Info on Strut Bars

Doskie · 4-12-04, 4:42

is it worth getting strut bars for a 2nd gen?
i've been searching around and people say it's not worth it on some vehicles and it doesn't make a difference.

also, what are rear strut bars? and where do they go? pics would be cool.

thanks

**Silver** · 4-12-04, 5:17

The rear stuts brace is installed on top of the shock.

You better off starting with a new rear sway bar.

**ODIN** · 4-12-04, 7:28

Silvers right, the whiteline rear swaybar makes more of a difference than the rear strutbar, but they both help

chris

Doskie · 4-12-04, 13:06

what are the difference between sway bars and strut bars? or are they the same?

i was planning to get the front and the rear bars together, is this a good idea or just get the rear?

cheers

**GotF2TinGD** · 4-12-04, 13:25

struts are up top sway bars are down low... undernearht the car.

sway bars keep teh back end tight whilst strut tower bars keep the body from flexing

**ODIN** · 4-12-04, 19:37

If you want to get strut bars the rear ones the most important, I didnt notice to much of a difference with the front strut bar.

Chris

Doskie · 4-12-04, 20:25

ohh, so would this be a good setup? rear sway bars, and front strut bars?
or should i go all out and have both rear and front sway bars?

front strut bars looks like they are a five minute job, just bolt on, but the rear looks like it takes abit more time.

**AusMX6** · 4-12-04, 20:33

strut bars help to retain suspension geometrey and reduce shock tower flex when loaded up (cornering)

sway bars tie the suspension component on either side together

i went for front and rear strut braces

then upgrade your rear sway bar

if you go for a heavier front sway bar you'll usually make the car understeer a little worse when dealing with fwd's

**AusMX6** · 4-12-04, 20:37

quoted from - howstuffworks.com

Stabilizer bars are part of a car's suspension system. They are sometimes also called anti-sway bars or anti-roll bars. Their purpose in life is to try to keep the car's body from "rolling" in a sharp turn.

Think about what happens to a car in a sharp turn. If you are inside the car, you know that your body gets pulled toward the outside of the turn. The same thing is happening to all the parts of the car. So the part of the car on the outside of the turn gets pushed down toward the road and the part of the car on the inside of the turn rises up. In other words, the body of the car "rolls" 10 or 20 or 30 degrees toward the outside of the turn. If you take a turn fast enough, the tires on the inside of the turn actually rise off the road and the car flips over.

Roll is bad. It tends to put more weight on the outside tires and less weigh on the inside tires, reducing traction. It also messes up steering. What you would like is for the body of the car to remain flat through a turn so that the weight stays distributed evenly on all four tires.

A stabilizer bar tries to keep the car's body flat by moving force from one side of the body to another. To picture how a stabilizer bar works, imagine a metal rod that is an inch or two (2 to 5 cm) in diameter. If your front tires are 5 feet (1.6 meters) apart, make the rod about 4 feet long. Attach the rod to the frame of the car in front of the front tires, but attach it with bushings in such a way that it can rotate. Now attach arms from the rod to the front suspension member on both sides.

When you go into a turn now, the front suspension member of the outside of the turn gets pushed upward. The arm of the sway bar gets pushed upward, and this applies torsion to the rod. The torsion them moves the arm at the other end of the rod, and this causes the suspension on the other side of the car to compress as well. The car's body tends to stay flat in the turn. If you don't have a stabilizer bar, you tend to have a lot of trouble with body roll in a turn. If you have too much stabilizer bar, you tend to lose independence between the suspension members on both sides of the car. When one wheel hits a bump, the stabilizer bar transmits the bump to the other side of the car as well, which is not what you want. The ideal is to find a setting that reduces body roll but does not hurt the independence of the tires.

Doskie · 4-13-04, 0:53

okies, i'm convinced, so should i be looking out for anything when buying rear sway bars? odin suggests whiteline, how much are these and are there different styles or just one for our cars?
also i will be getting the front struts, do i just look for the hardest alloy? or is there an art to buying a bar of metal?

**Silver** · 4-13-04, 2:27

IMO, forget about the front struts brace.

Just get a rear sway bar and struts brace. Since your car is a 2WS, make sure you get the 2WS version of the sway bar.

