konkman

I was wondering,  would it be worth my time and money to install sway bars with stock shocks and springs?

I want to install springs, but then I need to do shock at the same time.  I can't afford that right now, but sway bars will fit into the budget nicely.  I would love some feedback, thanks.

By the way my car only has 62K miles on the ten year old suspension.

West

DO IT!!

You will be VERY happy.

Also consider purchasing the best from the start - Whiteline.  Not to much a price difference over the ST bars...
ST Front Bar increases torsional rigidity by 22% over stock (SE model) & 182% over the rear (SE model)  bar.
The Whitelines are thicker than the ST bars!

LanceS13

Sway bars can work alone.  I would suggest the Whitelines also.  They're adjustable and only like $120 a piece.  I'm getting the rear bar as soon as my money order gets to BC, Canada (PDM).  If that causes too much oversteer, I'll get the front, too.  I'll have to wait and see.

konkman

That's the great thing about living in BC.  I can pick up PDM parts from the HQ, at his house.  lol

AJ

my car already oversteers when i'm really cornering hard.  If i get just rear bars it will do this more?.. crazy,,

could someone explain the diff between a strut tower braces and sway bars?

LanceS13

Basically, strut bars stiffen the chassis while sway bars stiffen the suspension.

Check out www.turnfast.com for a wealth of info on suspension setups as well as driving techniques.

HippoSleek

Great link - I'm going to have to spend some time with that one.

As for the difference - Lance is dead on.  Think of it this way - strut bars improve your car's ability to guide its mass around a corner;  sway bars improve your tire's ability to maintain traction with the road surface.  As for effectiveness, a set of bars will do wonders even with an otherwise stock sus.  If you have a base model (no rear bar from what I understand), the addition of bars will do more for your handling than you would imagine... BUT, the SE comes with a reasonable set of bars from the factory.  As such, the additional rigidity will be noticable, but perhaps not worth the investment at this stage, IMHO.  Plus, the added stiffness in the rear only (or even in concert with the fronts) may be too much for your stock susp., and induce severe oversteer.

I guess my advice would be to buy a rear bar (either ST, Whiteline, or even a JY-spec S13 SE bar (that's junk yard!)) if you have a base model.  If you have an SE, take that money and open a savings account (DON'T TOUCH IT)... add money for a few months... buy yourself some decent adjustable shocks/struts (I understand KYB AGX's are nice for the S13).  Even with stock springs, this will make your car feel so much better than you could ever imagine.  With a 10 year old susp., your dampers are likely ready for the trash bin (springs last forever) and the addition of stiffer rates will give you a much better ride.  Also, if you have/get a stock SE bar and then move to an aftermarket bar, you can adjust your dampers to balance the handling of the car.  In the short term, it sucks that you don't have some cool parts, but in the long run, your car will handle like crazy after dampers and will only get better from there.

ditosx

Hey, is it true that the base model doesn't have a rear anti-roll bar?  Cause if it is, and my car handles good already, I could just imagine... cool.

LanceS13

Yes...KYB AGX's and Eibach ProKit completely changed the handling characteristics of my car.  I would highly suggest them....however, if you don't want to, or are unable to save over $600, then the sway bars should provide a good improvement.  You can also get some decent f/r strut tower bars from rollhard.com for a little over $100 for both.