Front swaybar on 93 civic

OK, I just got the Suspension techniques front and rear swaybars for my 93 Civic. It didn't have a stock front or rear bar. After installing the front, I am noticing some things that worry me. The bracket that you need to add to the front lower control arms for connecting the endlinks to is less than a 1/2 inch from the end of the crossmember. My susension is really low thanks to the RS*R race springs and if my suspension compresses just a little the bracket hits the crossmember. Does anyone else have this problem? What sway bars are any racers here running? Any advice?

I will be running the NASA Honda Challenge and some SOLO 2, so I would like to get input from guys that are racing. Thanks for any help.

If the car is being setup for competition... do your self a favor now, Don't bother installing the front bar. Not only will the car rotate a whole lot better with out it, but you will also have much more corner exit grip (think less inside wheel spin on corner exits = more power being put down on corner exits = better corner exit speeds!!! wheee!!!!)

The whole point of a sway bar is to keep the wheels on the ground to keep traction at its best. If the car leans more, more weight will be put over the outside wheel and the inside wheel will lose traction. A sway bar should limit body role and keep weight distibuted a little more even between the two wheels and create more traction.

I am not trying to say you are wrong, but my understanding of a sway bars function is to improve handling characteristics of the car. I know I do need to go to a race and see what guys are using though.

Of course any more help and advice is welcome. Also let me know if what I said makes sense, since I am not actively racing yet, I don't know what works better.

Thats a Common missconception - the idea that body roll causes weight transfer. In reality body roll is an effect of weight transfer, not a cause of it. not only that, but in their effort to make the car roll less, anti-roll bars actually artificialy increase the load on the out side tire and decreases the load on the inside tire.. causing a reduction of traction on that end of the car(then if the anti-roll bar wasnt there). (I can explain the how's and whys later if you want). Other wise, Body roll in its self only really does two things. 1. annoys the driver (you can learn to ignore it) and 2. it can cause camber loss. Luckly about #2 you have a civic... with its double wish bone suspension. meaning your car actually gains camber as the suspension comperesses, making body roll that much less of an issue. :P Granted you will want to run a good amount of static negitive camber any way, (-2 or more, My friend runs -3 on the nose of his 89 Civic Si thats preped for STS classed autocross).


Got to some events, Club racing or autocross, you'll find that most of the race preped civics are either running no front anti-roll bar or a very small one (like the one off the early HX's...)

The whole point of a sway bar is to keep the wheels on the ground to keep traction at its best. If the car leans more, more weight will be put over the outside wheel and the inside wheel will lose traction. A sway bar should limit body role and keep weight distibuted a little more even between the two wheels and create more traction.

I am not trying to say you are wrong, but my understanding of a sway bars function is to improve handling characteristics of the car. I know I do need to go to a race and see what guys are using though.

Of course any more help and advice is welcome. Also let me know if what I said makes sense, since I am not actively racing yet, I don't know what works better.

LVApex is correct. I race Solo2 and HPDE events, and especially for Solo2 where you notice sharp turn characteristics more, NO front bar is what you want to get the rear of the car to come around faster. I don't mean over-steer persay, but just allows it to follow the front better rather than be dragged around. Also the stiffer you make the front than the rear, the more you'll induce UNDERsteer which is NOT what you want when being actively competitive in racing, especially if you encounter any switch backs or Chicago box type situations in competition. Also a front bar won't reduce nearly as much body roll than a rear swaybar will. I myself run only a rear swaybar at the rear. Currently it's a 15mm Del Sol VTEC bar though I used to run a 22mm ITR rear bar till it ripped out my subframe and I had to have the rips welded shut and the subframe reinforced at that point. The ONLY front stefning I have is an upper strut bar and an H-brace which neutralized the handling without increasing understeer which was my goal.

Hey, thanks a lot for the help and input. I have the Suspension Techniques rear sway bar too. I already plan to take the front one off now, I have already noticed more understeer. Anyway, the rear bar is 3/4 inch, and my car is a 4-door civic, does this sound good for the rear? Also, the instructions say to drill holes into the subframe basically right inside of the pivot for the rear arm, for the pivot bushings for the sway bar. To me this sounds like a bad idea. I was thinking about welding the pivot bushing cups on. I have access to everything possible for welding and have friends who are welders. Finally I have the front KYB shocks set at 4 and the rear set at 3, you said making the front stiffer would create more understeer, so should I even them out? Thanks for all the help guys.

