Friedrice

I've been reading several thousand million google plex old threads about sway bars (yeah, I searched, so baby don't light my fire).... I still want to get a few things straight before I buy anything.
I have 2002 EX sedan with stock suspension, and don't plan to alter it other than the sway bars.... has 22.3mm front and 13mm rear. I know stock, its set up to understeer so its easy to handle. If I just get the Progress 22mm rear or the 19mm from RSX, it will reduce the understeer, much better for getting around the corners. Will 22mm make too much oversteer? Will 19mm still leave me with too much understeer? If I leave the front stock, 22 or 19...? I'm thinking 19..... I looked on for the 19mm RSX type s converion... can't find it anywhere, what happened?

Zzyzx

IT really depends on what springs you have. if they are stock, Id go with the 19mm. IF not ,22 then. there are reasons for this, but its late and I dont want to open that can of worms yet.

SoNiCcIvIc

Get 19mm. If you're not gonna drop your car, don't get the 22mm unless you want to promote oversteer without the car being lowers to it's center of gravity. I know you'll definitely have oversteer with the 22mm on stock springs. Oh, and I hope you're not on stock tires if you want to increase handling. Those tires don't handle for ****. I really hope you have upgraded that. The car might handle better if you upgrade the front anti sway bar.

The 19mm rear anti sway bar is located on ALL RSXs. It's not a Type S only bar. It should be too easy to find. Try clubRSX.

I personally have the 22mm one and handling is sharp and crisp. But the car is also lowered on ground controls. The handling is pretty nice. All I need are struts and the suspension could be done. I don't feel like I need to upgrade the front on mine because the front of the car is low enough for the sway bar to suck up body roll as well as the rear does. Good luck.

Zzyzx

ok, here goes.

Anti-Swaybars do 2 main jobs.
1 they lower the amount of body roll
2 they adjust Roll Couple Distribution or Tire Lateral Load Transfer Distribution (same thing)

of these 2 jobs the adjustment of Roll Couple Distribution/Tire Lateral Load Transfer Distribution is the most important. It is also the hardest to tune.

If you want to know more on this go Here

Grey

iTrader: (61)

I did a bunch of calculations a while back using weight distribution and sway bar stiffness and it seemed for the front 25.4mm (correcting you) sway bar, the 19mm sway bar would be a good balance. For me, with my upgraded 27mm front sway bar a 22mm rear sway bar is also a rather good balance. Although in real life I found that I have a little oversteer now with my setup. I explain this in my rear sway bar DIY. I can also tune the rear so that my car handles neutral in the corners, as explained in the DIY.

So... Get 19mm if you're not going to upgrade the front. Get 22mm if you're going to upgrade the front with a 27mm bar.

SoNiCcIvIc

Hmm... but I have no oversteer with the stock front and the 22mm rear. I could see where you're coming from if the car wasn't low enough to the ground though.

Friedrice

Thanks for the input.... I decided to get the 19mm, finally found the place and the part numbers:

And Grey, I'm not saying you're wrong, but my 2002 brochure I got from the dealer clearly says the EX has 22.3mm front and 13.0mm rear. Maybe that's another misprint? I don't know for sure, its not like I've been under there to actually measure it with a caliper or nothin

Grey

iTrader: (61)

Hmm... I guess I would be more stable if I lowered the front more than the rear. Maybe I can play with that a little bit too to get rid of the understeer. Good point.

Hmm... Well, Majestic Honda lists 25.4mm for the front sway bar, they don't list the rear for some reason. I'm not sure why the brochure says differently? Maybe you do have a slightly different size? It's easy to check. Do you have a little caliper for measuring diameters? Use that to measure the front and rear sway bars.

SoNiCcIvIc

[QUOTE]Quote
[hr]Originally posted by: Grey
Hmm... I guess I would be more stable if I lowered the front more than the rear. Maybe I can play with that a little bit too to get rid of the understeer. Good point.[QUOTE]Quote
[hr]Personally, I would base the ride height on how low the front is and make it the same as the rear (by using measuring tape, measure the distance from the top of the fender to the center hub on all wheels and not that inacurate "finger gap" thing) so the car can as well evenly look good front to back... as the height of the front has that effect in how well the car handles.

This is exactly why I feel I never needed to touch the front anti sway bar while at the same time, being satisfied about my car's height visually. I'm not too eager to modify the front suspension, but I'll know for sure whether a front upper strut bar will make some difference since the stability of the car whether making a sharp turn at 20mph on a corner or turning the car well over 110MPH (this happened on accident) is the same.

EDIT: Of course, if I could improve that... (other than finishing up the rest of my suspension mods like struts, pillowball uppermount) I'd like to know how.