i see a lot of people buying the comptech sway bar (currently there is a waiting list for them), and i was wondering just what it does

what are the plus's and minus's to buying the comptech sway bar?

your reply is appreciated

 

there is absolutely no minus's to buying the comptech rear sway bar....it helps handling corners and reducing body roll.

 

how does the sway bar do help you do this? is it replacing a stock part?

 

yes......if you have a 5AT TL...i think the size of it is 18 or 19...the 6MT i think is 20....and the Comptech is 22....so if u have an automatic like me...it will make a big difference...and ull be able to feel it...

 

Oh, there are cons.

The purpose of the sway bar is to keep the chassis even and flat when there's more load on one side than the other or if one side is sitting lower than the other.

On the streets, when you hit a bump or a manhole, you'll feel the sway bar compensating, and you will feel the chassis becoming a bit unsettling. With the OEM setup, it's made for a balance of ride comfort and sport, so this is not as pronounced. But with thicker bars, you will feel it. Where I live in East Lansing, the pavement sucks and there are a lot of manholes that are depressed from the road. Every time I hit one of these, I feel the chassis getting nervous and jittery which is attributable to the sway bars.

With a heavy load, like several passengers, you could also bend or break the end link plates which has happened numerous times to many members. On my car, the rear driver side end link plate is bent... probably when I had 8 people in the car (6 in the rear)... don't ask.

In the snow, the sway bar increases lateral momentum by preventing vertical load, so it's more prone to spinning out.

Any modification you do to the car will have its pros and cons. There is no such thing as no minuses. It's just a matter of how big of minuses.

 

so get the sway bar or not? i drive on decent rodes prolly once a week i go paintballing and on the way there, there are some crappy rodes. i never will really drive on rodes with a lot of turns etc (unless i go on a trip). i drive mostly on straight rodes. lots of times i will have 2 other people in the car. on occasion i will have 4 other people besides myself in the car with a lot of paintball stuff (we carpool to paintball tournaments).

 

thats not really a minus tho, its more of something that will happen, a sway bar is a sway bar, that can happen with t he 06 MT sway bar aswy ell as the automatic sway bar....by all means im not doubting you i totally agree there are minus's to everything, but the improved handling outweighs these risks and possible shocks by far

i say get it, a good percentage of this board has it on their TL and nobody complains

 

would the slalom speed increase or decrease wit the sway bar

 

The AT has a 17mm sway bar, MT has 20mm and comptech is 22mm. With the sway bar, through a slalom, your car will have better exit speed as the chassis is more rigid and won't roll as much so you won't lose speed that much.

 

so if i have this right, the ride will not be as smooth as it is with a stock sway bar over a comptech one?

 

What Are You Doing With 6 To 8 People In The Car? Thats Shocking

 

It won't be as smooth, right... but it's not a punishing ride, either. I have Comptech F/R sway bars in my car, and installed the CT RSB on my brother's '05 and drove it. So it's not like I'm an adversary of sway bars.

Perhaps I made it sound like the ride will be ridiculous more punishing, but that wasn't my intention. I was merely saying that you WILL feel somewhat less comfortable ride on rough pavement but it's only for a second and it's not bad at all.

The pros of RSB outweigh the cons by far. I would definitely recommend it.

 

There is a waiting list? WOW, I have a 6MT and I got mine in less than a week, but that was back in March 2005. The sway bar is a good modification for our car, even though the 6MT cars won't feel that much of a difference, I'm sure it's still worth it. My car is almost a Acura/Comptech TL, I have comptech everything you can think of...with the exception of a supercharger.

 

Sway bars are no longer on back order. I ordered one directly from Comptech yesterday and they shipped it the same day!

 

I finally got my comptech sway recently. I guess they are finally in... but they were all out for a few weeks there.