Actually, he's talking about
anti-roll bars. These have 2 D-brackets attached to the subframe with a U-shaped bar passing through them, almost as wide as the vehicle itself. The ends of the U attach via endlinks to the lower control arms (LCA's). The effect is less body "roll" during cornering, which would certainly help the Ody out.
Anti-roll bars work like torsion springs. As the vehicle turns right, for example, the suspension on the left side compresses, and the left LCA moves up towards the chassis. An anti-roll bar resists this motion by tying the movement of the left LCA to the movement of the right LCA. For the left to move up, either 1) the right LCA must move up, or 2) the anti-roll bar must flex. Both of these actually occur, but an upgraded (thicker) anti-roll bar increases effect #1 and lessens #2.
The result is a more stable vehicle in turns with reduced body lean. Also, upgrades to the front and rear have different effects. A stiffer front bar increases understeer ("pushing" through turns, where the nose of the vehicle just keeps sliding). A stiffer rear bar increases oversteer, where the tail end comes around (think Dukes of Hazzard
).
Generally, understeer is much safer because it's predictable. In an emergency, at least you see what you're about to hit, so you might have a chance at avoiding it. Oversteer is difficult to control if you're not experienced and would be a
really bad idea for a minivan. Most vehicles are tuned from the factory to understeer pretty heavily, just for safety's sake.
Anyway, I upgraded the rear anti-roll bar on my 2000 Civic Si and
love the results. It's much tighter through the turns. The front was already quite large, so I left that stock.
Oh, Coleman, you are thinking about
strut tower bars (a.k.a. strut tower braces).
And I'd just like to say the SE-R is a hella fine car. Nice ride!
