i am planning on getting a strut bar shortly. however, i only have the money for either the front or the back, and hopefully i will eventually get both. what i want to know is what is the effect of having ONLY one of the bars in place? i know either way i get an improvement in the chassis, but i can't decide if i should get the front or the rear first. or maybe having only one is better than having both? all opinions appreciated...

 

oh, and i should mention that i am developing the handling for autocross. right now i just have a stock S5 NA suspension. i would also like to induce i little more oversteer, or rather get more control of it. when my back end is out i just don't like how it isn't very stable, and has the tendency to 'snap' back...

 

youd be surprised how much the cheap ebay front bars help. i sure as hell was.

 

The front bar will have a more dramatic effect. Buy the front bar first. It will really help stabilize the front end during hard cornering.

 

okay, so i should do the front first...
actually, i was considering getting a Cork Sport rear strut bar, and then just one of these cheap ones off ebay for the front. i just don't have enough money to get the whole CS strut kit. from what i hear though, the ebay bar really isn't that bad (considering the price)...

 

With the talk about handling balance, it sounds like he's talking about sway/anti-roll bars, not strut tower braces....

A bigger sway/anti-roll bar shifts handling balance towards the opposite end -- a bigger front-bar makes the car understeer more, a bigger rear-bar makes the car oversteer more.

Now if he's talking about strut tower braces, they have no effect on handling balance and I would think a front brace would be much more noticeable.

 

hmmm...okay, so what exactly do the strut tower bars do? i know they stiffen the chassis a bit, so that must have an effect on handling, right? i think i know what you mean by BALANCE though, but could you elaborate on it a bit more?

 

A strut/shock tower brace provides an additional structural element between the two sides of the car -- right at the point of loading into the chassis. The brace makes the car stiffer and improves steering feel over bumpy surfaces. Even though the FD is a stiff car already, I certainly noticed a difference -- car feels more like a single piece with better feel through bumps.

 

okay, thanks for the info. looks like i'm going to get the front first...

 

If money is an issue, make your own rear bar:

Go out and buy a piece of hollow steel tubing. Pound the ends flat with a hammer, and drill holes in the proper place to mount to your rear towers. If you do a nice job, and paint it, it won't even look too bad

 

I've got a front bar off of ebay at the suggestion of a long time FD owner, $24 shipped, and it's great quality. He also told me that the stock rear bar is just as good as any aftermarket bar.

 

if you are refering to a stock rear strut bar, i don't have one. i have an S5 FC...so the FDs came stock with a rear strut bar?
it seems interesting that many cars came stock with a rear strut bar, but not one in front. i wonder if this is to suggest that the fronts of these cars are already stiff enough, or that making the rear stiffer is of better value?

 

the r1/2's came with front and rear bars but the other fd's only had a rear bar

 

The FD's came with a separated rear cargo area and cover. The components of the cover and front "door" to the cargo area needed something to mount on. A rear strut tower brace provided a mounting point, and a stabilizer bar.

 

I have a cusco strut bar for sale- If interested email me at rj_kennedy@netzero.net (there is an underscore after the rj)

Bob

 

Strut bars do effect handling balance. Chassis flex can significantly effect camber and significantly effect side to side load transfer rates.

 

Maybe on a 60s unibody convertible but not on an FD/FC. The chassis hardly bends enough to "significantly" effect camber. Give me a break.

 

I agree with Rynberg. The effect on camber will be insignificant. When I installed my front bar, I felt a big difference during hard cornering. The front end was much more "solid" and responsive. Everyone should get a front strut bar. Even a cheap one will do just fine. Getting a front bar is a no brainer.

 

I can say first hand that I notice a difference on the FD with a front strut bar. The feedback through the steering wheel is just more focused under hard cornering with the bar than without. Without the steering is more numb but I probably wouldn't notice much around town.

As for strut bars effecting camber keep in mind the suspension type. A car with a strut type suspension uses the struts to align camber and so if the strut towers are moving your camber is moving (this is why strut type cars can easily adjust camber with camber plates). For an FD the towers moving around won't effect alignment, but they will effect chassis rigidity.

For other cars if the chassis is already stiff enough there's no sense in adding a strut bar though. A national champ autox buddy decided to find out if the front strut bar on his STS Civic did anything. His experiment was pretty ingenious: He removed the through bolt from one end of the bar and replaced it with a soft wooden dowel. After several autox events there is yet to be one single mark made on that dowel. Obviously on his car the front strut bar is not needed. It's reinforcing something that doesn't need reinforced in his case.

 

well i'm glad to see this thread back from the dead, lol.

just an update: i bought one of those ebay bars and installed it. i preloaded it by lifting the car of the ground first, installing the bar (tightening the joints as much as humanly possible), and then lowering it. three main things i have noticed:
1) slight improvment in front end 'grip' when cornering hard at low speeds. almost feels like i have less understeer. this is a very small effect however
2) more noticeable is that now i get slightly more sounds coming from the front and vibrations. don't know if this is a sign of stiffer chassis or not. maybe just the alternator hitting the bar at high torque...
3) gives me something to lean on when i'm working or adjusting stuff around the engine bay



conclusion: didn't do too much, but for the price (which is actually more for me here in Canada because of shipping from the US), why not?

 

DamonB, are you raising up your car ie. pre-loading before Installing your Bar(s)?

Coincidently, I received my matching rear Cusco Rear Bar today and want to experiment In this (If there Is In fact a difference).

 

Not really. I leave the car on the on the ground and put the bar on. The ends on mine are adjustable so I make it fit snug but I don't go out of my way to preload it. I don't recommend preloading it anyway. The structure is where it wishes to be when the car is at rest. Bolt the bar on and maintain the structure as it is. I don't like the idea of jacking the car to slightly distort the chassis and then freezing it in that position.

 

Exactly, I don't think you want to be putting a pre-load on the bar. There is no advantage to this and there's obvious disadvantages....

 

Just install it on level ground, and tighten it down

 

hmmm...preloading is not good? i've heard otherwise...
i don't have time to discuss this now, but i will be back later...