how tight should strut bars be...

[Tallen]

just give me a general idea of how tight they should be. or is the tightness of the strut bars dependant on the way the driver operates his car?

 

[steve]

What do you mean by "How tight"?

If you mean should the strut bar be preloaded in any fashion the answer is no.
If you mean should there be any slop in the strut bar after installation, again the answer is no.

Strut bars are used to provide additional stiffness to the chassis not to change suspension geometry by pushing or pulling the strut tower in or out by preloading the bar. I believe the only reason strut bars have any adjustment is to allow for normal variations in the distance between the two towers. Once the bar fits over the mounting hardware the adjustment should be locked "tight" and the strut bolts torqued to hold it in place.

If you were to build your own bar you could make the whole thing measured to fix and one piece with no adjustments and it would work great.

Is that want you wanted to know?

Steve

 

[Tallen]

hmm...ok, i mean when i initially put the bars on, do i tighten them at all, leave them loose or what. make them just tight enuf so they wont move from sie to side?

 

[steve]

Sorry Matt,

Adjust the bar to fit over the strut bolts on the strut towers, torque the strut bolts and lock the length adjustment to hold it in place. You should install the bar with the car on the ground and the suspension settled before cracking loose the nuts on the strut bolts. Nothing should move around after you have torqued the strut bolts. If you have any slop in the hardware that connects the bar to the mounting brackets on the towers then it's a bad design or a cheap product.
You don't want to preload the towers by adding or subtracting any length once it fits over the strut bolts.

Does that help?

Steve

 

[Tallen]

great, thats what i neeeded. thanks!