CivicX

well as the title so plainy states i jst wanted to know the difference between a sway bar and a strut bar...whats the difference between the two and which ones better and for what?

imported_gatherer

well a sway bar connects the lower control arms together. and it twists as one side rises and the other doesn't move..

this twisting results in Torsional resistance to the up and down movement of the wheels....

as you go through a turn body roll will cause the outside wheels to compress and the inside wheels to lift or extend a sway bar counteracts this motion. because with it installed as the wieght of the car tries to deform the suspension in this way it must over come the torsional stiffness of a sway bar.

The larger in diameter a sway bar is the more resistance it offers to body roll

now strut tower braces (upper) they connect the top of the strut towers together. this results less chassis twisting between those points.... and with less chassis twisting you'd get quicker wieght transfer and your car will set and settle for a turn better... if the chassis isn't reiforced like this the body can twist resulting in a more sloppy feeling .... at least this is my experience since my roll cage acts as a strut tower brace for the rear struts.... I hope this helps

imported_gatherer

Personally the better one is the sway bars.... if you size them right you won't have to worry about strut tower braces and that stuff

imported_BoOsTd

sway bars will gain you more noticable results in handeling. Its a more complex part.

Strut tower braces are there to stop the struts from moving around... If you got big rimms and good tires, its probably a good idea to do them, cuz more flexing gets transfer to the strut tower to chassis points, instead of the chubby tires on a set of 15s takeing the flex... Thats just another advantage of them, alonf with what gatherer said...

imported_DoWnGEAR

Sway bars will show much more results!

1c6_eh6_t-si

Sway bars --> Suspension Techniques

imported_SiR_YO

sway bars are the best suspension mods aside from your actual suspension and or rims/tires... best bang for your buck suspension mod IMO

CivicX

thanks fer the input guys...gatherer thats some good sh*t. all i wanna know now is that i've been told that theres three different sway bars (front, rear, and lower). is this true? if so is it beneficial to buy say jst one or am i jst better off buy all of em? and on a scale of 1-10 how hard is the install? keepin in mind that i can do most installs myself. i put in my own coilovers.