front vs. rear sway bar?
 

HI there, i'd like to put a sway bar on my 92 sedan, and i'm wondering which has a greater benifit? front or rear? Thanks


matt.

If you have none now and you are thinking putting one on, I would pick front over rear, simply because understeer situation is easier to handle than oversteer. You get to see where your car is heading when you are under, versus over when your car spins out of control.

As far as installation goes, rear is easier than front.

Rear is easier? You think so?
I had to take my car to a shop for them to loosen the seized strut tower bolts! Then once I got it home it came off SO easily, I put the bar on, tightened it all up and bingo, DONE! So easy.
I haven't put a rear on yet, but if it's easier than that I'm all for it!

Of course, seized bolts are nightmare to any DIYers. Provided nothing is seized, rear is easier than front.

What's involved in the rear?

Rear sway bar, sway bar linkages, and the "D" bracket. Bolt on affair.

If you have an reinforcement brace plate, then you need to take out the LCA bolt connecting to the subframe.

So really, unless you have the reinforcement plate, you shouldn't encounter any seized bolts.

ok, so to bring this back on topic, front is probally better right? That's what i was thinking. I don't have any at all now, and I know for the fronts i have to replace the LCA. And at the moment i have to replace the balljoints, so i figured why not just go ahead and do the whole thing....

Almost all cars are designed to have slight understeer so in case of accident, you see where you are going. Theoritically, you don't want to increase understeering anymore than what the factory has set already.

It is best to have both front and rear installed at the same time. If you have either installed without the other, when you corner, go light and don't brake too hard.

you should be fine with just installing a rear one.

i can only spin my car (oversteer) when i push it too hard on auto-x.

i've got a '93 Si coupe, stock sway bar front, Skunk2 21mm rear. car handles nicely...rear rotates with some throttle control, but it's nothing that can't be managed without fear. =)

but i don't even have the fronts? I always thought the front was better....more weight over the front, so it controls the transfere better...Hmm. Ok, well i'm inquire about the rear then. thanks.

you say you don't have fronts... are you talkin bout sway bars or strut bars? if you mean sway you should have a stock one unless someone removed it for some reason (ie broken etc) but you should do both at once to keep the balance.

the OP is asking about sway bars not strut bars. and yes the rear is 100 times easier than the front.

benefit wise... I'd say front is better as well, and that's why higher end models come with a front bar (like the 99-00 EX sedans and 1.6 ELs)... and in addition, there is extra weight (the weight of the drivetrain) to control over the front wheels, which is where a swaybar comes into play. but if you are a fan of spirited driving and you know how to handle an oversteer situation (don't brake, accelerate!!!!!!) then you should totally be looking at getting both front and rear bars. I did rear first, then front, just cuz I waited a while to have a reason to remove the exhaust and shift linkage. the front definitely added a sense of stability that is difficult to match for the price.

i noticed a bigger difference with a 14mm rear sway than a 21mm front bar. just get a stock 21mm front bar and a 14mm rear bar. it's good enough for a dd on the street. and i think you mean the lower control arm bolts. honda designed them in a stupid way and they seize up very fast. you shouldn't need to take off the lcas in the back to install a sway bar. you can do it on the floor.

Hi there, well for the benifit of anyone else who may look this up, i went to a few shops, and the for the price of install and 'stuff' - ie front LCA and new ball joints and the sway bars, it's not much more to get new struts, or even real coil-overs and sell my current springs... So i'm gonna go with getting new or slightly used coil overs....and sell my TEIN's....