i'm thinking of buying some strut bars for my 00 civic. do you have any recommendations on whether what i should go for or if i have to do anything specific beforehand? yes.. i'm new to the whole car deal.. i saw some on ebay for pretty cheap, the maker -- Bomz Racing.

any input would help.
thanks in advance
~ iOn

 

nothing with pivot points...so that probably means not the ones youre looking at.
The oem gsr/si bar is nice, cheap, and does what little work a tower bar does.

 

sorry.. but what are pivot points? the ones i'm looking at are these..

or even these..

for the front and rear struts..

~ iOn

 

pivot points...where things pivot...swivel, turn, spin, etc
See in the first image you posted how the bar connects to the end brace at 1 bolt? That is where the bar will move, with the car - the whole reason why youre getting them in the first place is to reduce flex. If the brace is pivoting at that point, the same as the car flexing, youre wasting your time.

The second bar, in picture 2, has 2 bolting points, which removes a pivot point, where the first in picture 2, has 1 point = pivot. (and no, thats not a real hype arr brace)

Good bars have no bolt locations between the mounting foot, and the bar itself. IE) Mugen, OEM, Neuspeed, PasswordJDM bars
Shitty bars, have bolting points (pivot points). IE) Ebay bars, SPOON, DC, etc


If you want an example of a good bar: http://www.passwordjdm.com/product.a...For=&PT_ID=374

 

And I can vouch how much those Ebay bars flex. When I purchased my 1991 Civic Si for autocross duties this year it came with an ebay bar like the 1st one you pictured. Car had -3.5 negative camber in the front. I knew those crappy bars wouldn't do much and got myself a Neuspeed front strut bar which is one solid tubular piece.

When I went to install the Neuspeed bar the bar would not go onto the car - the bar and bolt were about 1" from lining up. It took me about an hour of thinking to figure out to jack up the front middle of the car so the strut towers would move out a little. The Neuspeed bar fell into place perfectly. Went to get my camber remeasured and the reading was -2.8 camber. So it definitely did something.

 

what if you would have done that before installing the cheaper bars. I definately felt less flex which a set of the cheapest ebay sells for my crx. They shouldn't be able to move as once the bar is on the struts can't go inward or outward. Yes there not as nice as the more expensive ones but I can't see how it could make that much of a difference. Both should be better than none.

 

with that said, does that mean the 2nd one would be my better choice? the description on ebay stated that it was an OEM strut bar.. and as you said OEM are a more reliable kind?

*off-topic*: i also have an intake installed.. but i never knew where the rubber hose connects to. so i have a rubber plug to not allow dirt or w/e into the intake instead. 00 civic dx, stock engine right now (SOHC 1.6L) where would i connect it?

 

Bomz Racing isnt too bad, theyre a new company though. Ive got their coilovers. So far so good on those. We have an account with those guys and I havent heard anything bad about them so far.

 

hm.. that would be the first strut bars i posted up.. any other input? or answers to my questions above?

~ iOn

 

neither of those bars are oem...but the second is closest in design to the integra r brace.
An oem bar isnt going to say "civic type r" on it... or "Mugen Power", or any sticker at all (especially a crooked one)
The oem civic type r bar looks like this (but is red):

[actually, here's one - http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Jdm-C...22217741QQrdZ1 ]


Like I said, just dont get one with pivot points and you will be fine. Get one that does, and youre only wasting your time and money.

Your intake should have a hose thats connected to the valve cover port (left side, rear) and a hole for the iat (intake air temp) sensor