Bought a Strut Bar Off E-bay for LIL $$
 

1st of I wanna say HI... i am a new member.. I just slapped on my new Altezza Lights in the back.. and i orderd a strut bar of off ebay i paid 30 with shipping it is a brand new one.. DID i get ripped of??? And does anyone know how to install this thing.. maybe a FYI??


this is the product

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1832272269&r=0&t=0

thanks Paulie [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG]!

well its cheap i dont know if that strut bar is worth it or not. and its ez install it should have instruction come with strut bar

thanks man i appreciate the input... do u know how i can change my password and add my pic to members rides ?

You need to become a member before you can put your ride there. Check out the Off Topic FAQ [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

-Kre

o okkk thanks guys ....

word to the wise, ditch the altezzas, they hella ugly. also with the front strut bar, they say it "helps stiffen the chassis" but frankly i think this is a load of bs. i know a lot of people with them, all give me the same response..."it does nothing, its there for looks." IMO get a lower rear tie bar and pull 180s easily :). then again ive done nothing to the suspension of my slowvic whatsoever. only thing i dump money into is under the hood.

as far as im told, lower tie bar gives about the same increase in handling as an all out drop in the car. only problem with a drop is that IMO it looks retarded, and its always funny to see cars that cant make it over a speedbump, or "would flip if it hit a large pebble in the road" (ricecop.com)

im l keeping the altezzas..they look aight with ma silver coupe.. im not sure ill give the bar a chance

the description on ebay specifically says "NO INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE PROVIDED" for your strut bar. they're easy to install but to do it properly you'll need a torque wrentch and 10mm deep socket or something like that. you'll also need to find out what the proper torque setting is but there are no instructions so....

The bar does give a better responce. My U turns handle much easier than before without. Also that lower tie bar is also a great investment. With those bars you will notice a difference in your turns. Much tighter, and the car does nt feel as if it is behind the turn. As for the install of the strut, you just need to line up the bar. unscrew the bolts and fit the bar, then screw the bolts back on. Then tighten your bar and all if finished. Sounld take no more than 15 min, very easy. Good luck.

<< word to the wise, ditch the altezzas, they hella ugly. also with the front strut bar, they say it "helps stiffen the chassis" but frankly i think this is a load of bs. i know a lot of people with them, all give me the same response..."it does nothing, its there for looks." IMO get a lower rear tie bar and pull 180s easily :). then again ive done nothing to the suspension of my slowvic whatsoever. only thing i dump money into is under the hood.

as far as im told, lower tie bar gives about the same increase in handling as an all out drop in the car. only problem with a drop is that IMO it looks retarded, and its always funny to see cars that cant make it over a speedbump, or "would flip if it hit a large pebble in the road" (ricecop.com) >>



wrong.

suspension components by themselves are hardly felt. it stiffens the chassis, you can't see it in action, but the right strut bars without pivot points works. the cheap ebay stuff is whatever. If I grab one and smash it hard enough on the ground, it'll bend easily.

and do you know how a tie bar works? or its function? mainly, a tie bar works best with a sway bar, its intention is to keep the subframe together so if you choose to use a very stiff sway bar, it wont tear away the subframe... a tie bar by itself is hardly felt too.

one bar alone wont do anything, a series of suspension modification will be felt, however.

if strut tower bar are for looks, I wonder why Honda engineers put them in stock RSX or Type Rs and etc.... and they're just plain black bars...

and a proper lowered car will definitely feel more different than just a tie bar alone.

there's more to suspension tunning than you think. I'm still confused as heck.

lets not forget the tires too...

<< word to the wise, ditch the altezzas, they hella ugly. also with the front strut bar, they say it "helps stiffen the chassis" but frankly i think this is a load of bs. i know a lot of people with them, all give me the same response..."it does nothing, its there for looks." IMO get a lower rear tie bar and pull 180s easily :). then again ive done nothing to the suspension of my slowvic whatsoever. only thing i dump money into is under the hood.

as far as im told, lower tie bar gives about the same increase in handling as an all out drop in the car. only problem with a drop is that IMO it looks retarded, and its always funny to see cars that cant make it over a speedbump, or "would flip if it hit a large pebble in the road" (ricecop.com) >>



Woah dude... I completely disagree with you on that one... i know that my DC sports front tower struts was one of the best mods I've done to my car. Yes, It looks very nice but my handling has most definetly improved. Maybe if you're only spendiing $30 on a strut bar than you wont notice any difference, or then again maybe Im wrong. As far as the altezzas go, that's a personal opinon! Maybe you don't think they look nice and that they're overplayed, but a ton of people think the opposite. KUBSKI, a word to the wise. Do what you want to your car. Dont let someone else tell you what is ugly.. making our civics personalized is one of the best parts!:) keep up the hard work...

The cheap $30 ebay strut bars block the way of some intakes, it's better to buy a DC or Neuspeed bar instead, and plus they don't have pivot points, which is a good thing. So spend a little more cash for something worth it

The $30 bar will do just as well as a $130 bar. Trust me, I've had both. You will notice improved handling with only a front bar. The only reason I changed my front bar to more expensive was because I wanted to match the rear bar and that was all that was available.

With both front and rear upper bars there is a noted improvement, but not nearly what you will see if you put springs and good shocks. It all adds up though and upper strut bars is a cheap and easy way to start tuning your suspension.

If you look under the hood, on top of the inner fenders you will see the shock tower mounting bolts. A big bolt in the middle, surrounded by three smaller (12mm I think) bolts. Just remove those 3 nuts on each side and lay the strut bar mount down over the bolts on one side. Then adjust the length of the bar so the other end mounts just barely goes down over the 3 bolts. Tighten the 3 strut nuts on each side, then tighten up any other nuts that are on the bar.

Drive the car a while, and then check and retighten the mounting bolts again. Then you should be all set.

If you are really inexperienced and can't figure all that out by just looking under the hood, then you should get someone to help you.

BTW. From the pic, that bar looks narrow enough to clear an intake. The cheap one I had was 1 1/2" wide and would clear an AEM SRI by about 1/8 inch. Since most of the forces acting on that bar will be along it's axis, it doesn't really have to be all that beefy to do the job. This one says it is billet alloy, so it should be strong enough to work ok.

[QUOTE]Quote
[hr]Originally posted by: LikeWEEEEEEEEEE
word to the wise, ditch the altezzas, they hella ugly

I think altezzas look hella nice and are not that hard to install yourself, im sorta tired of driving on the road and seeing the same exact car as mine, so im gonna mod my car up to be unique and altezzas really make mine stand out from most of them out there

Hello and welcome,


As a newbie to the site, you'll soon be aware of the available resources here......and plenty of info about our cars. So, the first thing you should do is if you have a problem or question, research using the search function above. More can be learned from that alone. Now I'm a professional engineer, and unless you plan on driving in WRC, then be happy with your $30 dollar bar.......the money to performance gain isn't worth the other manufacturer prices....sure there are some design advantages over the other models...but in our everyday driving, you will not benefit "dramatically" one over the other......Peace!

imo, you get what you pay for, i'd go for a dc bar man, but hey, do what ya want....peace[IMG]i/expressions/beer_yum.gif[/IMG]

those cheap strut bars are a waste of money because 1) you cant feel the difference at all. 2) they are shaped so that you cant put an intake on. Sorry to hand it to you, but u just wasted some money.

Have you tried one?