whyyyyy!!!
hehe
well i just got it in today, and i try to put it on, but it doesnt fit....
anyone know whats going on?
i saw a sticker on the bar itself that said Maxima 96-Up

so i called courtesy and asked them why, and he said that that shouldnt matter, and that it should fit...
so they are sending me another one as soon as ups gets their asses in gear and comes and picks this one up...

hmmm
i dunno...
when i tried to fit it on the bolts, there was just no way it would fit over the engine...
i would try and just place it over the three on the right side and then on the left side, the bolt nearest the engine would be about an inch away from the hole in the bar...

ahhh i should have came here to ask you guys for help before calling courtesy... hehe oh well... still, any help now would be helpful if i get the same problem with the one that they are sending me next time...

 

you do know the length can be adjusted, right?
there are two bolts on each side that can be loosed to change the length of the bar
as for fitting over the VE, it may need to be slightly bent in the middle to make it work (I got the older version that was specifically for the VE, but they no longer make those)

 

yes i know that it can be adjusted

as for the bending part, i have no idea how to do that...
this thing is thick as hell
it looks like there is no bend in the bar at all...
just very very slighty bent

 

None of the bars will fit without bennding? i still am not koshor with the idea of bending the FSTB haha

 

not true
it's just the VE that has problems with Courtesy's new design; they used to have a flat bar and then they had a different design for the VE but now that have a round one and it needs to be bent to fit on VE (from what I've heard)

 

yea ive got one and ive heard about people talking about bending theres for the VE.........just dosent sound too koshor to me....

 

Ive got the new coutesy bar and the ve engine but I didnt bend the bar!.
its a tight fit, I had to adjust the bar a bit to the left to clear the intake manifold. And also the wiring harness to the #1 coil touched so I bent down the metal tab on the coil harness.
sure wish I had the flat tubular FSTB, I was kinda dissapointed, but WTF it works

 

have any pictures?
i would like to see what you did

 

*sigh* well now there is another problem... hehe
i cant get any of the 6 bolts off! =\ they are like cemented on there or something... i tried using wd40... but no use...

what else can go wrong today?

 

i have the obx bar and i'm in the same boat as you. there's no way its fitting over the engine, and adjusting it doesnt make a difference. obviously these werent designed for the ve. i wouldnt bend it if i were you, that would ruin the structural rigity it needs to be effective! mine has slight bends already, but definitly not enough. what needs to be done is the mounting plates should raise the bar up higher over the engine. the bend (or lack of bend)in the bar is beside the point. its the mounting plates that is the problem. my solution: my dad and i are going to make custom mounting brackets. he is a licensed welder with all the tools so i can get this done free of charge. he's going to cut off the bracket where the bar attaches to the mounting plate, and make a new, longer one that will raise the bar up higher. the bolts are a pain to get off, if you have an airgun use that.

 

wow, i was thinking about getting one of these, but man, if it doesn't fit! i'm not gonna! i have a 92 VE. so what's the deal, does it even get close? someone said they got it to fit without bending it. what's the deal! that's so stupid that they'd desing it so you'd have to bend it! man that annoys me!

 

no, to be honest it wasnt even close. i took the mounting plates off of the bar and bolted them down. then attached the bar to one side. i pushed with all my body weight on the other side and it was still about an inch or two from reaching the other one! this was the closest i got it. i even placed three or four washers under each of the mounting plates, to help raise them up, with no success.

 

I guess I just got lucky....

 

James92se
I wouldnt raise the bar because its already an increadibly tight fit. It presses against the hood insulation, mine was skwished against the insulation and because i painted mine black it rubbed some paint off so I remove small sections of the hood insulation.
So if you wanna raise it only do it in small increments, Maybe you can use washers just as a test to see how high you could raise it. if you raise it too high there may be the posibility of deforming the hood.

 

James92se

I wouldnt raise the courtesy bar because its already an increadibly tight fit. It presses against the hood insulation, mine was skwished against the insulation and because i painted mine black it rubbed some paint off so I remove small sections of the hood insulation.
So if you wanna raise it only do it in small increments, Maybe you can use washers just as a test to see how high you could raise it. if you raise it too high there may be the posibility of deforming the hood.

 

lol, the newbie posted twice! i wonder if there's a difference with an auto and a stick. CZar's fits and he has a 5spd, james92SE's didn't and he has an auto. they're the same year, so this seems like the only explanation. that or the bars are different. do you both have the same bars?

 

i thought about this but what i did was position the bar how i wanted it above the engine and then shut the hood to see how or if it would rub/hit the hood. it didnt, but it did come in contact with it, no biggie. with all the washers, it still wasnt quite high enough and i didnt want to put so many washers that the bolts wouldnt have enough area to attach to. i think we dont have the same bars. i was looking at the pictures or czar's and his is definitly different than mine. mainly in the mounting plates, which on his obviously raise the bar up high enough to fit over the engine. so, i dont know if obx changed the design or what. regardless, i have a problem.

 

This is going to sound like a personal problem, but my hose is in the way! I just got a Courtesy FSTB today and there is a hose just inside the passenger side strut tower that is right in the way of the connection from the red mounting ring to the bar. What did you do with yours? That hose isn't very flexible. Bending the bar is no big deal, but I don't want to re-plumb half of my engine compartment for a $90 strut bar. Please advise. Will go a long way toward deciding if I keep it or send it back.

 

Mine right now fits ideally. Its sits about 1/4 away from the engine at the nearest point and it doesn't even touch the hood liner. BTW I DID bend the bar, but I feel that it did not detract AT ALL from the function of the bar. You would have to put 1000+ lbs of force on the end of the bar to cause it to fail. I am really serious, because I know how much effort it took to bend this. I think it could hold the rear of my car off the ground if I found some way to mount one end on the floor and the other end on the bumper. I did not bend it that much (It actually fit initially, but it made contact with the engine when the engine was running); I bent it so I had an additional 1/4" clearance......

 

flyry110
crappy computer + crappy connection = crappy results

maximizd27
dude I've go about 3/16 inch between the bar and the a/c hose. A friend has a digital camera but its not working right now. If I can get pics i'll post'em
I dont think you should bend the bar. maybe see about returning it and getting the flat tubular bar from another manufacturer.

 

i'm just giving ya a hard time bro. hey, who else makes front strut bars?

 

Where did you get your OBX bar? It's looking like that's the way to go. The Courtesy bar just isn't made for this motor. I guess that's why Stillen never made one for the VE30DE.

 

You'd better talk with james about this because like me he bought an OBX FSTB but mine fit and his did not at all. I bought mine from alex@southwestautoworks.com. It technically is made for the VQ's and not VE, but mine fits fine. I bent the A/C hose a little bit and it all works great.

 

i bought mine from alex at southwest too. we've been talking thru e-mail about this problem and he's currently talking to obx about it. i'm not sure what they can do about it. it looks like they slightly changed the design, because czar and i have different ones. alex offered to have it picked up and refunded, but i said no thanks. any other bar is going to have the same problem so i'll just have to customize this one.