Most of us with this bar do not have coilovers. PM member "Wave", or look for his post, where he states that the bar works fine with his coilovers.

 

As a complete newb in car upgrading, and not searching the forum for this thread (which has a ton of helpful tips), installing this bar took 3 hours lol

10 mins to go out and buy some chocks
1 hour to get the wheels off because I put the jack stands resting on the long bar that is connected to the springs.
1 hour to get the springs off because I didn't have the right tools in front of me.
15 mins to get the anti-sway bar on. such an easy install! even for a newb!
15 mins getting the wheels back on tight
10 mins inspecting everything and getting the jack stands out
5 minute test drive...

.. SUCCESS!!!

Tried to do some sharp turns around the neighborhood corners and there definitely is a difference in handling!
All in all, even with the amount of time spent, it was worth it

 

Sounds scary still hahaha.

 

Ok so it's pretty well established that this thing is an awesome handling/performance mod. My question is how does it affect safety? I know everyones super enthusiastic about the product but would you honestly say that it made the car safer (quicker to react to emergency lane changes, maybe?) or less safe (Less stable if you had to hit the brakes mid-corner)? And not safer for you, but say for someone who gives absolutely no thought to spirited driving.... From a safety aspect alone would you put this the car on your daughter or son was first learning how to drive on, or would you wait until they had some seat time under their belts because you were worried they'd get themselves into trouble hitting the brakes at the wrong time, wheras without the bar improperly timed braking would just lead to wallowing.

Thoughts? (And again, try to think of it objectively and not from the enthusiastic 'best mod ever!!!' standpoint)

 

Spotch,
addition of aftermarket rear sway bar reduces understeer and increases oversteer. Reason OEM set up cars have understeer is safety! Inexperienced driver's first panic reaction under distress is to hit the brakes! Front of the car is designed to absorb energy of the impact the best therefore inherited understeer.
Bottom line, for inexperienced driver stay stock! Do not beef up or alter balance.
I can't stress enough:
Get them into driving school at the nearest track if you can afford it.
For a pocket change, get them involved into autocrossing (SOLO2) through SCCA or NASA in your region. They can learn so much about car control at speeds up to 70-80mph avoiding cones! Best of all in a car they drive daily! As their skill improves they will lose tendency to brake under distress. They will start hitting gas, countersteering and powering out of trouble! Then add rear sway bar and performance springs to their daily driver! That will help them do high speed lane change and avoid accidents when inexperienced drivers hit brakes and slide into stationary objects!
Even better if you get youngsters into go carts well before they reach legal driving age! Not to make race drivers out of them, but to hone their driving skill before they develop wrong (rookie driver) instincts. They will get speed bug out of their brain before ever driving on public roads.
Go carts have brakes on rear axle only and that will teach them to brake in straight line before entering corners! They will learn to think of tires capable of 100% traction. That 100% traction is shared between acceleration, braking and cornering. You can never exceed 100% ability without loosing traction. If they are braking 100% they cant steer! They will learn to roll of the gas onto brake and off the brake into steering progressively, safely!
Best of all it can be great bonding opportunity between parents and kids. More time to spend together doing something fun and learning a lot of something that will save their life more than once! So when they pile up their friends in their car they won't be preoccupied talking, fiddling with car stereo or messing with their cell phone!
Experience saves lives! There is no substitute!
There are some members whose parents did just this with them.
One of them in particular has parents I look up to as my roll models.

Ivan

 

Thanks for the reply. I guess I should've clarified... I don't have children but the Fit belongs to my wife and she'll be the one driving it the most. Since it's her car I worry quite a bit about modifying it and am unlikely to do any kind of modification that would make it any less safe than it already is. And it's not like she doesnt know how to drive because that's not the case at all... I just phrased it that way so I could emphasize the importance of getting an objective answer. Since it's her car and we're talking about me tinkering with it maintaining safety is a top concern because with my luck if I did a mod that makes the car less predictable or more squirrely .05% of the time that situation would somehow come up while she was driving it and I wouldn't forgive myself. I guess that sounds stupid but I'm very wary of modifying a car that someone other than me will be driving the majority of the time.

 

Then why do it? Honda built the FIT (or pretty much any car they sell to the general public) to exhibit what they consider "safe" handling for the average driver. Your wife will most likely never notice or appreciate the difference the rear sway will make. Why not, instead, spend the money on something she will see as an improvement to the car?

 

Well because I'll be driving it too (just not quite as much as her), and with it being as fun as it is stock I can only imagine how much fun it would be with the rear sway bar. If I could decrease body roll with 0 drawbacks I'd jump on it, the question is about the existence of drawbacks.


Not to mention there's a chance that she might like the handling difference if the improvement is as much as everyone here is saying. I know she prefers sharp handling to wallowy, and precise steering to floaty (i.e. corollas are bad lol). It's not like she lives in a performance vacuum at all, I'm just acting as though she does becasuse it simplifies the discussion. Focus on the safety issue first, the dealbreaker, then go from there, because I'm pretty certain that she, like I, wouldn't choose to improve the handling a little if it meant making the car less safe. At least that's the assumption I'm going on.

 

Spotch,
your explanation on who the daily driver is makes a huge difference!
Your wife is very similar to mine. She took my friends 300hp+ WRX for hell of a drive and our friends jaws drooped! Now, she is IN! LOL!
I would say GET THE SWAY BAR, NOW!
Your wife won't do anything silly and she will definitely appreciate handling improvements. Take the car autocrossing to explore it's limits. You can both drive it in the same class with exception of gender. She would be officially in the ladies division. She will have a blast and so will you!
Don't be surprised when she starts kicking your butt, too! LOL!

In '90's Stacey Reitmeier (I hope I am spelling it right) was creaming the field in autocross in Southern California. Her husband taught her to drive stick and within months his ass was grass! Porsche gave them cars for competing. She was given 911 Carrera and his consolidation prize was a 968!
Girl power! They kick butt!

 

I agree with "ciburri". My reasoning is that with a mature and intelligent driver, the Progress Anti-Sway bar increases safety by adding stability. Stiff cross winds on freeways going through canyons or over large bridges no longer blow you from one lane into the next. You have better control in wind combined with wet pavement.

The changes in handling with the bar only become dangerous if your driving technique exceeds your own ability and good judgment.

 

I think you guys went over this already but i just want to make sure

Do you need a spring compressor for this DIY?

I don't want to be able to take the springs out and can't put them back in...

 

whats R&R???

 

You don't need a spring compressor for the Removal & Replacement of the springs. Get the rear end as high as you can on jack stands. When you lower the trailing arm assembly with a jack there will be an inch or so clearance to just pull the springs out. Go back through the instructions and the DIY a couple times. It will help.

 

Just wondering if anybody else that has the sway bar installed (or not) noticed the springs are compressed more on the right side (exhaust side) than the left side (driver side).

Is this normal?? I hope the anti-sway bar didn't twist

 

Yes, you're paranoid. The Progress bar cannot "twist" into a permanent bend. It is a spring that deflects under pressure, then always returns to its original shape. If you bend a spring too far, it breaks. There are many threads about Fits riding at different heights from corner to corner. Your Fit does not sit level, and it has nothing to do with the anti-sway bar.

 

I'd imagine that the right side is more compressed to make up for the weight of the driver on the left side; at least, that's from what I've read.

 

alright cool, thanks for the info!

 

 

it shouldn't be too hard to take it off, it should come off like any other bolt so your not doing anything wrong. you might just need a breaker bar to give you more leverage on the bolt, i used my torque wrench so i had plenty of leverage.

 

dont put the jack under the spring cause im thinking it will load up the bolt and make it really hard to get out