What Is A Sway Bar For?

[joese7en7]

can anyone tell me what a sway bar is for?

is it better to have one or not?

[Don Juan]

Front or rear?

It just adds more stability to the chasis, so the car has less bodyroll.

You won't notice it much unless you are really pushing the car though. I put a rear one on just last week and the car has alot more potential in the mountain roads.

[blind_elk]

Also called an anti-roll bar. Designed to reduce body roll when cornering.

You could get the same effect by fitting heavier springs, but that would increase the overall harshness in the ride. Sway / Anit-roll bars achieve the result without increasing ride stiffness.

[salad]

Swaybars/anti-roll bars/stabilizer bars have the sole purpose of resisting roll and do this VERY effectively.

Don Juan: I think you are thinking of strut tower braces. You definitely can notice the difference aftermarket swaybars straight away

[$weetDreamZ]

Swaybars reduce body roll by changing the leaning movement (ie body roll) to a twisting movement that is taken up by the swaybar. So instead of the car leaning from side to side as you go through corners the swaybar twists. This results in a flatter ride when you go around corners and makes for a much more exciting drive =)

It is a balancing act to determine if it is better to have or not to have. No real right or wrong as it depends largely on your car, its setup and the way you drive. As a guide you'll feel it is effective up to a point and then if you keep going to a thicker bar it can become overkill. Not to mention the physical factors such as having appropriate mounting points and hardware so the swaybar doesn't rip out of the chassis.

[sl33py]

What $weetDreamz said made me wonder: Which skylines (if any) have sway bars in stock form, and (more importantly to me) does a stock R33 S2 GTST have mounts for swaybars? I'm considering putting some in and want to know if it will be an addition, or merely a replacement of existing parts.

Cheers.

[RBwhatever]

What $weetDreamz said made me wonder: Which skylines (if any) have sway bars in stock form, and (more importantly to me) does a stock R33 S2 GTST have mounts for swaybars? I'm considering putting some in and want to know if it will be an addition, or merely a replacement of existing parts.

Cheers.

Its a replacement of the existing sway bars.

all skylines & majority of all cars come with factory sway bars.

It'll just be heavier duty sway bars you'll be installing.

[CEF11E]

swaybar = the best handling modification you can do on a skyline that has standard suspension.

I have an R32 gtst and it suffered terribly from understeer and turn in was sloppy at reasonable speed going thru a sweeping corner.

I fitted a whiteline adjustable swaybar to the rear and set it to medium. with zero other changes the handling has been transformed. my turn in is now fantastic and the cornerspeed is a lot higher

the whole feeling is a lot better. at first it was a bit scary because i was not used to being able to put the car into the corner at the 20% higher speed but after a few days i got used to it and love it

only took 45 min to fit and was one of the best $$$ to performance mod.

[skylinegtts]

So from ive been reading soo far.

It would be far better for me to get front and rear adjustable swaybars compared to getting some lower springs?

Ive currently just got some KYB shocks and just some urathane bushes. If the swaybars are that much better, after getting them would lower springs make a big difference in terms of ride harsness vs handling, ie would the handling out weigh the increased ride harshness

Cheers

Stephen

[Xander]

So from ive been reading soo far.

It would be far better for me to get front and rear adjustable swaybars compared to getting some lower springs?

Ive currently just got some KYB shocks and just some urathane bushes. If the swaybars are that much better, after getting them would lower springs make a big difference in terms of ride harsness vs handling, ie would the handling out weigh the increased ride harshness

Cheers

Stephen

I would recommend the Adjustable Blade adjustable swaybars over lowered springs. The blade adjustable items from whiteline are great.

[DECIM8]

Id recommend coil overs and sway bars.. Not springs.. waste of money

[salad]

Swaybars will provide a big improvement in handling and not that much extra harshness. Great upgrade.