Guys,

Whats the difference? Is there a difference?

It's like the terms are used interchangeably....

Some people refer to the Whiteline struts, others refer to the sway bars?

Please excuse my ignorance, im new to this.

Pics would be great too!

Strut brace goes over the engine....
Sway bars for the rear and front are put under the car.

I havent seen one, but i believe there is a rear strut brace for the magna? that goes in the boot.

sway bars reduce body roll

strut braces do something, i dont know what, but looks good in my engine bay:D

strut braces go between the strut towers under the bonnet, and stop flexing between the struts when cornering.

there is some controversy in the forum with reagrds to how much strut braces actually help.
do a search on "strut braces".

Cheers.

Well that clears things up.

I'm aware of the strut braces and their purpose. I think thats the go.

Thanks guys.

I got whiteline suspension fitted last year including sway bars front and rear. The guys at MRT Performance told me if you fit a strut brace to a FWD car without swaybars you'll actually get more understeer. They said to do the swaybars first, see how you like it, then maybe add a strut brace later (easy to do) if you think you need it. It will give some improvement if you have swaybars too. You may have factory swaybars already (my TJ sports did) but the whiteline ones are thicker and stiffer (like something else I can think of......lol).

Where is MRT performance?

How much did that cost you all up?

MRT is in Concord, Sydney. Cost me $2300 for whiteline swaybars (rear adjustable) and springs, koni adjustable shocks, camber bolt kit and labour. It's called the works kit and you can find it on Whiteline's website. If you want to get it just check their site for a dealer near you. I highly recommend it, my car handles great now with only a bit of sacrifice in ride comfort. It's still pretty comfy, just firm comfy.

My bro installed a strut bar in his VN commie. We can tell the difference the car feels more stiffer and we can go through round abouts alot faster :)

If your going to choose between the two a Strut brace wouldn't even get a look in for usefullness, they're a cheap mod that - can - help and looks good. For a front wheel drive a rear swaybar is FAR more important, crank up your rear roll stiffness and chop most of your understeer out, there are a few FWD cars out there that can approach throttle off oversteer, to name a couple
Alfa Romeo - Alfasud
Holden - Astra sv1800
Lancia - Fulvia/Beta
Sway bars are your friend, they always help, a strut brace only helps if your body stiffness is lacking and in a magna thats not really an issue, try jacking one corner of the body up and watch three wheels lift with it, sign of a torsionally strong body.

Matthius

If your going to choose between the two a Strut brace wouldn't even get a look in for usefullness, they're a cheap mod that - can - help and looks good. For a front wheel drive a rear swaybar is FAR more important, crank up your rear roll stiffness and chop most of your understeer out, there are a few FWD cars out there that can approach throttle off oversteer.....
Matthius

That's the info I got, and after driving mine I know what you're saying about the lift off oversteer. It's great fun and I've only got the rear sway bar on the middle setting (of three). I reckon if I stiffen it up to the next setting I'll really be able to flick the back end out on corners. As it is at the moment it feels quite neutral and really well balanced. I can control the cars attitude through the windy bits with the throttle pretty well. I might stiffen the sway bar one day and give it a try, just to compare. I'll post here somewhere if I ever get around to it.

I havent got a rear sway bar but just recentlyi got a Strut Brace and OMG what a differance it makes!

Sway vs Strut... It's almost like Pod Vs Panel!! lol

That's the info I got, and after driving mine I know what you're saying about the lift off oversteer. It's great fun and I've only got the rear sway bar on the middle setting (of three). I reckon if I stiffen it up to the next setting I'll really be able to flick the back end out on corners. As it is at the moment it feels quite neutral and really well balanced. I can control the cars attitude through the windy bits with the throttle pretty well. I might stiffen the sway bar one day and give it a try, just to compare. I'll post here somewhere if I ever get around to it.

I've had my adjustable rear sway on the stiffest setting since about 3 weeks after I installed it. Haven't experienced what I'd call "oversteer" with I can say without a doubt that the back end definetly 'steps out' a little bit and follows the car around in hard cornering.

With my swaybar and coilovers - I can only make the car understeer by 'hooking' the steering wheel quickly at high speed. Having said that - you can make an RWD understeer by doing the same thing.

I've had my adjustable rear sway on the stiffest setting since about 3 weeks after I installed it. Haven't experienced what I'd call "oversteer" with I can say without a doubt that the back end definetly 'steps out' a little bit and follows the car around in hard cornering.

With my swaybar and coilovers - I can only make the car understeer by 'hooking' the steering wheel quickly at high speed. Having said that - you can make an RWD understeer by doing the same thing.

So your not experiencing any problems with the rear sway at the stiffest setting? So no need to worry about the rear end stepping out unexpectedly?:P

Sway vs Strut... It's almost like Pod Vs Panel!! lol

lol not really at all :P

I've had my adjustable rear sway on the stiffest setting since about 3 weeks after I installed it. Haven't experienced what I'd call "oversteer" with I can say without a doubt that the back end definetly 'steps out' a little bit and follows the car around in hard cornering.

With my swaybar and coilovers - I can only make the car understeer by 'hooking' the steering wheel quickly at high speed. Having said that - you can make an RWD understeer by doing the same thing.
Black Beard, Just keep an eye on the sway bar link mounts on the lower control arms as they tent to break off with the whiteline bars on hard :confused: Best advice is to get them welded on properly not just tacked like they are...

Cummins.

