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hey everyone, this summer my suspension is gonna consist of a neuspeed upper strut bar, neuspeed x brace, rsx 19mm rear anti-sway bar and possibly a generic rear upper strut bar(do u think these work at least a little?). I know from hearing everybody that its gonna put a lot of stress on my stock springs. i do not plan on lowering my car in the future but i want to know if this is going to eventually lead to a problem. Will it put more stress on my stock shocks or what? and will it be serious or will i be fine. Thanks

 
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YOu should be fine. I am running all that (except the X brace) and I have been fine on stock springs. for a rear upper strut bar if you don't want to spend the cash for a Spoon, then get an OBX. It is thick and strong, better than those hollow aluminum ones they sell on ebay.

 
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This in no way is going to put more stress on your springs. I'd like to hear the explaination to THAT!

The only thing that's gonna take more "stress" is the rear anti sway bar... that's what a thicker bar does. It allows more "stress" on the bar to allow less body roll. There could be more "stress" on the springs depending on how you drive but you've got nothing to worry about. Stress on struts comes from people loweing their car on springs with soft spring rates.

IMO, I wouldn't bother trying to improve handling by stiffing up the car on stock springs/struts. Sure you can improve it but the best thing TO do to improve handling begins with lowering the car so all your suspension/chassis stiffening bars would work at their best.

 
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well for some of us who don't really want to spend the cash on true coilovers or want to buy the crappy konis, we have to wait to lower for other shocks or other cheaper kits (ie the HR cup kit or tein basic damper), we can modify the rest of our suspension. The places where you will feel the most is the front and rear sway bars and the front strut bar. There won't be much more stress on your shocks because you will just be controlling for body roll.

 
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Springs + chassis stiffening bars give better results than sleeved coilovers + chassis stiffening bars (with both on stock struts). It always looks like it to a lot of people but a car's handling depends a LOT more on springs and struts instead of strut/sway bars and x-braces. The stiffer your springs and struts are, the less you'll need thicker sway bars because they'll be working less.

I don't disagree that putting bars on a car is effective both ways for people who want to get better handling on a budget, but aren't springs cheaper than sleeved coilovers? I guess having a predetermined ride height isn't as appealing, but if ride height doesn't matter as much as handling in the first place... then why not springs ?

 
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I wasn't talking about sleeved coilovers, i was talking about true coilovers (Tein, JIC, B&G, etc). True coilovers can have specific spring rates and JICs spring rates can be adjusted. I never mentioned sleeved coilovers (like GC or Skunk2).
I understand that the higher the spring rate then less the bars are working, but also you have to remember that these are people's everyday cars. The higher the spring rate the more harsh the ride quality. So if you don't want to sacrifice ride quality, then you get sway/strut/tie bars to help with chassis stiffening. And sure there are tons of springs out for our civic, but there are currently only one shock which needs modification to be installed. Sure you can install high rate springs with some new konis, but the bars will also help with body roll, or else why would autocrossers have them on their cars.

 
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thank u very much robbclark1

 
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I know. I was just proving a point.

Thicker rear anti sway bars with soft spring rates does equal a good ride with good handling opposed to thick bars and stiffer spring rates. But even with soft spring rates (if the car is lowered) and say a 22mm bar in the rear, you're still gonna get a harsh ride (in the rear) because 22mm is heading more towards the performance aspect and of course the stiffer you go, the more harsher the ride is whether it is springs or bars.

I'm not saying "stiffest springs > stiffest bars" because that's just stupid. More control over "body roll" as you call it starts with the spring rate because the motion of the car is within the springs. So though there are a lot of springs available, this is why you should not get them? They are all too stiff? Certainly there should be some out there that ride nice. Using stock struts shouldn't be THAT bad especially since Civic2k1racer doesn't appear to want to modify them.

Oh, and you'll want more stress on springs than a really thick anti sway bar but the 19mm bar should be fine. It's usually 20mm+ thick when you have to worry.