If anyone is in the SoCal area and is willing to help me set up my car, please let me know. I'm going to be new to racing and need plenty of help and advice. SilverY2KCivic, I noticed your profile says SoCal, where abouts are you? I'm in San Clemente.

Hey, thanks a lot for the help and input. I have the Suspension Techniques rear sway bar too. I already plan to take the front one off now, I have already noticed more understeer. Anyway, the rear bar is 3/4 inch, and my car is a 4-door civic, does this sound good for the rear? Also, the instructions say to drill holes into the subframe basically right inside of the pivot for the rear arm, for the pivot bushings for the sway bar. To me this sounds like a bad idea. I was thinking about welding the pivot bushing cups on. I have access to everything possible for welding and have friends who are welders. Finally I have the front KYB shocks set at 4 and the rear set at 3, you said making the front stiffer would create more understeer, so should I even them out? Thanks for all the help guys.

If anyone is in the SoCal area and is willing to help me set up my car, please let me know. I'm going to be new to racing and need plenty of help and advice. SilverY2KCivic, I noticed your profile says SoCal, where abouts are you? I'm in San Clemente.

In SoCal, once you start going to events, your going to meet a lot of people who know a whole lot about setting hondas up for track.... and most of the information and tips you get are going to be the exact opposite you hear from the street racers and "tuners"... (simmilar to the anti-roll bar thing)

But any way, Tuning with dampers is pretty easy. Simply increase the valving on the end of the car you want to have grip Less... and/or decrease it on the end of the car you want to have Grip more..

Have fun tuning!

I'm in LA area. SD has an awesome Solo2 region there, I'm part of CSCC-S2 (www.solo2.com) here in LA, we do 95% of our events at California Speedway in Fontana. I believe SDsolo2 uses Qualcomm staduim for it's events.

If your Civic is a 5th gen ('92-'95) then drilling the arms is certainly one option. I've also seen with that same bar someone that used some clamp type brackets around the arm to connect the endlinks to the arm. There's different ways reall to go about mounting it. What does S/T recommend?

Drilling the arm isn't the problem. Suspension Techniques provides a bracket that attaches to the arm to supply a mounting point for the end links. However, to mount the pivot bushings for the sway bar, the instructions say to drill a hole hole bigger and add another hole to the rear crossmember where the inner part of the lower control arm connects. It just doesn't seem smart to me to drill there but Suspension Techniques says it is the way to do it. I would rather weld the pivot bushing brackets on but my dad of course had to bring up that by heating up the metal of that rear crossmember I might weaken it. Let me know what you think.

Also SilverY2KCivic, when is the next event at California Speedway, I would like to drop by and start asking guys questions. Thanks for your help.

This weekend, the 29th at Qualcomm ( http://www.sdr-scca.com/solo2/schedule/ ) and the next Cali Speedway one is February 11th. Look at www.solo2.com for details on that one.

Just because I didn't get a reply for added support to the rear subframe, I decided to inform the rest of you out there. I just found out that Comptech makes a rear lower tie bar that also institutes the rear sway bar into it. It prevents the sway bar from destroying the rear subframe. Just thought I would spread the word. Plus you get a tie bar out of it too, cool deal.

Just because I didn't get a reply for added support to the rear subframe, I decided to inform the rest of you out there. I just found out that Comptech makes a rear lower tie bar that also institutes the rear sway bar into it. It prevents the sway bar from destroying the rear subframe. Just thought I would spread the word. Plus you get a tie bar out of it too, cool deal.

Not so fast though, I've heard of race teams (Hondas own showroom stock HPDE team) go through TWO rear subframes in a single race season on an EK chassis Civic using the Comptech combo. A large bar is a large bar no matter who makes it, or what doo-dads come attached to it. You NEED frame reinforment plates or your frame welded or something to lessen the chance of tear-out. The Comptech combo (Progress also makes a similar combo for about $200 less) isn't a guarantee that it won't happen. The principal of the matter here ias that you're using a bar that's twice as large as what the frame is designed to handle. A CTR or ITR can handle it because they come with "1/8 thick metal subframes built in, which is the thickness of metal you need to prevent tearout from happening.

Thanks for the input. I'm not using the comptech bar though, and I believe the Suspension Techniques bar isn't as thick as that one. I will look into more reinforcement for the subframe.

Thanks for the input. I'm not using the comptech bar though, and I believe the Suspension Techniques bar isn't as thick as that one. I will look into more reinforcement for the subframe.

The Suspension Techniques bar should be fine, I haven't heard any problems with it at least.