OK...So to my understanding.....
 

Alright so here's the deal, as all of you, I will be tuning my 05 xA. So I'm gonna be starting off with some Tein S-techs (cuz I heard nothing but gnar balls about them), and then a Progress Rear Sway Bar following shortly after. I did order a DC upper strut, but then I returned it because I heard that 1) since the xa's towers are close to the firewall its pretty rigid as is, and also because 2) I heard that upper struts create more understeer, while adding a rear sway bar makes it have less understeer and more neutral. Am I right with this? Have I done my homework? So back to the springs...again, im getting s techs from tein, Ive been reading around that +/- 10,000 or so miles, my shocks will blow out and that I'd have to get new ones....or to grow a bigger set of balls and get some coilovers. So if thats the case, I heard that the TRD shocks work well with teins, as tokicko, bilstein, blah ble blah, is that right? So yeah, have I done my homework correctly? is there an additional advice that a newbie should know?

more understeer? um not. and trd struts arent that great honestly.

An upper strut bar won't hurt, I'd throw it on. It won't do a whole lot either, but it won't hurt.

And I would just wait until the struts blow out before you replace them. Then you can buy whatever high performance ones you want. The stockers will do you good for thousands of miles, why throw them out already?

my $.02

-THE DON

Re: OK...So to my understanding.....
 

Tein S-tech's are stiff in the rear which will help reduce understeer a bit.....The rear sway will significantly reduce understeer as well.......To the point the car may oversteer. This can be either fun, dangerous or both. Probably not totally neutral if this is what you are looking for. A lot of people like to play with oversteer. I have had a friend get into a major accident in not knowing what to do in a panic situation. A $22,000 accident with a wall....

I would have kept the strut bar (although not very effective, much easier to add than replacing the front sway). I used quality rear wheel spacers to dial in the way I wanted the car to drive. Increasing the rear track increases understeer (reduces oversteer) and looks good as well. Easy to replace and vary......

All setups are totally personal......You should start out with what you thinking of buying (which is a good start), and dial in the rest.

i second the upper strut

Just my opinion but if you have the money and already know eventually you are going to blow your struts then go for it and get coilovers. I should have done that from the beginning. If you add up the price of the springs and shocks you only need a few hundred more to have adjustability in the ride height.

I was originally on H-Techs and after 12K miles the ride started to get real bouncy and the body roll was getting annoying so I switched to Tein Basics.

I have the DC Sports strut bar in my xA and I love it. While the change wasn't dramatic, there was still a change in the responsiveness of the steering. It's seems more directive and feels tighter. For $89.00 (plus shipping) it's a good mod. It's a quality part and the welds are really nice. Not only that but it makes the engine bay look sexy. :lol:

Check out the FAQ forum for my write up on the strut bar install.