are the shock/strut tower braces under the hood a waste of money or do they work?


Thanks.

 

Since you can get a bar at such a low price (usually like $30), it's a good bang for the buck. You won't really notice it as much on a car that isn't dropped, but I figure every little bit helps, and why not for $30?

 

Yeah its one of those cool things i'de like to have when I pop the hood, plus I have the lowering springs for a 1.2" drop.

It will look nice wiith the honda accord cold air intake im planning to put in too.

 

Every method to reduce body roll and chassis twisting is a good thing. Go for it.

 

i'd say the opposite. i noticed a HUGE difference when i was at stock height.

 

weird, I didn't notice a huge difference period. Just a tad less flex.

 

I felt the difference when i was stock height, but the car felt a lot better when i lowered it.

 

As Tony said, any time you can stiffen the chassis, you should. You can never go wrong stiffening the chassis.

 

FTSB and the hybrid intake were the first two mods I did to my car. The intake just sounds nice, but I definitely felt a difference with the FTSB...it seemed like there was less roll in curves.

 

I didn't notice a difference with the fstb on VE1, VE4 had some other tweaks done at the same time.

 

only because it's cheap. it honestly doesn't do much but it can't hurt and adds little weight.

 

I have looked around for the strut bars but i cant find the 30.00 ones. Ive only seen the stillen one which are 160.00 and the 15.00 ones on ebay which dont look like they will do much.

 

The one on ebay is the one I have, FSTB's are pretty straight forward and the ebay one works fine. I just got the 5th gen bar as the one for third gens on ebay are VG only, we need a bent bar to rise over the IM.

 

I got a cheapo ebay brace that you can crank it so that it is either pulling the strut towers together (tension) or pushing them apart (traction.)

I read somewhere to set it in traction to mitigate stress from potholes and steep driveways etc that twist the car, or in tension to help hold the alignment in hard cornering. You can't have it both ways with this bar because there is about 1/8 inch of play if you try to leave it neutral. Mine is set with traction.

Does anyone else have this kind of bar? Comments, opinions appreciated.

 

I found a brace for $44 shipped in the group purchase section.

 

Sounds like you got a piece of crap for a strut bar dude, it should have no play either way whatsoever.

pics?

 

I didn't notice any difference at all when stock, now that I have a stage1 LTB and FSB, I am tempted to take the FSTB off for a bit too see if I notice any change. If nothing else, they make a good spot to rest your arm when working on the back of the engine!.
The FSB made the biggest difference.
Remember a FSTB will only help to keep your alignment correct during hard cornering, it won't make any difference to body roll.

 

Ha, it was only $9.95! The play is in the part where the brass bolt on the black tower bracket goes through the bar. Its about an 1/8 in in play which would render the thing utterly useless because there's only about an 1/8 in of movement expected at the top of the towers anyway. There is an absolute dearth of information on the net about FSTB function, but I found a few hints.

This manufacturers site talks about the variation in distance between strut towers in individual cars and alludes to the need to preload the brace:
http://www.tsimportedautomotive.com/struttower.html

This site advertises their bar's ability to preload strut towers with 1000lbs of tension:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a

I would deduct that the proper use of a strut tower brace in a racing situation would be to crank the strut towers together and then set alignment and assume cornering forces will pale in comparison to the force you just cranked into the towers. i.e. metal is flimsy to a point then its firm, so the bar will move the towers beyond their flimsy point and make them firm.

I bought mine because I wanted to brace the towers against the shocks of daily driving over potholes and turning into steep driveways, so mine is pushing the towers out a bit. At 320k miles I fear metal fatigue.

I'm actually surprised that the non-adjustable kind fit each individual car, thats definitely a testament to the strength of the 3rd gen chassis.

 

Glad you mentioned that, some sites I've found have people claiming their FSTB reduced body roll. If someone's car was that damn flimsy they would also shatter the windshield/screen and unlatch the doors in a hard turn.

 

The nut on the brass bolt is supposed to be tightened up to the edge of the bar, thus preventing movement.

 

You naysayers would be quite surprised to know how much your car does flex and how much stuff like this makes a difference in structural rigidity of the vehicle.
I notice a HUGE difference in mine whenever I tkae it off to work on the enfine. Then again, I'm running springs 3x stiffer than most of you guys...

 

Will any 5th gen bar work?

 

of course.....

 

I don't want to say every 5th gen bar will work as some may have a higher arch than others that will push up on your hood when it is shut. But there is a 90% chance any one you get off of ebay will be fine.

 

Are talking about the blue bolt? There is no nut there, its all one piece threaded into the bar. The brass bolt (red) passes through a hole in the blue bolt. Green arrows indicate movement possible without setting tension or traction in the bar. Light blue indicates how you can twist the bar to lengthen or shorten the brace. I think it was made from an old shower curtain rod.

Anyway since you made me have to go out there and mess with it again I think I was exaggerating the 1/8in of play. I couldn't get it to a neutral point where it would actually slide back and forth, but it is possible to turn the bar two turns in either direction before it stops firm.

 

i m getting this one off the ebay....i think i should be fine with this one...?

 

Looks just like mine

 

As long as it's for your VG.

 

what do u mean? they dont make it for VE? or there is difference between VE VG strut tower braces?....sorry guys never installed one so dont have any idea....

 

READ THE REST OF THE THREAD.

 

VE is a taller intake, so you need a bar that curves up like a 5th gen does.

 

QFT...i have a strut bar for (89-94)maxima and it wont fit because of the coilpacks on the VE30DE motor...sometimes fourth or fifth gen parts fit the 92-94 se alot better than parts advertised for 3rg gen max's. the VE and VQ are pretty similar... same goes for the CAI situation as well due to the fact the throttle body in located towards the firewall unlike the VG.

 

VE's - Need to get a 5th gen FSTB. Period. The intake Manifold is set too high and ones that are advertised will rub your coil wires against the plenum. Also theres an AC pipe that gets on the way. Just bend it a bit.

VG's - Can get their own VG FSTB. Nothing to worry about.

 

i have the 5th gen bar on mine and it has been great so far. did notice an improvement once installed. noticed even more once i installed Matt's Stage II LTB with ST sway bar and the same goes for his RSTB which i installed today. so far im happy with all the suspension mods.