**ODIN** · 4-13-04, 2:54

k-mac does a 2ws bar for the mx6. www.k-mac.com.au
I don't know if whiteline does one for the 2ws mx6 but their website is www.whiteline.com.au

chris

Doskie · 4-13-04, 2:58

so a front strut bar will make no difference? is this because the car is fwd?
thanks for the suggestion silver, i will now look for both rear struts and sways,
cheers odin for the links, i'll go check it out for prices

**Ribfeast** · 4-13-04, 3:18

Front bars encourage understeer, rear bars encourage oversteer. I'd be stiffening up the rear as much as possible to try and neutralise the natural FWD understeer. Sticking the K-Mac rear bar on my 93 4WS made a big difference to handling. Had to get it custom made (thanks for Mr MX6 for loaning the swaybar to K-Mac), but hopefully they still have the specs there at K-Mac for you. Since yours is 2WS it is probably different anyway to mine. Go the Whiteline and save yourself the pain though.

**DarkSlayer** · 4-13-04, 3:36

does whiteline or k-mac make a rear sway bar for a 1st gen with 4WS?

4-12-04, 4:42	#1 (permalink)
Doskie Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Melbourne, Australia iTrader: (0)	Info on Strut Bars is it worth getting strut bars for a 2nd gen? i've been searching around and people say it's not worth it on some vehicles and it doesn't make a difference. also, what are rear strut bars? and where do they go? pics would be cool. thanks
	96' 2WS XFORCE 4" Muffler, Carbon fiber lightweight airfilter, Viper 791XV responder alarm, 2x12" Infinity subs..

4-12-04, 7:28	#3 (permalink)
ODIN Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Canberra, Australia Age: 29 iTrader: (0)	Silvers right, the whiteline rear swaybar makes more of a difference than the rear strutbar, but they both help chris
	Sold: 93 MX6 4WS Current Car: R32 Skyline GTS4 Sedan

4-12-04, 13:06	#4 (permalink)
Doskie Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Melbourne, Australia iTrader: (0)	what are the difference between sway bars and strut bars? or are they the same? i was planning to get the front and the rear bars together, is this a good idea or just get the rear? cheers
	96' 2WS XFORCE 4" Muffler, Carbon fiber lightweight airfilter, Viper 791XV responder alarm, 2x12" Infinity subs..

4-12-04, 19:37	#6 (permalink)
ODIN Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Canberra, Australia Age: 29 iTrader: (0)	If you want to get strut bars the rear ones the most important, I didnt notice to much of a difference with the front strut bar. Chris
	Sold: 93 MX6 4WS Current Car: R32 Skyline GTS4 Sedan

4-12-04, 20:25	#7 (permalink)
Doskie Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Melbourne, Australia iTrader: (0)	ohh, so would this be a good setup? rear sway bars, and front strut bars? or should i go all out and have both rear and front sway bars? front strut bars looks like they are a five minute job, just bolt on, but the rear looks like it takes abit more time.
	96' 2WS XFORCE 4" Muffler, Carbon fiber lightweight airfilter, Viper 791XV responder alarm, 2x12" Infinity subs..

4-12-04, 5:17	#2 (permalink)
Silver Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Syd, Aus, Australia Age: 31 iTrader: (0)	The rear stuts brace is installed on top of the shock. You better off starting with a new rear sway bar.

4-12-04, 20:33	#8 (permalink)
AusMX6 Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Victoria, Australia iTrader: (0)	strut bars help to retain suspension geometrey and reduce shock tower flex when loaded up (cornering) sway bars tie the suspension component on either side together i went for front and rear strut braces then upgrade your rear sway bar if you go for a heavier front sway bar you'll usually make the car understeer a little worse when dealing with fwd's

