Well being as a person who installed the bar loaded would have to get an alignment afterwords.....I'm not sure how fast that info is going to come.

I'm a stickler for alignment and here in Nashville, onroad is very close to off road in some areas. So I align probably twice to three times a year.

I don't know if this car will need it, but we'll see. I'll intall bar before next alignment unloaded, so I can load it and then get alignment.
But that is down the road.

 

Just wondering.. Shouldn't this be under the suspension sub-forum by now? Getting my cusco soon and just sumbled on this thread.. Now idk what to think. Wealth of info though

 

Same here Warat, I got lost in the debate lol thinking about trying this preload thing out.

So let me get this straight, I can just remove the bar (leaving the mounts in place) put the car on jacks then replace the bar on the mounts tighten it all up or do I have to loosen the mounts so the coils can drop a little then redo all of that?

 

Nah, you can just loosen the bar and leave the brackets alone.

 

I would like to compare before and after performance, but I am going to do the coils at the same time. Oh well...

This question may never be fully answered, but a tech that I talked to about installing my coils and bar said he always "pre-loads" the bars.

I think 37heaven has been on point since the beginning of this thread.

 

Personally, i think the effects of installing pre or unloaded will be so minimal as to actually notice the differences.

To me, this is like saying which would make the car perform better --- tires at 32 or 33 psi?

 

Gotcha MODME

I have time to kill so why not hah

 

Guess we'll find out soon enough

 

Not sure if I should rekindle this thread, but I thought I'd follow up and show the rub marks after two days of driving at Watkins Glen.

Driving doesn't get much more spirited...

The rest of my suspension is bone stock. This on an X coupe, I imagine the S coupes might rub less. It's not bad regardless.

 

Well this subject has been beaten to death. Modme seems to think that all aluminum is equal and when compared to steel it's not as stiff. That's not necessarily true. Modern aluminum which are used in the automotive industry have a number of different characteristics which are superior to steel. Ask BBS wheels about why they use an aluminum alloy for their top end wheels. And yes sometimes the aluminum used in a wing spar does flex a lot but it's designed to do that. If it didn't, then a ton of wings would be breaking off in turbulent conditions and we wouldn't be flying in such great comfort and speeds without them. An equivalent steel structure would often be too heavy to be practical for that application. Often however, it's a combination of both steel (special high strength) titanium and special aluminum alloys being used to give the wing it's great capabilities to "give" rather than break in those conditions. Ever see an old "B52" wing flex from take off to final altitude flight. It can be as much as 12 feet of wing flex at the tips. Yet that old bird still flies in combat missions others can't even come close to.

Why is it more and more manufacturers are going to an aluminum structure for the main chassis, such as Audi, Ferrari, Acura NSX, and so on. It's lighter and offers more rigidity for the chassis than a comparable steel structure of the same weight. A much heavier steel structure might be stronger/stiffer but that defeats one of the main reasons for using aluminum, in the first place. To get something stronger and lighter, then go with carbon fiber. But then your costs jump out the roof. Why is it that so many suspension pieces are made of forged aluminum instead of steel? Weight and rigidity. Also a lot of aluminum pieces have been designed to be very stiff but when over stressed, they end up bending before they will fail. Again it's in the design and how the part is being used.

And finally about whether you have to have the car off the ground, on the ground, in virtual space, or up your a.., before you install the bar, it all depends. You'll have as many opinions about the benefit of one way over another as there are people who created these things to begin with. Who's right and who's wrong? It really doesn't matter. The person who finally drives the car and their driving style and ability to adapt to any changes is the key. I sensed a difference in my installation of a GTSpec bar mounted with the wheels on the ground but it was minor and I liked it. Someone else might not sense it or may not like the change. Like we've all heard from someone we all know so well, "It's all so relative."

So let's put this horse to rest and get on to something we all can have fun with. Girls with big *****.

Al

 

I installed Hotchkis sways which made a great improvement for me. I bought the Cusco bar just to top things off in the front. Installing with tires on the ground tomorrow. My 2009 Accord has a strut bar and no mention of raising the car to replace it in the service manual. Peace out!

 

Ha!!! Eeeeeeeeeexactly.

 

Which strut Brace is better? I'm debating between GT Spec and Cusco and i can't see anyone or anything saying which is better anything like that.

 

I've had both the opportunity to own both the gtspec and cusco. The gtspec imo feels the same as the cusco as far as handling. The things I didn't like about the gtspec that the cusco doesn't have issues with are: clearance from aftermarket intake tubes. I had the gtspec installed with my takeda long tube cai and it caused rubbing/ clanging issues. The cusco doesn't. The gtspec rubbed the lining of the hood while the cusco to me, doesn't. The cusco also looks better imo.

 

Mine didn't seem to rub at all either at first, but after a very spirited drive all day a little while back I can see where it has rubbed on both sides.