Rear Sway bar for Hatchback Sport

What is the best rear sway bar for daily driving?

  • None- not worth it to upgrade

  • SI Rear Sway Bar ($80)

  • Progress 20.5mm ($170)

  • Other, I will comment below


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gatorcivic

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I have looked at a bunch of different threads and am thinking about upgrading my rear sway bar. Is it a worthwhile upgrade if I just use the car for commuting 95% of the time or should I save the money and upgrade my tires first? When I am driving the car- 95% of the time it is regular driving around town, 4% taking the longer path to hit some twisty roads, 1% driving far specifically to get to twisty fun roads. I do not have any immediate plans to autocross my car or take it to a track but that might happen sometime in the distant future (2+ years).
I am mainly looking at the SI (18mm) and Progress bar (20.5mm)
SI bar- https://www.firsthondaparts.com/oem...MIl5Gb5_KZ4wIVUdbACh1oWArLEAYYASABEgKJtvD_BwE
Progress- https://prlmotorsports.com/progress2016hondacivicrearswaybar.aspx

I mainly looking at the SI bar and Progress because they are the most sway bar per dollar at their price point. (In the past the CTR 20.5mm bar was supposedly cheap around $90, but the cheapest I could find it for at the moment is $230 so I didn't include it as an option because the progress bar is the same size but cheaper). If I go with the 20.5mm bar will it cause too much over-steer or make the ride harsher for daily driving? If I only upgrade to the 18mm SI bar will I not notice a difference and wish I went with the 20.5mm bar?
So my question for everyone on the forums is should I spend some money and and hour of labor to make the upgrade, or just stick with my current sway bar?

For everyone that has done the upgrade:
Does it make the ride noticeably stiffer/harsher around town?
Can you go faster around corners?
If you had to do it again is your current RSB too soft or too hard and you wish you chose a different option?
Is it worth it if I dont drive my car that hard and am just crusing around town 95% of the time?
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87elco

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I'd do springs and si bar
 

bluehatch17

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Whiteline.
 

Shadowfighter

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I had the Progress bar and liked it but...I ended up installing the type r front sway bar later and it ruined the balance of the car for me. So I upgraded to the Whiteline bar.

I didn't find out tell after I got the Whiteline bar that Progress now makes a 22mm bar as well. If I had known i would have got that one. I'm not a huge fan of my Whiteline bar. The performance is there but the install was a total nightmare. In my opinion their endlinks kind of suck as well.
 

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Your biggest handling gain will be in better tires. I'd recommend the Si bar for you as it will give you a bit less body roll in corners without being too pronounced of a difference. This is based on the fact that most of your driving is basically everyday commuting. Plus it's the best bang for the buck and OEM quality is always a good thing.
 


hobby-man

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I'm gonna link my own post here for your consideration. Remember when you're comparing sway bars, there is a HUGE difference if the bar is solid or tubular. You can't directly compare diameters without knowing the structure of the bar.

TL;DR - based on some rough math I figure a 22mm tubular RSB is roughly equal to the 19mm solid bar on the Si. Both represent ~75% increase in stiffness over the stock bar.

https://www.civicx.com/threads/rsb-eibach-22-mm-vs-oem-18-mm-si.35896/#post-600543
 

aymehr

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I got WhiteLine with WhiteLine Links on the back and couldn't be happier. I noticed the difference right away.
 
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gatorcivic

gatorcivic

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Update- Thank everyone for the replies! I ended up going with the SI bar for $85 because I think it will give me a little better handling but nothing too crazy. I dont plan on doing any other suspension upgrades so hopefully this will give me a little more fun while not making it anywhere near too much oversteer. If I was going to add a suspension brace or something similar in the front I would have gone for a thicker bar in the back. I will update in a week or two once it arrives and I install it.
 
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gatorcivic

gatorcivic

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Final update-

Finally received my package a week ago after USPS lost it. I had to put in many hours of work calling them and the vendor to try and figure out what happened and where it was, but I finally got it.

Installation was not too bad, everything was smooth... almost. I jacked the car up and there are 8 nuts/ bolts you have to take off, and all of them came off relatively easily. However there was just 1 nut that wouldnt come off, I spent 20 min on this 1 nut while I spent probably 5 min on the other 7. Eventually I got it off, and I put the new one on in 10 minutes. If the one nut came off faster I would have been done in less than 40min, but overall it took me about an hour and 15min. With the new bar on during the new test drive the car felt a little flatter when going around a corner. Nothing completly revolutionary but it was a little better. No hint of oversteer at all, but maybe I am just not trying hard enough. When going over bumps the ride doesnt feel any harsher or more stiff so that is good.

