strut bars?

[dave101]

I'm wondering if I should get a strut bar or not. I want to increase my handling but the springs and shocks are pretty expensive. I'm wondering if its ok to have a strut bar with stock struts and springs or if it will ruin the stock ones. I can get one for pretty cheap.

http://creativecompacts.com/Merchant...ensionStrutBar

[GSR_aaron]

hard springs for stock dampers : it will ruin your damper.

decent strut bar(front/rear) : will help u in handling and stability, looking

and I recommend Poly urethan suspension busings if u are not gonna get full coilovers / expensive dampers later.

[Weapon_R]

You would really need a full set of upper and lower front and rear strut bars for noticable results.

[dave101]

so if i get the strut bar, i wont really notice anything and it wont ruin anything?

[Weapon_R]

It wont ruin anything at all but you won't feel anything either. Save up for the springs and shocks.

[dave101]

aahhhh k. but they're sooooo expensive! not worth it when i'm not gonna be doing a hardcore turning crap and drifting lol

[Zephyr]

Also some brands out there that make strut bars dont help at all. The pounds of force put among the strut towers is an extreme number. One way to tell if a bar will be useful is try to bend it with your own strength in anyway. If you can bend it with your own two hands, that strut bar will do nothing when installed. If it can't handle stress loads put on by mere human strength, imagine now bad it will be when there are hundreds to thousand pounds of force being pushed on it.

Cusco is one of the few to be actually proven. They actually measure their equipment and reinforce weak points within the bar structure and reposition it to allow maximum performance.

Every little suspenion upgrade makes a difference, it just depends on the quality of the piece.

[Redlyne_mr2]

Going back to my early years I had a ractive bar on my little fwd Nissan. Stock suspension setup and even so I could notice quite a difference. Its a worthwhile mod IMO.

[rice_eater]

if you get a decent one they do tighten up the rear a little bit.. strut bars make a tiny difference, but no where as clear as getting sway bars. from doing suspension stuff on both my neons, i think hands down the best mod you can do is sway bars. screw the springs, coilovers or strut bars...they make a bit bigger difference than the strut bar, but hands down sway bars make the hugest improvement, and are the second easiest to install (after strut bars). if you buy anything, get a front and rear sway bar and call it a day

[dave101]

well what if i only get a rear sway bar? I can only seem to find the rear one for my car. Will having only a rear sway bar affect my car in a bad way?

[@lchy]

it may create understeer, but no matter how stiff the body/chassis is, if you have 4 inches of wheel gap, and some nice soft springs,. you're body will still roll the same amount, it will all just roll together, I would say get some nice springs and shocks first. However, it's hard to wreck anything by installing strut bars.