Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension Never ending search for sway bar info.

I have been looking to upgrade my suspension for quite some time now. I have heard that one improvement that can help your suspension dramatically is upgrading sway bars. I am planning on putting eibach pro-kit springs and koni's with 16 or 17 SSR rims and Potenza RE730's on my 2000 SE. Now, I have read every message about sway bars and I am still confused. I have heard so many numbers on the stock sizes of bars but I think the front is 20mm and the rear is 18mm. If that's not right I would appreciate the correction. Now, I have heard great things about the Aussie bar, which upgrades the rear to a 24mm. However Eibach produces a 22mm front and 25mm rear, not for our cars unfortunately but I was going to call them to ask. Would this not be a better overall set-up, 22mm front with 25mm rear? I have heard that the front doesn?t necessarily need to be replaced but why? Why would we want the bar to go from 19mm rear with 20mm front to a 24mm rear with a 20mm front? The increase is so dramatic with the Aussie bar compared to the stock set up. I want to be able to have the maximum amount of fun in the corners and I just don't want to screw anything up or waste my money. It would be great if someone could help me out. Hey, maybe we can even come up with a common "best set-up" for the suspension that people could reference to. Anyway, thanks again!

(Please do not flame me) but i feel the best bar you can get is Aussie bar because it's stronger and lighter than any other bar becase it's made of strong light weight mandrel bent aluminum tubing (very thick tubing at that). If you do a seach for the original Aussie bar post(s) there is one were the stiffness of the different bars are are compaired vs over stock. and did i mention it's also lighter than the stock bar...

As far as the front bar goes it's not needed much because the front struts are so close to the firewall that there is not much flex in the frame there. Because the firewall provieds the needed stiffness.

If you go for one of the stiffer bars you should go for an upgraded bracket.

For tires i have potenza se950's and they rock.

*IF* you find a supplier for a front bar, I wouldn't reccomend it. A bigger rear bar then front on a FWD car will produce oversteer when the body twists and the tires stay with the body. When this happens the inside tire lifts off the ground and the car spins (oversteer). If you reverse that and make it so the front inside tire lifts instead you now nosedive (understeer).

Best setup will be different to everyone. The other day I was talking to Pollo_Loco about how I can get my car to slide around corners. He said that it would scare him. So the best suspension setup for me would be far from perfect for him.

No matter what sway bar you put under your car, get new backing plates for it. You will rip yours off the car with any spirited driving.

BTW, my car came with a 16mm rear bar, I upgraded to 24mm.

SVT put a smaller front bar on the car to reduce understeer, so I don't think upgrading the front would be a good idea. Unless you like plowing into turns.

Ok, well, I contacted eibach and they had some interesting things to say. They might be willing to produce sway bars if there was an order of 50 or more. Otherwise, there are no plans for production of sway bars for our cars. So I don't know if anyone is really interested considering the Aussie bar is out there and gets rave reviews. I guess my only question left is why exactly do I want to have the larger rear bar to produce oversteer. I think I?m just getting all confused. Oversteer should allow me to drift into the corners and execute a slide around the corner right? Where as understeer will do what again? I would love to have an aggressive yet drivable car and going into a slide around a corner would be fine with me. Anyway, I think I?ll go with the aussie bar but I just need to know if I?m getting my car driving physics right. Thanks again.

Understeer is where you turn the wheel but the car doesn't turn, it just keeps going straight (most fwd cars do this).

Oversteer is where the back end will swing out, in extreme cases you'll spin out.

http://www.nsxprime.com/FAQ/Track/highperfdriving.htm

Dust,
There is a Group Buy in progress to make more Aussie bars and we only need one more person! Most people in the CEG will agree that this is the best rear sway bar you can get. Take a look in the section for the info. Welcome to the CEG.

Darin

The Aussie bar is made from 24mm hollow Chrome Moly. NOT ALUMINUM!!!

Big difference...

...and yes the Aussie bar is hands down the bar to get...

Your car now is baseline. The only way to make it produce more understeer is by removing the rear/both bars (I drove mine without the rear when I ripped the brackets off). Its not very fun. It feels like you are sitting on one of those air filled chairs and leaning to the side. Adding a larger sway bar to the rear isn't going to give you awesome, tire burning, smokey slides. All the times (except one, below) I have had it come right back in when it popped free. The only way I have found to make it slide more is by applying the e-brake, but that provides too much drag since the snow and ice have melted.

From what you are describing you want, I am almost positive that either a 22mm or the Aussie Bar would give you what you are looking for. The car is balanced almost perfectly (even though I only have a 4-cyl). It goes right where you aim it to go.

Right now my car is sitting on 205/60-15 all-seasons, stock height, with 104K on all the parts except the sway bar. I have pushed it as much as I dare, but it is still solid. I have only completely lost traction (all 4 tires! ) once, but it corrected almost instantly.

This does make me wonder though...

Clicky !