The purpose of upper strut bars is to increase the rigidity of the body of your car to prevent flexing through high-speed turns. Most of the people with them don’t autocross, so for the most part people get them for the looks. The effects of the bars you feel will be minimal; you will be bias so you will think they did make your handling so much better, but sorry it isn’t much. On track use you will notice the benefit when used with other handling increasing mods. I know my paint is dirty on in the bay, and that the towers look bad. The bay is going to all be painted black so I don’t care. Now on to the install of your set:

Now you can either go and buy brand name pieces for $100’s, or do what I did and buy a set like this of 4, for under $50. It come with a front and rear upper strut bar, and a front and rear lower tie bar. The lowers require you take apart a lot of suspension components..



So of the 4 you will be using the curved bar as well as the longest straight one. We will go over the front install first:

1. Locate which bar is the one you need for the front upper strut bar, it will be the longest bar and will have a curve to it as well.

2. Now let’s get our tools together.


3. Now obviously pop your hood, and locate your strut towers (I hope you know where they are), and proceed to REMOVE THE 2 OUTER NUTS ON THE STRUTS (SEE PICTURE). DO NOT EVEN TOUCH THE MIDDLE NUT. Use a deep well socket to get them off.


4. Take the bolt that is holding the outer brackets on the strut bar so you have the outer bracket off. Place the bracket over the 2 bolts on the struts and tighten down the nuts. Torque them down to 40 ft/lbs.


5. Now repeat steps 3 and 4 for the other side.

6. Now for the generic bars, you have to adjust the width of the connecting bar. This is as simple as unscrewing/unscrewing the tie ends to the right length. Put the bolts in on each link, and tighten down using the 8mm hex key and crescent wrench. Then, using the crescent wrench, tighten the nuts on the actual bar itself up against the inner bar, locking the threads in place. Give the whole set up a nice tug making sure everything is tight, and you are done!


Now it is time to do the rear strut bar!

1. Locate your rear strut bar; it will be the longest, straight bar.

2. To get to your strut towers in the back; pop your trunk. Then you will notice the bulges in your carpet in the trunk and that is where your towers are. Remove the plastic pins that hold the carpet on for both sides. Allowing you access to your strut towers.


3. Now you will see your strut towers are exactly the same as your fronts. So to make it easy, do exactly as you did for the fronts, steps 3-5.

4. Now you will notice that the carpet is obviously obstructing the ability to put the bar on. You will need to cut your carpeting, either you can cut a flap, or I cut a T using a razor blade.


5. Now for the generic bars, you have to adjust the width of the connecting bar. This is as simple as unscrewing/unscrewing the tie ends to the right length. Put the bolts in on each link, and tighten down using the 8mm hex key and crescent wrench. Then, using the crescent wrench, tighten the nuts on the actual bar itself up against the inner bar, locking the threads in place. Give the whole set up a nice tug making sure everything is tight, and you are done!

(And yes that is a pink lawn flamingo in my trunk, as well as a full size banana costume. Don’t ask )

 

Nicely done. Good job on the install guide scott!