strut bars and handling

ASSISTANCE Hybrids & Advanced Aftermarket Engine Performance
1

Those of you who have strut bars in your engine bay, Is there a difference in handling? Like going around corners for example.

And how do you install one if you have ABS?

Thanks for the help

2

Front strut bars really make no difference in ur cars handling, they are mainly for eye candy.

U just need to find one that clears ABS canister. The following front strut bars clear the abs module.

GAB
Lightspeed
Spoon
Cusco
Z-Speed
Greddy/Trust
Momocourse
Tenzo R
Matrix
OBX-R
Pilot Motorsports
Ractive

Might of forgot 1 or 2.

3

I don’t have to remove anything around the canister? Do I? If I buy one of those you mentioned will they fit in with no problems?

4

NO…

the above listed do not all clear the front ABS module.

Most of those wont.

OBX-R makes a specific one for our car w/ ABS, which i’ve posted the part number before, but can’t seem to find it.

5

Thanks

6

It depends on the style and manufacturer of bar, and even if you had one crafted by Jesus, it is unlikey you are going to notice anything.

My friend and I bolt on a set to his car that he got off of Ebay for 19.95. I could practiacally grab each end and bend them right around. Functionally they sucked. Although they looked kinda cool and that was what my friend was after.

7

Yeah but those are crappy ebay bars.

You get a nice set of bars, such as a 3 point bar that attaches to the firewall and the strut tower points, then you will notice a difference.

I have upper bars front and back, lower sway bar rear, lower rear sway bar, and lower front sway bar, and a c-piller bar. Yes all my bars just connect from side to side, no 3 points, but I’ll tell you what, with those bars and my suspension setup, I can outhandle a stock teg any day.

So they do something, but one individual bar wont do much.

8

Agreed, a front strut bar alone won’t do too much, but if you add all the other bars you will notice a difference for sure. I’m building a Targa Rally car and let me tell you the difference after adding all the bars is amazing. Just don’t expect too much from a single upper front strut bar.

9

Okay, you guys are alot of help. I like to stiffen the car so I might as well do the whole shabang. Thanks for your inputs.

10

Pilot Bar

I bought a Pilot Automotive strut bar and tried to put it into my 92 GS w/ ABS and the bracket for it rubbed against the ABS. I had an ebay bar and I never really tried to put it in before, but after the pilot bar didn’t work I tried it and it fits okay. It doesn’t rub against the ABS w/o the ABS bracket, but it comes really close dashpot and may rub the bottom of my hood. The brackets on my ebay bar also look a little stronger than the pilot bar’s. I bought the pilot bar off of amazon for about $30 after I read a couple of threads saying they fit okay w/ ABS. I’ve seen a 93 GS w/ the Tenzo R bar. It’s bracket came close to the ABS but it didn’t rub. :werd: