WEBVTT - How do stabilizer bars work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff works dot com

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<v Speaker 1>where smart happens. Hi, I'm Marshall Brain with today's question,

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<v Speaker 1>how do stabilizer bars work? Stabilizer bars are part of

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<v Speaker 1>your car's suspension system. There's sometimes also called anti sway

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<v Speaker 1>bars or anti roll bars. Their purpose in life is

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<v Speaker 1>to try to keep your car's body from rolling in

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<v Speaker 1>a sharp turn. Think about what happens to a car

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<v Speaker 1>in a sharp turn. If you're inside the car, you

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<v Speaker 1>know that your body gets pulled towards the outside of

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<v Speaker 1>the turn. The same thing is happening to all the

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<v Speaker 1>parts of the car. So the part of the car

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<v Speaker 1>on the outside of the turn gets pushed down towards

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<v Speaker 1>the road, and the part of the car on the

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<v Speaker 1>inside of the turn rises up. In other words, the

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<v Speaker 1>body of the car rolls ten or twenty or thirty

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<v Speaker 1>degrees toward the outside of the turn. If you take

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<v Speaker 1>a turn fast enough, the tires on the inside of

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<v Speaker 1>the turn actually rise off the road and the car

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<v Speaker 1>can flip over if you do it hard enough. Roll

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<v Speaker 1>is bad. It tends to put more weight on the

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<v Speaker 1>outside tires and less weight on the inside tires, reducing traction.

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<v Speaker 1>It also messes up steering. What you would like is

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<v Speaker 1>for the body of the car to remain flat through

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<v Speaker 1>the turn, so that the weight stays distributed evenly on

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<v Speaker 1>all four tires. A stabilizer bar tries to keep the

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<v Speaker 1>car's body flat by moving force from one side of

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<v Speaker 1>the body to the other. To picture how a stabilizer

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<v Speaker 1>bar works, imagine a metal rod that's an inch or

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<v Speaker 1>two in diameter. If your front tires are five to part,

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<v Speaker 1>make that rod about four ft long. Attach the rod

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<v Speaker 1>to the frame of the car in front of the

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<v Speaker 1>front tires, but attach it with bushings in such a

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<v Speaker 1>way that it can rotate. Now, attach arms from the

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<v Speaker 1>rod to the front suspension member on both sides when

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<v Speaker 1>you go into a turn. Now, the front suspension member

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<v Speaker 1>on the outside of the turn gets pushed upwards. The

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<v Speaker 1>arm of the sway bar gets pushed upward, and this

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<v Speaker 1>applies torsion to the rod. The torsion then moves the

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<v Speaker 1>arm on the other end of the rod, and this

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<v Speaker 1>causes the suspension on the other side of the car

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<v Speaker 1>to compress as well. The car's body tends to stay

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<v Speaker 1>flat in the turn. If you don't have a stabilizer bar,

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<v Speaker 1>you tend to have a lot of trouble with body

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<v Speaker 1>roll and a turn. If you have too much stabilizer bar,

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<v Speaker 1>you tend to lose independence between the suspension members on

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<v Speaker 1>both sides of the car. When one wheel hits a bump,

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<v Speaker 1>the stabilizer bar transmits the entire or bumped to the

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<v Speaker 1>other side of the car as well, which is not

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<v Speaker 1>what you want. The ideal is defined a setting that

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<v Speaker 1>reduces body roll but does not hurt the independence of

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<v Speaker 1>the suspension. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for

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<v Speaker 1>this podcast? If so, please send me an email at

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<v Speaker 1>podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on

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