My stock rear sway bar snapped on my yesterday and I'm going to swap the front one while I'm at it. Was just wondering, which sway bar is better? The Tanabe Sustec? or the Suspension Technique?
my friend put a tanabe rear sway bar on his 4th gen and felt minimal effects (probably due to his subpar suspension setup). I think its only a few mm thicker, which is fine b/c having too big of a sway bar will get you back to the same problem you are having right now. If it was my choice, I would stick w/ the OEM sway bar b/c its pretty damn thick as it is.
I say go for Suspension Techniques Front & Rear...
both are 25 mm...
now if you go for Tanabe the front one is 30.4 mm thick and the rear is 25mm
For my personal experience I love my ST front & rear... and I DO FEEL A HUGE DIFFERENCE compared to stock...
Lets say, I can make a 45 degree turn on a normal intersection @ 40 mph and I hardly slide from my seat... oh man I fell in love with it...
Installation is a piece of cake too... I have NRG prototype coilovers 12kg front & 10 kg rear...
Furthermore, three or four luders that I keep in touch tell me that the best setup for our 4th gen prelude is a Progress Rear bar and stock front sway bar... The goal is to avoid understeer...
Nonetheless, I say go for Suspension Techniques F + R sway bars
here is a pix of the sway bar...
__________________ Estebuns I'll eat your rice with my spoon!
El negro tiene tumbao... alabao!!!!
There have been issues with the suspension techniques rear sway bar causing the brackets to rip out of the sub frame. I can't say that it will happen 100% but since you're already having problems with rust I wouldn't recommend going this route. I'd go for one of the brands that provide upgraded brackets. I have the neuspeed rear sway bar and I think it's one of the best mods I've done to the car. It reduces understeer a lot. IMO I wouldn't bother changing the front oem one.
I say Suspension Techniques. I have used them in the past and have not had any problem. I have never used tanabe but from Summit racing you can get the ST for cheap! I orderd ST sets from summit for Intergas, Accords, a civic and now my lude and shipping is always free. I think i paid 265 total! that included tax.
As far as breaking swaybars i have seen many and it was always due to rust. Our stock honda bars are usually hollow -least the fronts- and are nothing compared to the Suspension Techniques. Good luck.
I have the Suspension Technique sway bars on my Fif, and I love them. Combined with the 1.5in drop and front/rear upper/lower strut braces the car handles like its on rails. No more oversteer unless I power too hard into a corner. Letting off the gas sends the tail around, its great. Almost like im driving a RWD car.
whcich sway bar is better? depends on what you want.
i always hear problems about EVERY endlink. tanabe is thicker but if you dont auto-x or have a stock suspension it wont be as effective. progress seems to be in the middle, while ST sway bars seem to be the kind of cheaping out. (ST bars=hollow?) neuspeed appears to be at the bottom of the barrel IMO.
like what has been mentioned... you can leave the front one oem and upgrade the rear one...
The one y0u have to watch out is the progress bar... it has 3 different settings and IT WILL RIP YOUR SUB FRAME doesn't matter if you have rust or not... so be warned...
But it doesn't hurt having the ST sway bars, these babies are thick and heavy...
And I'm enjoying canyon running
__________________ Estebuns I'll eat your rice with my spoon!
El negro tiene tumbao... alabao!!!!
The progress is the best bar IMO, but I don't recommend it on 4th gens. It's huge and thick and comes with big beefy brackets. At the track it helped the handling a lot. However, it was designed for the 5th gen and to be used with aftermarket endlinks. The problem is that no one makes aftermarket endlinks for 4th gens, which means you have to design and custom build your own. I made some but they didn't work as well as I wanted them to. In addition the progress bar is so beefy that it stiffens up the rear suspension a lot and potholes/bumps become more annoying.
I also dont' recommend putting on a new front bar. You're just going to be retaining the stock understeer.
Anyone have input on the Tanabe bars? I have actually snapped my rear bar in the mount itself. And, decided that I want to upgrade both at the same time.
Anyone have input on the Tanabe bars? I have actually snapped my rear bar in the mount itself. And, decided that I want to upgrade both at the same time.
tanabe bars are 30.5mm? and progress is 27mm as opposed to our 24 or so mm stock ones. i dont know anyone who has used them.
unless your car is balanced in such a way that you could run on a really big rear sway and normal/ or no front sway bar, theres no need for a bigger front.
its not just about understeer/oversteer, its also about balance.
if you have a massive rear, id suggest getting a slightly bigger front.
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