So I finally got a front strut bar - obviously I went with DC. I liked the solid design with no bolts/connections to flex or come loose (not that they all do).

But the debate of it helping still seems to be up in the air on all fronts.

The way I've always understood them (and I don't recall where I read this or who told me) is that you should jack up the front end to take the load off of the strut towers and then install the bar and secure it. This supposedly allows it to maximize the performance.

That's how I've understood it and what I've always told everyone. But you'll read numerous posts and threads about it not mattering and people who have had it both ways and say there's no difference.

Oh ya, the point of this thread... I just wanted to share my thoughts on it after installing it that way and taking it for an afternoon of autox the next day.

I didn't do much "testing" right after I put it on. Just kind of did it and drove normally. No big deal. But yesterday when I was on the autox course... my rear end was all over the place. Felt like it was oversteering like a ****. It has NEVER done that before. I even let a pound and a half of air out of the rear tires to see if that would counter it a little and keep it planted. No dice.

I do have a Hotchkis rear sway and it is on the stiffest setting - but I have had it like that for a while and never noticed anything like this.

Is it possible (suspension guru, I am not) that this front strut bar stiffened up the front enough to do this? I'm really asking, I don't know. I don't want to think it's the effect of the strut bar b/c I've always had the assumption that they don't do much at all for the tC. But is that what it SHOULD do if it were truly effective?

I'm looking for thoughts on this from anyone... I have a lot of general knowledge about these things, but I'm certainly no genius and I'll always be the first to point that out.

So what do you think?

BTW... for the next event, I'll be setting my rear sway back to the medium setting to see if that brings it back under control (but that won't be for almost a month).

 

I noticed a little difference in cornering with the dc front strut. some do , and some dont. i tend to notice everything on my car. It does help though, but more looks than performance

 

Thanks for the input.

I'm just trying to figure out if it really is making that much of a difference or there's something else going on and it's in my head. I want to be sure I understand exactly what it should do suspension geometry wise.

 

I noticed a slight improvement in cornering. Body roll up front reduced and I could take my ramps 3/5 miles faster.

 

I noticed a difference too. It feels more 'solid' when taking corners. I jacked my car when I installed it.

 

So I think the question for me is this: would a strut bar create a lot of oversteer? Or no? I think there's something I'm not understanding in figuring this out (and working with it).

I know that a front SWAY bar will promote some understeer (maybe I should just put my Hotchkis on? ). But what about the strut bar? What should it do?

 

Read more HERE

Read about sway bars HERE

I hope these help.

 

Thanks for the links. I was actually looking at the same wikipedia article just a bit ago. And from that description, it should reduce understeer (which I take the liberty of reading as induce oversteer... to a degree). So it kind of makes a little more sense and sounds like what I'm describing.

But if that's the case, there are a LOT of misinformed people out there spouting off random crap. I did a search for front strut bar oversteer and found a lot of forums where people kept insisting they create more understeer - which appears is the opposite?

So if this all fits and I'm not just making stuff up... this strut bar reduced my understeer a LOT and I now need to either put my front sway bar on or set my rear sway back to the medium setting.

Still looking for more input from others on this though. Whatever you guys have to share.

 

astrange to find this thread.
I put in my rear hotchkis last thursday, tested it out on the street then at an autocross on saturday. reduced understeer etc., it was awesome!
then I put my dc strut bar on and took it for a quick test spin and the handling wasn't quite as sharp as before. I'm hoping it will be cleaned up after i install the front sway.

 

Driving around having only the Hotchkis rear sway installed will drastically reduce understeer. The OEM front sway bar isn't 'tuned' to perform with the Hotchkis rear sway bar. Wait until you install the front sway, and you'll notice a difference. It's all about tuning to the perfect combination for both front and rear.

And ack154, I think you have lots of oversteer because you don't have the front sways installed. Try putting the fronts in the soft setting and the rears in the stiffest. I think you'll be able to control the degree of oversteer with these settings.

 

I found this thread late, but whatever you do, GET THAT FRONT HOTCHKIS BAR ON **NOW**

Hotchkis WARNS people not to put the rear only on, it causes snap-oversteer and unpredictable handling in adverse tractions conditions and can and will make the car a hazard.

They only sell the bar as a set for that exact reason, without the front bar to balance out the set, the rear is way, way, WAY too stiff on it's own.

For the record, I installed my rear sway for a few days before I put the front on as well, and I was literally afraid of the handling of the car in the rain, and I know how to handle my car, I've been autocrossing almost every weekend for years.

the front strut bar won't induce oversteer, that's not it's job, it's job is to keep the strut towers in line on a vertical plane under shock and chassis flex of the road. Your oversteer is because the rear bar is on full-stiff, if you plan on keeping that rear bar on the car on it's own, the least you can do to avoid a potential accident is to put it on "soft" which is still way, way too stiff for our cars without a front sway bar.

and speaking from experience on the DC strut bar from having it on my car, it doesn't do enough to help our cars as it would others because the strut mounts are so well supported and directly connected to the firewall, and the same goes for the rear strut mounts with a rear strut bar as well (which aren't really strut towers in the rear)

 

Well the reason I thought it was so odd was that I have had the rear bar on for a while (probably over a year?) - and even at another autox event - on the stiffest setting. I had never noticed anything close to this. Which is why I was trying to figure out if it could be the strut bar.

I guess I have some work to do this weekend anyways. I just have to go find my front sway. It's kind of in storage somewhere.

Thanks for all the input. I'm kind of just adding this all up.

(oh, and I think a rear strut bar does a LOT less than front on our cars, since there's what seems to be a cross member of sorts connecting the rear already)

 

That other bar should be the panhard bar (if im not mistaken) and does something different then the sway bars.

 

o quick update for you guys...not putting in the front hotchkis sway right now b/c i was told that it would undo the neutralization caused by the rear and that front sways are generally useless on a fwd car. their only purpose would be to reduce body roll. i was cambered a little over -2 in the back and my car was handling wonderfully, put it back to spec and it rolls everywhere so I may try the front sway OR just go to a progress rear. oh, and get my camber back asap.

 

i've experienced the snap oversteer with rear hotchkis only set on stiffest. i was taking an interchange at about 90mph and lifted near the end of the turn and instantly, the car rotated. had to countersteer and got the car back but was a very scary experience.

after adding the front, felt much more confident during higher speed cornering.

 

what's your alignment? did you have a little more understeer when you put the front on?

 

the front hotchkis bar is not gong to cause understeer if you have the rear bar on, they are MADE and DESIGNED to work together, and if you know even the least bit about suspensions, you would already know that it should be put on without a doubt

not knowing you need it is an obvious sign that you do, because that likely means you also don't know how to properly correct a car that suddenly turns sideways unexpectedly. We're not talking a little slip in the rear here, or a little squealing, the car will be sideways in an instant. It happened to me, it will happen to others, it's just a matter of time without that front sway bar.

 

I noticed a SLIGHT diff with my DC bar. Not noticeable enough for the price IMO. I should have just gone with a generic one.

 

^ x 2 but I got mine cheap

 

I noticed a huge difference with my DC but i never had any other bars to compare it to. I live near some pretty curvey roads, the one leaving my house has two 90 degree turns within 25 feet of each other. After the dc i could take both turns at 30 mph which is about 5 mph better than before the brace. And with the Hotckis set, all i can say is wow, what an even better difference, now i can take it at 35 but actually feel comfortable taking it that fast.