 PM 6/10/2002]

 

I'm not talking from experience here, but here goes...

Sway bars, especially with your setup, should be used to balance the handling.

I doubt you have much body roll, so they won't do much for you there. Installing one in the rear will make you lift the inside more, so it won't help you there either.
Also, while they do reduce body roll, they do not reduce side to side weight transfer, they just distribute it to the front or rear. Overall weight transfer will remain virtually identical.

Sway bars do a lot on a stock suspension, as they did for me. However, springs can do the job of sway bars as well, and you seem to have a hell of a setup there.

If your car handles neutral as is, I doubt they'll do anything for you. I would suggest getting an adjustable rear one only as a tuning tool to change oversteer, if you feel you need one. Otherwise, don't bother.

 

can somebody explain what is oversteer and understeer

 

I think I can explain over and under steer.

Over steer would be when the rear comes around. when it breaks loose and turns the car more then the wheel is turned

Under steer is when the car doesn't want to turn as much as you have the wheel turned.

If I'm way the hell off please forgive. :D

I prefer a little under steer myself. Becasue I can keep the car under control a little better seems to be more predictable. And with a jab on the brakes I can get the rear to whip out if I want it to.

When I had it setup for more over steer I had more spin outs but they can be fun

Alot of people will make adjustments to tire pressure and dampeners to set it up but I go for the ride height first. Just the way I taught myself. Like I said I don't understand the black art but I get it to do what I want when I'm done.


[Modified by turboman, 7:02 AM 6/11/2002]

 

i have teins on my 98 dx (which has no sway bars) and i was very very satisfied with my handling at PIR (NASA). body roll was minimal.

 

ok heres my set up on my EJ DX:

R-1 coilovers and KYB gr-2 shocks, rear SI lower sway bar, APC front and rear upper sway bar. i did notice a difference in handling, overall in acelerating, turning and braking. Do you really need a lower tie bar?