4-12-04, 20:37	#9 (permalink)
AusMX6 Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Victoria, Australia iTrader: (0)	quoted from - howstuffworks.com Stabilizer bars are part of a car's suspension system. They are sometimes also called anti-sway bars or anti-roll bars. Their purpose in life is to try to keep the car's body from "rolling" in a sharp turn. Think about what happens to a car in a sharp turn. If you are inside the car, you know that your body gets pulled toward the outside of the turn. The same thing is happening to all the parts of the car. So the part of the car on the outside of the turn gets pushed down toward the road and the part of the car on the inside of the turn rises up. In other words, the body of the car "rolls" 10 or 20 or 30 degrees toward the outside of the turn. If you take a turn fast enough, the tires on the inside of the turn actually rise off the road and the car flips over. Roll is bad. It tends to put more weight on the outside tires and less weigh on the inside tires, reducing traction. It also messes up steering. What you would like is for the body of the car to remain flat through a turn so that the weight stays distributed evenly on all four tires. A stabilizer bar tries to keep the car's body flat by moving force from one side of the body to another. To picture how a stabilizer bar works, imagine a metal rod that is an inch or two (2 to 5 cm) in diameter. If your front tires are 5 feet (1.6 meters) apart, make the rod about 4 feet long. Attach the rod to the frame of the car in front of the front tires, but attach it with bushings in such a way that it can rotate. Now attach arms from the rod to the front suspension member on both sides. When you go into a turn now, the front suspension member of the outside of the turn gets pushed upward. The arm of the sway bar gets pushed upward, and this applies torsion to the rod. The torsion them moves the arm at the other end of the rod, and this causes the suspension on the other side of the car to compress as well. The car's body tends to stay flat in the turn. If you don't have a stabilizer bar, you tend to have a lot of trouble with body roll in a turn. If you have too much stabilizer bar, you tend to lose independence between the suspension members on both sides of the car. When one wheel hits a bump, the stabilizer bar transmits the bump to the other side of the car as well, which is not what you want. The ideal is to find a setting that reduces body roll but does not hurt the independence of the tires.

4-13-04, 0:53	#10 (permalink)
Doskie Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Melbourne, Australia iTrader: (0)	okies, i'm convinced, so should i be looking out for anything when buying rear sway bars? odin suggests whiteline, how much are these and are there different styles or just one for our cars? also i will be getting the front struts, do i just look for the hardest alloy? or is there an art to buying a bar of metal?
	96' 2WS XFORCE 4" Muffler, Carbon fiber lightweight airfilter, Viper 791XV responder alarm, 2x12" Infinity subs..

4-13-04, 2:27	#11 (permalink)
Silver Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Syd, Aus, Australia Age: 31 iTrader: (0)	IMO, forget about the front struts brace. Just get a rear sway bar and struts brace. Since your car is a 2WS, make sure you get the 2WS version of the sway bar.

4-13-04, 2:54	#12 (permalink)
ODIN Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Canberra, Australia Age: 29 iTrader: (0)	k-mac does a 2ws bar for the mx6. www.k-mac.com.au I don't know if whiteline does one for the 2ws mx6 but their website is www.whiteline.com.au chris
	Sold: 93 MX6 4WS Current Car: R32 Skyline GTS4 Sedan

4-13-04, 2:58	#13 (permalink)
Doskie Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Melbourne, Australia iTrader: (0)	so a front strut bar will make no difference? is this because the car is fwd? thanks for the suggestion silver, i will now look for both rear struts and sways, cheers odin for the links, i'll go check it out for prices
	96' 2WS XFORCE 4" Muffler, Carbon fiber lightweight airfilter, Viper 791XV responder alarm, 2x12" Infinity subs..

4-13-04, 3:18	#14 (permalink)
Ribfeast Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Newcastle (NSW), Australia Age: 30 iTrader: (0)	Front bars encourage understeer, rear bars encourage oversteer. I'd be stiffening up the rear as much as possible to try and neutralise the natural FWD understeer. Sticking the K-Mac rear bar on my 93 4WS made a big difference to handling. Had to get it custom made (thanks for Mr MX6 for loaning the swaybar to K-Mac), but hopefully they still have the specs there at K-Mac for you. Since yours is 2WS it is probably different anyway to mine. Go the Whiteline and save yourself the pain though.
	'93 Mazda MX6 V6 Burgundy in color, VX1 mags, Pioneer 8450MP stereo, K-Mac rear swaybar, ATX cooler...ALL SOLD Now driving a 1989 Toyota Cressida with 1JZ twin turbo engine conversion, 196kW ATW, 13.2 sec

4-13-04, 3:36	#15 (permalink)
DarkSlayer Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Perth, Australia Age: 25 iTrader: (0)	does whiteline or k-mac make a rear sway bar for a 1st gen with 4WS?
	Hail to the King, Baby! 1997 BMW Z3 Roadster, 2.8L I6 5-speed manual 1994 Kawasaki ZZR250, 6-speed parallel-twin fully-faired SOLD 1990 Eunos Cosmo 20B Twin Turbo