Strut tower bar Q?

Sl1dewaysSupra

Destroyer of FWD's
Mar 14, 2006
690
0
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Colorado
Just a quick question, would installing a strut tower bar cause more under/oversteer? What would happen if I installed one in just the front? And just the rear?
 

DaSuprawolf

Im SICK of N/A
Dec 29, 2005
456
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ChicagoLand
its hard for me to tell because i did all my suspension at once,(springs, shocks, strut bar). so there was a big difference between before and after.
and its the one off Ebay, cheap one. handling just improved alot overall, its hard to tell.
 

Facime

Leather work expert
Jun 1, 2006
2,716
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Corvallis OR
I have a strut bar as well, but reading what some other people have said, I really dont think a strut bar will actually make much difference, if any at all.
You see Supras dont have struts...they have shocks. The top of the shock mount has very little stress on it, at least not stresses that a strut bar would compensate for. The upper control arm takes this stress and very little if any is transfered to the top of the tower.

If that thinking is wrong please someone who REALLY knows suspensions explain to me why.
 

NewWestSupras

SoupLvr
Mar 1, 2006
611
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0
White Rock
I put one in the front of mine. No appreciable difference in steering, but a little less chassis flex with the targa off, anything to improve the "shakes" The biggest handling improvement was ST springs and KYB GR2's. ST swaybars and a rear strut bar soon.
 

Facime

Leather work expert
Jun 1, 2006
2,716
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Corvallis OR
NewWestSupras said:
I put one in the front of mine. No appreciable difference in steering, but a little less chassis flex with the targa off, anything to improve the "shakes"

I got a fix for that ...lol

hopefully late tonight with the update...
 

koulee

New Member
Oct 11, 2005
497
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0
Its not really important in a hardtop since the roof is one solid piece and the chassis doesn't flex as much, but in a targa top it helps alot in reducing it.
 

Wills7MGTE

( . )( . )'s RULE!!!!
May 12, 2006
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Jackson, MO
www.myspace.com
I have a trust front tower bar and it actually helped a bit when compensating for oversteer, it seemed easier to recover etc after I installed it, plus it is nice to use to zip tie wires etc that need to run over the engine LOL.
 

IJ.

Grumpy Old Man
Mar 30, 2005
38,728
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I come from a land down under
Maybe....

If the car was built using Heim Joints everywhere but even then I doubt you'd notice the difference using street tires.

Our cars are big compliant marshmellows so it would be hard to pinpoint such a subtle change either way.
 

Facime

Leather work expert
Jun 1, 2006
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I think perhaps with TIEN coilovers you would notice a strut bar EVEN LESS. My rational for that thought is that you have already made a huge improvement to the suspension going coilovers. If you look at a strut bar in terms of a percentage of improvement from stock performance...that percentage becomes so miniscule when compared to the percentage of improvment the coilovers would cause.

or putting it this way: you would feel such an improvement from the coilovers...it would be hard to even notice a strut bar at all.

I think the one upgrade that might make a strut bar play a more significant role, would be if you added some really gnarley sway bars.