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Strut bars.............

4K views 24 replies 7 participants last post by  TrevorS 
#1 ·
anyone have the cheap ones off of ebay? I know that the strut bar doesnt do much but looks good. can you post a pic if you have one on your car.:cheers:
 
#7 ·
I studied the mounting bracket photos of the eBay brace earlier and you can see the bar attaches lower than with the Tanabe. Between having to remove the engine cover and it not being apparent to me it could be tensioned, I gave up on it. The TRD can't be tensioned either.
 
#6 ·
The Tanabe doesn't touch anything -- fit is very good, however, the bar passes above the front of the brake fluid reservoir cap. Most people install it with the label side up, but if you want proper access to the cap, rotate it 90 degrees.

As far as pretensioning -- install the bar with the tower nuts untightened, raise the nose of the car so the tires are suspended, then tighten and torque the tower nuts, and finally tension the bar.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Just remember that the bar attachments have to be rigidly mounted to the towers. Any flex under cornering stresses and it's a waste of time (that is, assuming the bar itself is tensioned and its end fittings are side-to-side rigid -- if not, it's already a waste of time).

This photo shows Tanabe's solution -- perhaps it'll help.

 
#10 ·
The TRD one is welded as one solid piece. So, no hinges, tensioning, or adjustment. It just fits and works.
 
#25 ·
The purpose of pre-tensioning the strut tower brace is to make the tower "box" structure as rigid as possible, removing the normal flex. If the tires are touching the ground when you tension, then the suspension isn't relaxed and so you can't tension properly, other forces interfere. If the brace doesn't allow for pre-tensioning, then there's no way to remove the normal flex from the tower "box". That's the drawback to the TRD -- the brace and it's mounts by themselves aren't rigid enough to prevent lower portions of the "box" from flexing. However, it's definitely superior to a brace that doesn't support pre-tensioning and has hinged mounts.
 
#15 ·
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