Whats the difference between a rear sway bar, front strut bar, and lower arm brace performance wise? I am looking for less body roll w/ my new coilovers and I am trying to decide if I should spend 50 bux versus 150 bux. If anyone could please tell me what the differences are between the three it will be GREATLY appreciated.

Also, is Progress the only company that makes RSB?

 

A front strut brace makes your engine compartment look cool... a lower arm brace makes the bottom of your car look cool (I really can't think of what else it does or even where you put one on a car with a torsion beam rear suspension)... and a rear sway bar helps to tame the understeer inherent to FWD vehicles by actually acting as more spring in the rear in the corners which can reduce grip (at that end) and promote rotation.

It's the only mod that does anything IMO...

 

Also... body roll is not the worse thing (and none of the above mods will cure it) you have already gotten stiffer springs with your coilovers which should have tamed it quite a bit but you need weight transfer and suspension travel to be able to make a car turn properly. Stiffer sway bars (at both ends) and stiffer springs will help though.

 

I agree with Mr. Pidass. And yes, Progress is the only maker of a RSB for 1st. gen Fits. They are working on a different add-on RSB to increase the performance of the stock RSB that Honda made standard on '09 Sports.

If you intend to race stock class AutoX, you can improve handling by replacing your front anti-sway bar with the heavier duty one from various makers like Battle Endless.
With the heavier front bar you will not violate stock class restrictions. By adding the Progess rear bar, you can't race as stock class because no RSB was available from Honda.

 

a front lower arm bar is installed onto a non-moving part. it increases the vehicle's rigidity between the stationary parts of the front lower arms. like a lower arm bar, front/rear strut bars also reinforce non-moving parts: like c-pillar bars, fender braces, roll cages, etc...these all reduce body flex under stress like during hard cornering and should improve handling and steering response BUT they will make minute (possibly unnoticeable) changes unless you are really pushing the limits of your car at the track or race events.

the progress rear sway bar also increases rigidity, but unlike the previous parts, it reinforces a moving part and is a moving part itself. it also increases rigidity but does it for the rear suspension's torsion bar which connects the driver's side and passenger side suspension. This is different from the other bars because it's reducing flex in a moving suspension component. by doing so, it decreases the ability of the wheels to move up and down independently of each other. this is what you want if you want to reduce body roll.

There is also a larger diameter replacement front sway bar made by T1R. it links up the front suspension to further reduce their ability to move independently of each other (the same as the rear bar, except a little different since the front suspension is a different design than the rear in our cars).

So in short, sway bars for body roll. if you're having a hard time picturing how a sway bar works, just think of it like this, when you make a hard right turn, your car leans to the left. when your car leans to the left, the passenger side wheels extend out away from the body, while the driver side ones get tucked in closer to the body. a sway bar reduces the ability the wheels to move independently of each other. when the passenger side wheels want to extend out, they'll be kept in check by the driver side wheels that are trying to tuck in, so they won't extend out as far, thus reducing body roll. keep in mind, the bars do flex, and they are supposed to. so putting bars on it won't make your car handle like a go-cart with ZERO body roll, but it will be as closer than stock. hope that helps, it took me forever and a half to write this friggin post.

 

that was the post i needed. thank you very much doctordoom.

 

you're welcome!

 

DoctorDoom is absolutely correct. If you want to really feel a difference in the way your Fit handles try the RSB.

Remember however that the handling will be very different. For example, let's say you're gettin' it through a hard turn and you find your front end is about to go off, normally in a front driver like the Fit you let up on the gas a bit and the front end will tuck in for you. Add the rear sway bar and when you let up not only will the front end tuck in but the rear wants to come around particularly if you get out of the throttle altogether, called lift-off oversteer, so you have to be careful if you don't have much experience with this kind of modification cause you'll spin the car real quick like.

Have fun.