Front Strut Tower Brace & Intake????
 

Can anyone help me out?

After spending 1 hour figuring out how to remove my stock air intake and getting the aftermarket cold air intake on, resetting the air sensor, sounding good, I go put my strut brace back on and no go. It hit the top of the CAI. I trimmed up the rubber mount that connects to the throttle body and CAI, but still nothing. I said screw it and left my strut brace off and went to close my hood and the B*#$ch wants to hit my hood. I have an aftermarket hood thinking that is the problem, but I will be d@*n I am going to remove my Kamanari hood. So I took my aftermarket CAI off and put back on my stock intake.

Can anyone shead light on the subject?

Thank you in advance..

What type of strut bar and what type of CAI are they? Not all match up to fit- DC sports should be OK, Neuspeed too they make them to fit OK w/ other aftermarket parts on the car.

Also-
If you have an AEM CAI a guy I knew put the wrong rubber coupling in the wrong spot- make sure it is the shorter one, I know that sounds like a stupid thing but it can happen..

The DC Sports and Neuspeed will definitely fit. Some of the generic ones can be turned to get them to fit as well

i heard that the DC sports bar is junk.......but yeah, the dc sports adn neuspeed bars will fit with a CAI

i have the DC strut bar and the only problem i have its to close to the clutch resv. but i had to cut a section underneath of my Invader hood cuz it rubbed the top of the intake.

Neuspeed should be fine too- it even fit OK on my car once the turbo was on it- does not hit the bonnet

I have a stock intake. I bought a $20 strut bar from China Town last year and it was meant to fit with the stock intake only. So.. I'm guessing you probably have a strut bar like mine. I say pick one: either stay with your CAI, or go strut barless.

What strut bar to use-
 

Yeah I had the same problem with anyting fitting over my AEM CAI. It really blew, I had to find out the hard way and then from the list on what fit here. I bought 3 different bars just to find out, *clunk* it hit the CAI. Don't change nothing! Just get the Neuspeed Strut Bar it on eof the only ones that fits over the CAI. It goes way toward the cab and clears it. Problem solved. So, sell that other piece of shiat and get NEUSPEED, it's way worth it too. You can finally take some turns without the car squating down to take a dump, you just cut through-Laters, and good luck! :rockon:

Nuespeed!

Overpriced...yes
Junk...no

There is too much speculation and misinformation on this site. And too many people that blindly state product A is better than product B just because thats what they "heard"

It's a bar that keeps the towers from flexing in and out. You could take any piece of metal and put it in there to accomplish the same thing. Untill the bars attach to to each other and to the firewall they are all about the same. The difference being the strength of the metal. If I were to go back and buy over again I would not buy the DC simply due to price. Then again I wouldn't buy the nuespeed either. I would just have one made. I mean the design is prett simple >-----< there you go :). The advantage to the DC and NS is they clear the intake. Try some washers on you tie bar. If the intake hits the sway bar it's not really a big deal. As long as there isn't enough pressure to pull the tube from the intake.

actually its cuz the DC isn't a one piece thats why people call it junk.

The way it's designed keeps the towers from moving toward or away from each other. The design allows for up and down movement without stressing the bolts on the towers. There is still up and down movement on the nuespeed it just puts the stresses on the bolts. I'm not saying one is better than the other...I'm just saying that A. it's not "junk" (although even I admited it's waaay overpriced) B. too many people here say things like " I heard this or I heard that" with nothing to back up claims. Actually thats my true gripe with the statement...at least you gave reasons.

Cap....your an industrious guy. How about we team up and make a tie bar that ties the two towers together (no LOTR jokes please) and to the firewall. It could be made relativley cheaply and would perform as good if not better than DC and nuespeed.

I know its probably okay, in terms of what the car will encounter anyway.

i'm just saying thats why people call it junk.

most of it probably has to deal with price. lots of DC stuff is overpriced, and you gotta agreed though, their quality is going a bit down for quite awhile now. and i dont like the fact that they jacked up their price so much. anyway still they bother to R&D some of their products and thats good. ie: I still think their short header is one of the better ones out there. even if you can't feel the gains.

as for the tie bar I actually came up with a design (for rear upper anyway) but never got it to manufacture cuz I didnt' think it'll be worth it.. no profit and no demand.. if any demand it'll just be a handful... not enough to make back the cost.. plus there's some really good ones out there already.

the front tie suggestion on bolting it to the firewall is how the RSX bars come stock like.. they're bolted on the firewall... check out DC's site for some of their aftermarket ones for the RSX and Si (I think) that bolts onto the firewall.

we can do that too.. but gotta somehow attach it to the firewall. *shrug*

Hell Yeah Nuespeed