After I had the original sway bar off I kind of wanted to take it for a short test drive just to see how much body roll there was, so I can see how much the sway bar truly matters. However I didnt do this because I didnt want to take it off the jacks and have to lift the car when I got back. Has anyone else gone for a drive with no rear sway bar, how was it?

Overall I would say it is worth the $85 that I spent.
 

bluehatch17

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I have 2 civics and wanted to piggie back on this thread. I have a whiteline bar and an eibach bar. And I praised the whiteline a lot, but the eibach is the better product. The whiteline is usually priced lower but if you can wait and look around to get the eibach one priced very similarly for around $140/150.

This has always been one of the first things I have brought for my cars, and after 9 different instances of installing them, I still recommend changing out the bar always. Sometimes, the install doesn’t go well. But this is one of the most instant and always mods you feel and use. I think the eibach bar is better because it includes new brackets and the bar is better because it is similar in length size to the stock bar so there is less chance of road noise. Again, I own 2 civics and have both bars currently so I can say with certainty with an unbias opinion.

In addition, I recently installed a progress bar on a friend’s car. And that is a great product. I had one on my old Rsx, and it was always one of the best things I had installed. The progress one even came with additional brackets to reinforce places besides the brushing bracket. I feel like even though the bar is lower in mm, being that it is solid. It probably works just as well as the 22mm ones from whiteline and eibach. I am happy (for the most part) with all 3 products. But in the future, I am likely to go with the eibach.
 


geeeek

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I have 2 civics and wanted to piggie back on this thread. I have a whiteline bar and an eibach bar. And I praised the whiteline a lot, but the eibach is the better product. The whiteline is usually priced lower but if you can wait and look around to get the eibach one priced very similarly for around $140/150.

This has always been one of the first things I have brought for my cars, and after 9 different instances of installing them, I still recommend changing out the bar always. Sometimes, the install doesn’t go well. But this is one of the most instant and always mods you feel and use. I think the eibach bar is better because it includes new brackets and the bar is better because it is similar in length size to the stock bar so there is less chance of road noise. Again, I own 2 civics and have both bars currently so I can say with certainty with an unbias opinion.

In addition, I recently installed a progress bar on a friend’s car. And that is a great product. I had one on my old Rsx, and it was always one of the best things I had installed. The progress one even came with additional brackets to reinforce places besides the brushing bracket. I feel like even though the bar is lower in mm, being that it is solid. It probably works just as well as the 22mm ones from whiteline and eibach. I am happy (for the most part) with all 3 products. But in the future, I am likely to go with the eibach.
Are you suppposed to upgrade end links with the sway bar? I keep reading that our stock endlinks would limit the sway bar function. Also I’ve seen some posts about using oem Accord end links instead of aftermarket
 

Stigglesworth

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Are you suppposed to upgrade end links with the sway bar? I keep reading that our stock endlinks would limit the sway bar function. Also I’ve seen some posts about using oem Accord end links instead of aftermarket
My understanding is that endlinks are a good upgrade on an upgraded bar, but are optional. If you massively increase the stiffness of the bar, you will notice it more than smaller upgrades. Not upgrading the endlinks won't be the end of the world, but there may be some more deflection in the bar than you could have.

The OEM endlinks are:
Stock Civic - Plastic, <$10 each
Accord - Aluminum, ~$15 each
Civic Type R - Steel, $35 each

As far as I understand it, the OEM endlinks all have the same geometry, but they're made of different materials.
 
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bluehatch17

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Get the accord ones.
 

bluehatch17

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Stock is black, accord is silver. For the price, it’s a great upgrade. So glad that it works. I have spent over $120 on endlinks alone. So to get quality parts like this and OEM for under $30. It’s great.

Honda Civic 10th gen Rear Sway bar for Hatchback Sport 59685F85-3970-4CC7-BB3C-80536FBB6EAD


Honda Civic 10th gen Rear Sway bar for Hatchback Sport 74209661-4455-4603-AD09-F8D529E65513
 

Romka1982

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Stock is black, accord is silver. For the price, it’s a great upgrade. So glad that it works. I have spent over $120 on endlinks alone. So to get quality parts like this and OEM for under $30. It’s great.

59685F85-3970-4CC7-BB3C-80536FBB6EAD.jpeg


74209661-4455-4603-AD09-F8D529E65513.jpeg
Just want to confirm one more time.... Civic endliks(not CTR) are plastic and Accord are aluminum? And the Accord ones are exact fit for Civic?
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