Strut Bar And Anti Roll Bars

[Justin p]

Can some one tell me whats the difference between the two :duh: , or do they do the same job :duh: ,also which one would you get first strut bars or roll bars .

[BernardTamHK]

im goin to go out on a limb here .. and risk the chance of Matt callin me an "internet specialist" :-P ......

anyways ... its 2 different things here. Strut bar (actually .. havent heard this comb before... its either called a Strut Brace .. or a Tower Bar) ... basically it reinforces the body of the car, by inserting a bar which is bolted across the top of the upper mounts of your suspension. So when you do corner or any type of movement that induces lateral forces, it prevents the chassis/body from flexing so much. Its a great piece of kit (for a low price) if you ask me. It also has a high bling factor =D.

Anti roll bars are tubes that have been bent in a special shape to allow rigidity in certain angles but elasticity when pulled in certain ways. It is fixed onto the lower part of the suspension to the bushes (or something ... i'll let Matt comment hehehe). Again it prevents unwanted movement between the suspension and maintains the appropriate angle of your geometry during hard cornering.

I'm sure someone will come along and explain further (or say i'm full of ***** .... but im not worried, cos i expect it coming ...:-D)

[Bazza]

roll bars (sway bars)front and rear are almost a must

prevent body roll, and can be tuned to alter under/oversteer

have no bad points, do not alter ridecomfort levels, but allow cornering faster and smoother

trd, tte, cusco to name a few

strut bars have a small amount of significance, tighten up the cars rigidity

hardly noticable gains

[Monster-Mat]

Bloody internet tuners...... :D

yep basically that, whats been said

Anti roll bars, work by reducing roll on the boddy by linking both lower suspension arms by means of a "torsion" bar, as one suspension unit is forced up under cornering the counter balance is created by the bar being connected at 3 further points, (2x chassis 1x opposite suspension)

tower bars help reduce body flex under cornering by creating a joint between 2 load bearing points (suspension turrec, where the road coils and dampers mount)

[Justin p]

Thanks again for your help just shelled out on Strut Brace and that sorted out my confusion :) will have to get some anti roll bars next.

[cyborgguy]

Thanks again for your help just shelled out on Strut Brace and that sorted out my confusion :) will have to get some anti roll bars next.

Edited January 9, 2006 by Monster-Mat

[BernardTamHK]

Bloody internet tuners...... :D

:P proud to be one

[jasestu]

roll bars (sway bars)front and rear are almost a must

prevent body roll, and can be tuned to alter under/oversteer

have no bad points, do not alter ridecomfort levels, but allow cornering faster and smoother

trd, tte, cusco to name a few

"have no bad points"?! That's an awfully bold statement. If there are no bad points why are the factory ones not rock solid? Why are stiffer aftermarket ones available? Let's say you drive down a b-road (is that what you call them over there?) where there are humps and hollows that the left and right side of the car experience differently. If you've got an ultra stiff anti roll bar you'd find your car would buck around wildly and lose traction - something I'd consider as a bad point, and would certainly negatively impact on your cornering ability on such roads. :)

(Jason now ducks in case Matt has something to add )

Aside: I'm assuming the IS comes with anti roll bars from factory as does the Altezza...?

[Monster-Mat]

the reason the car comes from the factory with the bars it does, is to accomodate all driving styles and conditions.

anyone who wishes to change there anti roll bars for stiffer ones does so for a reason, ......that they enjoy spirited driving, anti roll bars will make no impact if driving on b roads.....they dont come into effect untill cornering.

you would have to be going over some fkin huge lumps and bumps to cause the torsional effects of ARB's to come into effect.

and for however bad some roads are in the uk....theres none that bad

[MacRS200]

At the risk of being "flamed", surely if the uprated ARB's reduce body roll to almost nil the torsional effects must come into play almost immediately the suspension tries to compress unevenly. e.g when the suspension on the outside starts to compress more than on the inside.

Think the point jasestu was making is that if you are on a rough road where one wheel needs to go up and the other one needs to go down at the same time. The wheel that needs to go down will be held up by the ARM reducing grip.

Makes sense to me

[Monster-Mat]

At the risk of being "flamed", surely if the uprated ARB's reduce body roll to almost nil the torsional effects must come into play almost immediately the suspension tries to compress unevenly. e.g when the suspension on the outside starts to compress more than on the inside.

Think the point jasestu was making is that if you are on a rough road where one wheel needs to go up and the other one needs to go down at the same time. The wheel that needs to go down will be held up by the ARM reducing grip.

Makes sense to me

yes but who takes there IS off road, the amount the torsion affects the suspension is progressive,

its not worth even arguing about.

when you change anti roll bars, you dont notice a difference untill you corner...simple as that, thats the point of anti roll bars, and its the point Barrie was making, i agree with him Totally having changed and tried 4 different sets of anti- roll bars, and all people are doing now is splitting hairs and bringing in scenarios which are not relevant to "what an anti roll bar is"

surely if the uprated ARB's reduce body roll to almost nil

they dont the TRD yellow for example reduce it by 43% over what the OEM ones do for the front and 100% over the OEM for the rear

Think the point jasestu was making is that if you are on a rough road where one wheel needs to go up and the other one needs to go down at the same time. The wheel that needs to go down will be held up by the ARM reducing grip.

that has nothing to do with it, the anti roll bar is not designed to compensate for sudden angular changes, its a cornering device used to stabelise the yaw of the body

Edited January 11, 2006 by Monster-Mat

[MacRS200]

Yup know what an ARB is, what it does and how it works.

It reduces body ROLL, the wishbone on the outside of the corner applies a torsional force on the ARB via the drop link as the suspension compresses. This twists the ARB which in turn applies an upward force on the opposite wishbone, this has two effects. It helps reduce extension of the suspension on the inside of the corner, also another force is applied by the main part of the ARB secured to the cross member, it produces an upward force on the body on the inside and a downward force on the outside. The angle that the ARB will try to adopt, relative to the road, will be half that of a line drawn between the tops of the two drop links.

Viola less body roll.

[chips229]

I agree with Matt.

The body of the cars going to move around alot more if the cars been lowered on uneven roads than with uprated roll bar bushes.Theres alot of rear body roll with my car on the standard setup when cornering so i lose traction with the inside rear wheel anti roll bars will help sort my car out.If the suspension is lowered alot then theres less suspension travel so the whole of the car moves around and un settles the car even in a straight line.

Strut braces should give the car a pointer feel to it,strut braces are standard fit on the Aristo but it still understeers to much for my liking because of the amount of roll with the body of the car in corners :)

Cheers chips.

[jasestu]

Thanks for clearing that up Matt, there's obviously some mis-information out there:

So you're driving down the road and you go over a bump that goes across the entire lane. The sway bar does nothing. Both sides compress normally. You go around a corner and the chassis starts to lean and compress the outside suspension and now it's as though you have a bigger spring out there, so the car remains more level. That's the good part.

Here's the bad part. You hit a bump with only one side, and it behaves the same way, as though you have a stiffer spring, so you feel uneven bumps more. You feel it crossing anything diagonally as well, such as coming into or out of a parking lot or driveway curb.

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.