Front Stabilizer Bar

[Euro838]

Hi All,

Can anyone tell me what the front stabilizer bar necessarily does? Will I feel any difference if a car has one? When will I feel it? Do I have to take corners at 80 kms/hr? For example, if I am just a "normal" driver in a camry and I add a front stabilizer bar, is there any benefit to doing so? Any information will help. Thanks.

[Iceman_19]

i guess you mean the sway bar, or the anti-roll bar. it stiffens up the front suspension, causing less body roll, better handling, etc. for a daily driven car, that isnt raced, or driven hard, i wouldnt bother. but if you want to get into autocross or enjoy spirited driving, you will notice a nice handling upgrade with it.

[three.eighteen.]

seeing as how a camry is fwd, and if you get just a front sway bar, youre just asking for more understeer, but the front end will roll less for flatter cornering

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by Iceman_19
i guess you mean the sway bar, or the anti-roll bar. it stiffens up the front suspension, causing less body roll, better handling, etc. for a daily driven car, that isnt raced, or driven hard, i wouldnt bother. but if you want to get into autocross or enjoy spirited driving, you will notice a nice handling upgrade with it.

it doesnt really stiffen up the cars chassis, rather a swaybar ties together the left and right control arm and attaches to the frame too.

what it does is decrease body roll by using the force of the outer suspension to push down on the inner suspension. (so the right control arm is pushed down when u corner right).

its not true that u wont notice swaybars. have u ever noticed your car leaning in a corner at slow or fast speeds? if so, then a swaybar will reduce that effect.

Originally posted by three.eighteen.
seeing as how a camry is fwd, and if you get just a front sway bar, youre just asking for more understeer, but the front end will roll less for flatter cornering

not necessarily. if the 2 front wheels experience less body roll, that means there will be more rubber contacting the ground, resulting in more grip, and less understeer. if u go "too" stiff, then yes its very easy to understeer because lateral weight transfer will happen too quickly, overloading the outside tire. however, i think thats unlikely on a stock camry with nothing more than a swaybar.

so BUY THE SWAYBAR! (and make sure u replace the endlink bushings while ure at it)

[Redlyne_mr2]

A swaybar is such a worthwhile mod if youre concerned about handling. I changed mine to some larger size one which although only a few mm bigger still made a huge difference. better mod than a strut bar IMO

[JustinL]

Adding a front stabilizer should make your turn-in more crisp, but in a sustained corner, you will bias the car more towards understeer. My advice is to get a matched set of front and rear bars.

Redlyne-- have you put those bars in the 944? Let me know when you get them in and how you like them. If you can't find droplinks on a parts car, try KLA industries.

Justin

[Euro838]

Sorry for my ignorance on the terminology, but a swaybar is the bar that goes from one strut to the other underneath the hood, correct? It attaches to the strut bolts right? Anyone know how much I should spend on one?

[three.eighteen.]

youre talking about a strut-tower bar, that would not affect the car in terms of over/understeer as much, it actually would just provide better turn-in, meaning the steering will be slightly more responsive

[JustinL]

Originally posted by Euro838
Sorry for my ignorance on the terminology, but a swaybar is the bar that goes from one strut to the other underneath the hood, correct? It attaches to the strut bolts right? Anyone know how much I should spend on one?

Hey, no worries. We try to help when we can. Strut tower bars are mainly cosmetic. If you just want the look, then go for it. But don't expect any change in performance. On a car with a much stiffer suspension and sticky tires it might start to help prevent your front wheels from losing camber, but honestly on a camry you will notice no difference. Definetly looks cool though.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by Euro838
Sorry for my ignorance on the terminology, but a swaybar is the bar that goes from one strut to the other underneath the hood, correct? It attaches to the strut bolts right? Anyone know how much I should spend on one?

the strut tower bar u are referring to ties the strut towers together (most ppl think that it pushes the towers apart which is untrue) via the strut mounts to strengthen your chassis and improve turn-in response. the way it does this is by basically spreading the lateral force of turning onto both strut towers rather than just the inside strut tower. this way, your outside strut doesnt squish the wrong way (positive dynamic camber) while cornering.

u can expect to spend about $150 for a decent stb. anyway, i think ull appreciate a nice set of swaybars more

[hjr]

sway bars (for e30 bmw)



Strut tower bar

[Euro838]

Wow! Thanks a lot everyone, I had it all wrong, I was thinking the sway bar was the strut bar. Looks like I wouldn't even know where a sway bar would go. Anyways, truth be told, I drive a 95 ES300 (to me just a high end camry). I just saw this bar on the newer ES300 (2004) and was wondering if I should get one for my car. There's a lot of body roll when cornering (even at low speeds). I've replaced all of the struts/shocks and it feels a little better. I was just wondering if I should add a strut tower bar. Would anyone do it in my situation?

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by Euro838
Wow! Thanks a lot everyone, I had it all wrong, I was thinking the sway bar was the strut bar. Looks like I wouldn't even know where a sway bar would go. Anyways, truth be told, I drive a 95 ES300 (to me just a high end camry). I just saw this bar on the newer ES300 (2004) and was wondering if I should get one for my car. There's a lot of body roll when cornering (even at low speeds). I've replaced all of the struts/shocks and it feels a little better. I was just wondering if I should add a strut tower bar. Would anyone do it in my situation?

what kind of shocks did u get?

shocks dont decrease bodyroll, what they do is control how quickly bodyroll occurs. its the springs that hold your car up. shocks merely control how the springs move.

if u want to decrease bodyroll, u can get stiffer springs, but ull severely compromise the ride quality. swaybars on the other hand, will decrease bodyroll without really affecting ride quality. skip the strut tower bar for sure and get a nice set of swaybars.

i couldnt find much for the es300, but u can get trd rear sways and trd lowering springs for the camry which MIGHT fit es300.

[JustinL]

Get front and rear sway bars. It will make a noticeable improvement in your car's handling. The problem you may find is that there isn't a ton of aftermarket support for the Camry. You can also expect a slightly harsher ride if you hit a bump with only one wheel.

[Euro838]

I bought Monroe Sensatracs, I was told these will be better than the stock ones. So if I do anything, it should be getting front and rear sway bars? I definitely don't want to affect ride quality, because that was the whole point why I bought a Lexus. I just don't want to feel like I am steering a boat.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by Euro838
I bought Monroe Sensatracs, I was told these will be better than the stock ones. So if I do anything, it should be getting front and rear sway bars? I definitely don't want to affect ride quality, because that was the whole point why I bought a Lexus. I just don't want to feel like I am steering a boat.

get the sways! first thing id try to find out is if the trd rear sway bar will fit on your car. check out some lexus forums.

second, i hate to break this to you...but i think u got scammed on the munroes. they are canadian tire oem replacements, meaning theyre cheap alternatives for ppl who blew their oem shocks and want to fix their car without paying for oem equipment. your best bang for the buck, slight upgrade kind of shock would be a set of tokico HPs.

[three.eighteen.]

first of all i would get a set of springs and shocks, nothing too serious, like tein s-techs, or eibach pro-kit springs (they will lower about an inch) with shocks like koni reds, that will address most of the body roll and nose diving and braking, from there if you find there is still excessive body roll get sway bars