Confusion about Strut Bar..?

Hi, i have a 1999 honda accord, with these suspension from 4 years ago.. no idea what it is.. (its green.. thats all i know)...





Well the car is about 3 inches from the ground w/ 18 inch rims. The thing is... I just ordered a front strut bar for 50$ and im wondering if i should get something else.. like rear anti roll bars or rear strut bars.





The car is just for daily use.. Used to go to autocross, but after the crash, i stopped.





Here are the questions / what i know..


I know strut bar helps reduce body flex, less uneven tire wear.


Would anti roll bars help for daily driving? (i dont really feel any rolling... the suspension is super stiff)





Thanks, Will always choose best answer.|||The car already has at least a front roll-bar (the stock suspension even had one). Since it sounds like you've got a modified suspension, it may also already have a rear-roll bar too (or it may not).





For street use getting stiffer roll bars won't do much except cause the car to ride even rougher than it currently does (the roll bars physically link each side of the suspension so the stiffer the roll bar, the less one side of the suspension can move independently of the other).





In terms of handling, adding roll stiffness to the front suspension (by adding a stiffer roll bar) reduces roll/body lean in the front end, but it also increases understeer near the handling limits. Adding roll stiffness to the rear suspension also reduces body lean/roll but it increases the car's tendency to oversteer, not understeer like the front roll bar does.





Think of roll bars as salt and pepper - they're like seasoning to tune the suspension once you've got the meat - the springs/shocks/struts and basic geometry - set up correctly. If you have a poor shock/spring/strut setup, roll bars alone won't fix major handling problems by themselves.





As far as the strut tower brace goes, I'd guess that other than looking cool under the hood, you won't notice much improvement in handling because of it, especially if you're not pushing the car to it's absolute limits in a racetrack-type setting (like when driving it on the street).|||Front strut bar will stiffen up the front end and might give you a little more confidence in a sudden turn. I doubt a rear strut bar would have a major noticeable effect for you but its possible. Anti roll bars, or sway bars, will help to keep the car flatter in turns, but you have to be careful how big you go with them because you can change the behavior of the car.





If you go to a bigger rear sway bar the car will have more of a tendency to oversteer (have the back end slide out) at its limit. If you increase the front bar size the car might understeer (front end tries to go straight while turning) more. If you upgrade them together it might stay balanced.





On most FWD cars it is fun to upgrade to a bigger rear sway bar because you can get a little oversteer out of it, but that's my perspective.





The downside of going to bigger swaybars is you have more of a chance of lifting a wheel if you do anything like Auto-x. But that shouldn't come into play in normal driving.





Honestly, the best way to spend your money is probably on a better set of tires. Tires are what makes 90% of the difference as they are the only thing that connects you to the road.





If you find out exactly what springs and struts you have, I'm sure there are some Honda people on here who could give you some better specific advice|||You can get a thicker rear sway bar to help the car turn-in better in the corners. For normal driving you wouldn't even notice it though. There's no way to fit a rear strut bar, so don't even worry about that one.





So I'd say put on the front strut bar, and get a rear sway bar from a 2004 Acura TL-S. You can get it brand new from the dealer (online) for about 50 bucks (complete with bushings and mounts; it's a direct bolt-in).