Whats involved with installing strut towers?

[LifeRollsOn]

Do you just remove the bolts, put them on and put the bolts back on or is there more to it than that? Is it something somebody with very little experience working on cars can do? How do you know how tight to make the bolts do you just tighten them till they do not go any tighter?

 

[robvas]

That's about it! It's pretty easy. just make sure you don't put it on backwards and close the hood!

 

[Defiant]

Close the hood really slowly the first time, watch for everything to clear. Figure 15 pounds torque on those, nothing drastic. Good and tight, but you _can_ strip those by hand.

Latest folklore is that you set up a strut bar to push _outward_, but I don't know that it'd really matter.

 

[LifeRollsOn]

What is a good kind to get for front/rear that will be very good for handling/quality/looks?

 

[cait sith]

It's called not getting strutbars and getting swaybars instead.

The DSM suspension doesn't benefit from strut bars (unless they're connected to the bulkhead or triangulating with the floor of the car in back) as much as a regular strut based car like say an EVO or even a Honda with its multilink suspension.

A cheap bar going across the engine bay is just going to make it look pretty and get in the way of working on the intake manifold area. At the most it's going to give the tiniest bit of chassis stiffness.

Edit: Please note that I am referring to the 2G suspension setup, although strut tower bars really don't do that much for 1G's either compared to (a) swaybar(s).

 

[igs]

My front strut bar made a big difference. Although sway bars made a much bigger difference. The more the better I say.

 

[LifeRollsOn]

Is the $100 greddy strut tower brace any better than the buschur $80 one or are you just paying for the greddy name?

 

[Defiant]

Functionally, neither is "better" than the $12 eBay strut, which has no name, but plenty of room to apply the decal of your choice.

 

[2fast420a]

Yeah if you have your heart set on a strut bar get a pretty one . Also note that most the time the only difference between a GST strutbar and a GS strutbar is the way they go on.