Strut Bar Help Please

Handlebars

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strut bars are usually most important in cars with flexy structures. the civic is a fairly stout car, so it doesnt have as large of an impact as, say, a nissan sentra se-r, which have structures like the proverbial wet noodle, and even on a stock car a strut bar in the front and rear can make a dramatic difference. but they do help, they cost very little for a cheap one, and they have zero negative effects on the car. if handling is your thing, go spend the money to get a front and rear set of strut bars.
 

Shiznit

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Originally posted by "handlebarsfsr"

strut bars are usually most important in cars with flexy structures. the civic is a fairly stout car, so it doesnt have as large of an impact as, say, a nissan sentra se-r, which have structures like the proverbial wet noodle, and even on a stock car a strut bar in the front and rear can make a dramatic difference. but they do help, they cost very little for a cheap one, and they have zero negative effects on the car. if handling is your thing, go spend the money to get a front and rear set of strut bars.
i beg to differ. i drive a nissan sentra and my handling is great.
 


imazn

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he didnt say the handling of the car is bad, because my friend use to drive one and it handled pretty well. he just said (i think) that the chassis isnt very stiff.
 

Shiznit

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Originally posted by "imazn"

he didnt say the handling of the car is bad, because my friend use to drive one and it handled pretty well. he just said (i think) that the chassis isnt very stiff.
well s**t... nevermind then
 


Handlebars

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yea i simply stated that the chassis is very flexy in the older ser's. im a reader of se-r. net, and they talk all the time about their chassis flex w/o strut bars and other body reinforcement.
 

b18c/type-rhead

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i made my own strut bars i fabricated a one for the front and one for the back, there welded on for extra performance
 

BioHazard the Reaper

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yeah lol its a piece of metal, it does nothing special but hold to corners together, not alot ao r and d needed for one lol
 

caddy

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The front strut bar on my EG didn't make a lot of difference so for a while I thought nothing of putting one on the rear. Well my friend sold me his old one of his Teg for $30 so I took it and mounted it. It made a VERY noticable difference, especially at high speeds. The rear seemed to even out the balance at high speeds even while being front wheel drive. I guess theres quite a bit of rear tug on the EG chassis
 

hatchman

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why would a strut bar be needed if you lower the car more than a inch? imo i think that strut bars are more for bling than for use, if I were you I would invest in a good set of sway bars before i got some strut bars.

If you do get strut bars, DO NOT GET THE DC SPORTS, I have heard many bad stories about those cracking or bending alittle.
 

shaundrake

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Don't get an adjustable, it simply doesn't make sense. Any brand that is a perfect fit.

And yes you can make your own, just be sure not to preload the suspension. Basically you dont want any tension in the bar, you just want it to hold the chassis firmly in place. Hold the state that it is in when sitting on level ground.

The best way is the make the donuts, bolt them on, then lay the bar on top and weld it down. If you pre fab one and then fit it, its very likely that you'll preload the suspension. A good idea is to use two bars parallel to each other. Another possibility is to make a triangulating bar that attaches to the firewall.


EDIT: I didn't see the second page.

"1.)You have your vehicle lowered more than 1"
2.)You have sport springs or shocks
3.)have a tire profile of 45 or below "

wrong wrong wrong

"its more bling bling than anything"

wrong

"the civic is a stout car"

wrong

"I guess theres quite a bit of rear tug on the EG chassis"

nope

"i would get sway bars before I got strut braces"

I wouldn't. They do two completely different things by the way.

(sorry for my method of quoting I'm trying to save time here)

Front and rear strut braces are the first mod I would recommend to the suspension on a Civic. The springs are pretty good for a stock car, especially the 88-91 Civics, yet there is still a lot of body roll. Because like all FWD cars the Civic has a lightweight flexy chassis. Any mod you do to your Civic is going to have distorted effects because overall, the flexible chassis is acting like one big loose spring.

If you didn't feel any difference adding a front strut brace, I bet you felt your car actually get worse but didn't want to admit it. This is because adding only a front brace increased understeer. Adding the rear bar alone would decrease understeer, but make the car unbalanced, a little unpredictable or "nervous".

Sorry if I sound harsh here, I don't mean anything personal to anyone and I dont want to make any enemies. I just get frustrated reading over so many posts saying stuff like "an intake is just hype, strut braces are just rice" and I wonder whether the people that make those statements got bad information or are just not very in tuned with their car. My recommendation: if you have more than one 10 inch sub or larger sub in your trunk, then don't get a strut brace/intake etc other than for show. Those kind of mods to not match your priorities and you will not be happy with them other than by their appearance.

Actually I don't want to sound like I'm saying "there are two types of tuners, the 10inch sub and below type, and the 12 inch x 2 and above type" ha ha. But you get the picture.
 

Handlebars

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good cus i have 2 12's and rice certainly isnt my priority... i just love music in my daily driver.
 

shaundrake

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I love music too actually I drive 80 miles a night or so in my line of work. I just don't see a correlation between lots of big speakers and good sound. There definately is a correlation between lots of big speakers and loudness...

A good deck, some tweeters with cross overs, some small mid range speakers, MAYBE a small amped sub (and amped midrange) with crossover, that's all it takes for good clean sound. Then again I don't listen to electronic music...

*cough I think I wandered off topic...
 

hatchman

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i know that strut braces and sway bars are two different things but all i am saying is that i think that sway bars are a better bang for your buck mod than strut bars
 

anfrey

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i'm considering gettin anti-sway bars, but i haven't really read anything that has persuaded me to purchase strut bars, front or back.
 


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