General front strut tower bar question

[Thomas]

Hi guys, I've got one of those cheapo flea-bay strut tower bars for my car and it is the threaded type - the end links are threaded and screw into the bar itself. There are nuts on the end links that I can tighten up against the bar.

I've been told by the guy who did my wheel alignment that I should drill out the thread in the bar and then use the nuts to adust the pre-load in the bar. It's not a straight bar, so his logic was that tightening the nuts would bend the bar which then places pressure on the strut tops.

What do you guys think?

[ViPeR_NiPPleX]

if the preload is enough to bend the bar, id be worried! Think about what the bar is designed to do.... hopefully not bling, but never know

In most cases, try to sell it and get a real one.

[YLD-16L]

You don't "preload" strut tower braces.

I think you should not take any more advice from your wheel aligner.

A strut tower brace is just an additional chassis brace that can be fitted by the owner to further increase chassis rigidity, specifically between the strut towers. It is not designed to pre-load their mounting points, but rather to simply provide extra strength when needed like during fast cornering.

[ma61turbo]

You don't "preload" strut tower braces.

I think you should not take any more advice from your wheel aligner.

Ditto.

Run away, run away fast...

[Joshstix]

Your alignment guy is what I like to term "custom".

No I don't mean that in a good way.

[Thomas]

Well, its not entirely for bling

When it was in my old car it did a great job of keeping the front end together, otherwise it was like a marshmallow. In my new car with 4ws, I'm not so sure that it's making as big an impact.

I was a bit concerned as well when he told me that the bar should be bending to pre-load out the strut tops. I remembered years back when I foolishly installed a strut bar HEAPS of pre-load in my old car and it was understeer city. It was kinda fun though, it would understeer like crazy and then snap into oversteer, and being a RWD car...

So you reckon the bar should be completely static? As in, it should only be used to keep the struts in place and not to exert any pre-loaded pressure?

At the moment the bar is pretty much static - I did give it a ltiny bit of pre-load by putting the scissor jack under the x-member and giving it about half a turn to bring the strut tops apart by about 1-2mm.

[YLD-16L]

The experts/pros/etc say static - NO PRELOAD

Dudes/wheel aligners/tyre fitters/autosalon competitors - can say what they like and very few people should listen.

So you reckon......

It's not what we reckon, it's the right way of fitting it. Anything else is wrong.

Edit: chill factor added

[ma61turbo]

A strut brace is without doubt a static piece, as said above. What it is designed to do is reduce flex in the body around the struts caused by the suspension loading up. You *don't* preload them in any way at all. They are just a bar to resist the bending movement of the body.

[wilbo666]

Your alignment guy is what I like to term "custom".

No I don't mean that in a good way.

I like to call people like that "special" lol

I think we have the same thoughts

Cheers
Wilbo

[Thomas]

Thanks guys.

YLD-16L - chill mate, I was just asking opinions on what obviously sounded like dodgy advice. If it didn't seem dodgy to me I would have simply listened to it.

[Joshstix]

Yeah the idea of the strut brace is simply to connect the top of each strut housing together to lock them in the same place in relation ot each other. This means if one of them is going to be moved by stress on the chassis then both of them will have to move, basically doubling the resistance of each of the strut towers to moving, in theory.

Pre-loading the brace is stressing the towers all of the time for no good reason as far as I can see.

Looks like you've got it under control though.

[YLD-16L]

YLD-16L - chill mate

I am chilled I will make better use of the smilies to indicate that