What's the difference between..

[Jliao]

Struts (Shocks?), Sway bar, tower bar, and stablizer?
What are the purpose of each?
Also, what's the "bar" that came with my PR5 that's build in the engine?

thanks

P.S. Sorry, I'm new to car modification :/

 

[Logan]

struts and shocks control your springs. they control how bouncy or not bouncy your ride is.
sway bars keep both sides of the car in control in relation to each other:
ie front sway bar connects left and right suspension, the thickness of the bar determines how one side reacts to what the other side is doing.
tower bars connect the tops of your struts/shocks, reducing body flex.
stabilizer bar is usually another name for one of the above...

 

[Keith@FP]

Shocks and struts are essentially the same thing, the difference is how the rest of the suspension is designed around them. The Protege has struts on all four corners. They're more correctely termed "dampers", as they control the spring compression and rebound. WIthout them, you'll just bounce around.

Logan explained sway bars well. They're often called anti-roll bars or anti-sway bars, both more accurate terms. Stabilizer is actually another term for sways.

You've got a strut tower bar already - it's the one going across your engine.

Keith

 

[Jliao]

Seem to me sway bar = tower bar..
or is it different?

 

[saided18]

yeah i operate a CAT backhoe and the thing bounces around like a mo fo when i hit a bump. thank god for shocks and struts. i always unsderstood that a strut is a unside down shock absorber. and ussaly back in the day cars had struts in the fron tand shocks in the back. Am i right.

 

[twilightprotege]

hey

saided18, i'd be guessing that the reason for the bouncing is high profile tyres on your backhoe...

like what keith said, "strut" is a shock absorber...just a type of shock absorber. that's the best way to describe it.

jliao, a tower bar (strut bar, strut brace) connects the top of the shocks (struts...whatever) to each other. they are fixed points and do not move. they just help stop the body of the car bending or flexing.

sway bars connect the moving points of the suspension. as the car say turns left, the right side of the car compresses as it has more pressure on it, the left side goes up. the sway bar is basically a metal bar, like logan said, connecting the two sides. the thicker it is the harder it is to twist in opposite directions, so therefore the right side of the car doesnt go down as far and the right side doesnt go up as far....keeping the car flatter.

hope this helps

later

 

[Keith@FP]

The best way to describe the difference between a strut and a shock is that a strut is a structural, stressed member of the suspension. A shock is not.

If you have a strut-based suspension and you remove the struts, the suspension will collapse. Wheels will point all over the place.

If you have a shock-based suspension and you remove the shocks, the suspension geometry will not be affected. THe car might sit low, but the alignment and general integrity of the suspension will remain.

Struts are often used on the front for packaging reasons. They're also cheaper as the suspension is less complicated. For pure handling, shocks generally work better.

Keith

 

[Jliao]

Thanks alot guys.