I got home today and found my stabilizer bar from Cattman. Being the hothead that I am, I couldn't wait installed it right away. Took about an hour with alot of time trying to find rough ground so my ramps wont slip. Then took it out for a spin(did not really spin out... yet).

So I'd thought I'd share the driving experience. My car I all stock.

It seemed to have improved steering, low/medium speed stability, and cornering feel... Car still doesn't feel as grippy in corners as my Cousin's IS300... but hey its a FWD on 15 inchers
I'm a little diappointed that it did not improve high speed slalom feel much... i did a little slalom on the freeway and it felt just about as scary as it did w/o the bar. Maybe I need shocks.

Overall, I would recommend this item. It works as expected and is worth every penny of its 119$ price tag.

 

its time for coilovers or a nice strut/spring combo. It'll spice things up.

 

on the coilovers

 

next time i would recomend the FSB and rear antisway bar. with those two, i wouldnt find much need for a RSB.

 

O...M...G...

 

You and me both

 

Where can I get a FSB? What's the difference between the aftermarket FSB and stock?

Jae

 

my handling improved once i removed the sway bar.... i does help somewhat on a stock suspension..

 

holy answers ill add to that

 

bro being the newb u are ill take the time out to correct you on this......everyone get a get out of jail free card heres yours...


RSB = Rear antiSway Bar

 

yeah rear strut bar= RSTB= rear strut tower bar, front strut bar= FSTB
I like to think of it as Rear Stabilizer Bar= RSB to not get confused

If I installed a RSTB and told you I noticed a difference, it would either be phsychological or I'd be lying to you

 

It's subtle, usually only noticed when driving 9/10 or 10/10.
Jae

 

thats weird

 

maybe removed front sway bar ... no bar= less weight over front wheels

 

In the autox forum, it's been mentioned that there's less understeer w/the fsb detached.

I think the car is more predictable w/o rsb. However I think traction limit is higher w/rsb.

Jae

 

1 RSB will make small difference. lower ur car or get FSTB FSB and RSTB will notice bigger difference

 

Ok, so I get the impression you're not stupid. I will attempt to explain why there is less understeer with the FSB detached.
First off I will state a few accepted principles of vehicle handling dynamics:
1: your car has better grip when each tire is taking its fair share of load(in other words, tires grip best when each wheel carring 25% of the vehicle's weight)
2: body lean decreases grip because it changes wheel/road angle and also increase weight shift during turns(which distorts the even weight distibution).

Now the FSB increases understeer because it increases weight shift(during turns) between the front wheels(in order to combat body lean, a force must be exterted against it). this results in reduced front wheel grip which means understeer.

Meanwhile, the FSB reduces weight shift between the rear wheels(the front wheels are keeping the vehicle level, the rears dont have to) which results in increased rear wheel grip(as opposed to no FSB).

When something increases rear wheel grip and decreases front wheel grip, it increases understeer.

The RSB does the complete opposite of this because it reduces front wheel weight shift and increases rear wheel weight shift.

 

no i meant to say that i removed the rear aftermarket sway bar.. now the rear suspension has room to articulate..

 

I appologize for your misinterpretation of my post. The post was to direct other members to search the auto-x forum for an explaination. You did a great thing by summarizing the plentiful posts and information regard fsb detachment. I thank you, and I'm sure many more do too.

Jae