Rep Power: 0

Sup everybody!!!

I just got my first car af few month ago
So i really dont know anything about cars
I need help PLZ
Ok first (i might sound dumb but its really confusing for me)
what is the difference about sway bars,strut bars,lower bars, tie bars
X braces and all the other bars? Im so confused!!! So many bars, what do they do?
Can somebody explain it as simple as possible plz
I need suggestion
what do i need to buy to make my car turn a corner at 60mph without flipping
Do i have too lower the car also to get more "grip"

thanks for all your help

 
Rep Power: 0

As far as "grip" is concerned, new tires can handle that. The all-seasons that come stock on the car suck. Installing sway/strut bars, xbraces and what not stiffen up the chassis of the car so their is reduced body roll when turning. Stiffer lowering springs also helps the body from moving too much when cornering. As far as drop goes, you will get many different replies. Some people here say coilovers are the best because you can adjust them, others will says springs are the best because they arent as bouncy and you dont have get it aligned every time you change the height. But, most people will agree that getting some bigger rims with low profile aftermarket tires, and some strut bars or something to stiffen up the chassis along with whatever lowering you decide to take.

 
Rep Power: 412

to put it plainly
Strut bars - they go across your struts (in the engine bay and trunk) and help with body roll by bracing the weak points in the body.

Tie bars - the x-brace could be considered a tie bar also. A rear tie bar makes sure your control arms don't snap if you upgrade your rear sway bar to a bigger bar. a front x brace ( or U brace) will stiffen the front up a little by controlling weak parts in the front undercarriage.

Sway bars - I am not really sure how these work but they go under the car and help contol the car while turning.

 
Rep Power: 311

Sway bars help decrease body roll by lifting the inside wheel up some as your making a turn. The bigger the bar, the bigger the increase in lift. Too big a bar can make straight line driving more bumpy and can lessen forward stability. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.. thx.

 
Rep Power: 380

Who HOO !!!!! Finally something I Know about

1. Strut bars, X-Brace, Tie bars.
These are all structural parts. Each one strengthins diferent parts of the car for different reasons. Strut bars, attacth to the strut towers of your cars suspension. SUprise Suprise, when you turn your car FLEXES!!! Especially at the suspension mounts. By putting Strutbars on your car you eliminate most of the Flex of the suspension mounts giving you a more Precise feel when cornering. X-brace this part strengthins the Front Sub frame of our cars, It helps in a simalar way as the Strut bars by stabilizing the lower control arms of your suspension. rear Tie Bar, There are many opinions on why we need this part as it doesnot actually help with handeling. The reason it exzists at all is that Previous gen civics, especially with heavly modified suspension, would ocassionally RIP the Rear control arm out of its mount, to correct for this "Defect", the Tie bar was invented to reinfoce the Control arm mounts. As far as I know, on our gen civic, this hasn't happened yet so there may not be a need for the part. But why take the chance?

2 Swaybars, Anti-roll bars ect ect.....
These are all the same. and for clarity I will call them Anti-roll bars.

Anti-rollbars have 2 main roles in our cars suspension. First they help the Springs resist body roll. Body roll is undesirable because it changes the angle that the suspension interacts with the ground and thus distorting the Tires contact patch giving you less traction. Second, they are an easy way to adjust the cars Roll Couple Distrobution. Whats that? Roll couple Distrobution is the balace of weight distributed between the front an rear tires of your car when you turn. Front wheel drive cars have an excessive ammount of wight on the front, and when you corner hard, that weight overloads the front tires causing them to slide. A larger REAR bar on our cars forces more weight to the rear of the car, Lowering the Amount of understeer you would normally encounter.

Check out this thread for a lot more Information
Suspension Tuning 101


ME!!!!!!!

 
Rep Power: 417

basically the whole point of bars is to reduce flex is the cars chassis. flex is something you dont want, its like hitting someone with a stick. you want it as stiff and possible to get the best effect, you have a flimsy stick and what happens, energy is lost and you cant hit them as hard.

from most effective to least effective IMO
1) lowering(lower center of gravity and stiffer spring rate)
2) nice shocks
3) low pro/wider tires(just cause you lose some control in daily driving conditions. ie: when going over cracks on the road)
4) sway bar
5) strut bar
6) tie bar

 
Rep Power: 0

Hey thanks everybody
this is the best way to learn!!!!!