So your not experiencing any problems with the rear sway at the stiffest setting? So no need to worry about the rear end stepping out unexpectedly?:P

I definetly haven't had any 'unpredicatable' results, lets put it that way. For the record, I'm running 235/40/18 Nankangs and 'race' spec Hot-bits coilovers as well.

Just two pieces of advise:
I wouldn't go for a full on fang thru narrow mountain roads on your first outing with a newly fitted/adjusted rear sway bar....... give yourself a week or so of 'normal' driving to get used to the dynamics of the car.

&

Know your limits, and don't drive beyond them (this should apply 110% of the time you're behind the wheel anyway, but I thought I'd throw it in for good measure). In my experience - no amount of suspension modification will magically transform a magna into a lotus elise :cool: .

Black Beard, Just keep an eye on the sway bar link mounts on the lower control arms as they tent to break off with the whiteline bars on hard :confused: Best advice is to get them welded on properly not just tacked like they are...

Cummins.

I'll keep that in mind........ maybe I'll drop it back to medium for daily driving, and only put it to stiff for track work (when I eventually get around to doing some).

I definetly haven't had any 'unpredicatable' results, lets put it that way. For the record, I'm running 235/40/18 Nankangs and 'race' spec Hot-bits coilovers as well.

Just two pieces of advise:
I wouldn't go for a full on fang thru narrow mountain roads on your first outing with a newly fitted/adjusted rear sway bar....... give yourself a week or so of 'normal' driving to get used to the dynamics of the car.

&

Know your limits, and don't drive beyond them (this should apply 110% of the time you're behind the wheel anyway, but I thought I'd throw it in for good measure). In my experience - no amount of suspension modification will magically transform a magna into a lotus elise :cool: .

Thats just common sense lol . I know my limits, was just wondering how much the sway bar effected the dynamics on the hardest setting. I'm not expecting it to turn the Magna into a brilliantly balanced track weapon:D . All I needed to know is this bit:



I definitely haven't had any 'unpredicatable' results .

I was just worried it might make the rear end too twitchy. :P

I have on the rare occasion managed to make the rear step out in the dry after aggressively attacking a corner. And I have to say for a big front heavy FWD sedan, the Magna has surprised me with it's handling (and all I have done is lower it, fitted a front camber kit & strut brace and 17" 225 wheel and tyre package).

Have a rear sway bar thats been sitting in it's box for a while..next to the Unichip that was ment to go in a long time ago :D

I have on the rare occasion managed to make the rear step out in the dry after aggressively attacking a corner. And I have to say for a big front heavy FWD sedan, the Magna has surprised me with it's handling (and all I have done is lower it, fitted a front camber kit & strut brace and 17" 225 wheel and tyre package).

Have a rear sway bar thats been sitting in it's box for a while..next to the Unichip that was ment to go in a long time ago :D

Ahhh - I've heard very good things about the front camber kit. Haven't got one myself, one of our QLD reps (megatron) got one recently and claims it is an extremely worthwhile handling mod.

Hey Guys
Just to let you know that on my 1998 TF 3L executive I fitted the 22mm adjustabe whiteline rear sway bar (and brackets because it did not have a sway bar at all) and on the hard setting on the track I was turning end to end !
I have now put it on the softest setting and its now ok !
I have a just fitted the front adjustable camber bolts so will let you know how it goes on the track but have noticed it turns in better on the street ! Also just fitted the ralliart front brakes with the 294mm EBC slotted rotors !

My advise is just be careful with the dynamics of the car when fitting rear bars as if its a bit twitchy in the dry it will be a shocker in the wet !
You dont want to be on a curve, touch the brake and have the magna step sideways and collect that huge gum tree on the side of the road ! :redface:

Nic
WA

If the original question was 'which should I get first?' then get a rear sway bar - adjustable or fixed. I've got the fixed (22mm?) bar on my exec with Koni yellows and 225/50 17's. It will make the biggest difference for the money.

In fact, in my opinion, if you were only allowed to make one change to a stock executive this would be the one I would make.

The strut brace makes it's biggest difference in fast cornering ( I have one as well) by making the steering initally more responsive. You turn the wheel and it turns in quicker. The sway bar allows the car to roll a bit and then just when you think it is going to fall over it settles into a nice attitude and is very nice to drive through higher speed constant radius sweeping turns.

The biggest difference I noticed with the Koni's is that the car feels like it will stay on the road when travelling at the legal limit on some of our top quality non-smooth main roads. It doesn't bounce around and the steering feels more positive and stable in a straight line.

If you want to crank your rear bar up to it's stiffest setting, and drive very hard, you need to make sure you have good tyres that have progressive break-away characteristics when on the limit. This can make the difference between some fun tail out oversteery moments and going off the road backwards. I've had and done both in my younger days. Fortunately I avoided any serious accident by nothing other than pure luck. When caning it tyres are your best friend. Cheap ones are cheap for a reason.

Ahhh - I've heard very good things about the front camber kit. Haven't got one myself, one of our QLD reps (megatron) got one recently and claims it is an extremely worthwhile handling mod.

Yeah the camber kits are very good for the price.

I set mine to -0.5 degrees (close to standard I beleive) on installation to see how tyre wear will go and I am certain -1.0degrees camber will be fine. I will be adjusting it to -1.0 degree when I get a new set of tyres (soon). I'll report back with how much difference this makes:D .

Although I'm also planning to install the sway bar at the same time so the results will be subjective.

This reminds me, increasing the front camber might require a softening of the rear swaybar to compensate for the increase in grip during cornering!!