Today I put my front strut bar back on and noticed a huge difference, both positive and negative.

When I first took the strut bar off it was scary how loose, floppy, and wild my car became.

After about 4 months of driving without it I decided to put it back on yesterday.

-Steering wheel feels harder to turn while going straight
-I have to yank the wheel a lot harder for it to turn in
-turn in feels slower and takes a lot more effort
-pot holes dont hurt nearly as much(I hit pot holes and huge dips in the road between 25-60mph)
-I loose traction on corners that have an angle or wierd curve(The inside tire starts to wheel hop and has no traction.)(scarrrryy!)
-long slow sweepers at 50+ are no longer terrifying.
-I cannot feel the road...


When I first started driving this morning I loved the strut bar. Usually when I go up driveways or hit bumps/potholes I can feel it in my steering wheel a whole hellluva lot. With the strut bar on, my steering wheel had almost no response to bumps/potholes. Once I took my first corner I HATED the strut bar. The car no longer felt like my bitch.. I had to fight the wheel to get it to go where I wanted, the suspension felt stiffer and traction was compromised. Normally when I loose front wheel grip I can feel everything about it and still control it, Not so much with this bar.
Wondering if It was just me that had to adjust my driving style for this bar i kept pushing hard in the corners. After adjusting to this bar, I do feel that it helped the handling, but only in certain aspects...

-Car is no longer jumpy or loose feeling in low speed HARD cornering(on 3 wheels status..)
-Handling is DESTROYED on any road that is not almost perfectly flat..
-30 to 40mph corners are just plain scary. I cant feel the road, the suspension feels to stiff, and the tires feel like they dont want to grip.(almost feels like the outside tire is pulling on the inside tire.)(grip is compromised on the inner tire..)(pot holes make both tires mad instead of 1 tire)
-50+ sweeper corners are no longer scary. I was tailing someone in there eg the other day going about 75 around a slow corner and it was not a comfortable feeling, the front end felt light and like it was ready to float away. This morning I took it at 80 or so and I felt confedense. the front end felt solid and held down. every corner that i took over 50 didnt make me feel like I was going to drive into a ditch like it usually does.

I have no idea weather I like upper strut bars or not at this point. Yes they do make a big difference, but for street driving(slower cornering, angled road surfaces, and potholes) I dont know if I would consider it to be a good improvement. It made driving a lot less fun to be honest. The car was no longer wild and responsive.

The only reason i would keep it on is for high speed cornering 50+mph and because my steering wheel and wheels dont feel like there going to rattle off.
I also go over some dips that launch my car into the air(wheels still on the ground) and it feels much much more solid and not like im going to drive into a ditch on the landing.


I drive over 75 miles a day through mountains, empty parking lots, a small city, beat up side roads, and a very busy highway.

If people find interest in this half put together, unorganized review I might review the energy suspension motor mount inserts that Im installing wednesday...

 

A strut bar should help turn-in, if only by a small amount. Less chassis flex means the forces generated by tire slip will change the direction of the car more quickly. You sure you didn't accidentally mess something up?

 

What strut bar is this? lol

 

Removed 4 bolts, added strut bar, installed 4 bolts.

This review is from personal experience, I havent looked at any other reviews, ever.

 

Shitty ebay 1

 

Don't see how a shitty Ebay strut tower bar did any of that.

 

i remember reading somewhere that strut tower bars are only installed correctly when the car is lifted and the force is removed from whatever end you are installing. also using an ebay bar is a poor examble. try using a bar that does not pivot whatsoever.

 

A magical one.

 

Those allen wrench bolts that look like they pivot dont pivot. Ive seen some of the nicer bars with the same setup. Couldn't fint anything online about raising the car, I cant see that making a difference(just a flat surface) and a more ridgid bar would only amplify the things I experienced if anything at all.

There would be a lot of wear on the metal where those pivot points are if it was pivoting

 

you must think this bar is looser than a noodle or something..


75 miles a day 7 days a week for almost 2 years.. I could probably tell if one of my tires was .5 psi lower than the other 3

 

when i had OMP 1 piece fat front bar had same driving effects as you, it drove me so nuts that i sold it off .. now i have cheap 'loose' haha ebay front bar and its normal... recently just bough 1piece fat one again but different design than omp so i'll try that in few days to see if any different

im also curious what may cause this effects..

 

You've got major issues with that car if it feels loose and floppy without that joke of a strut bar.

 

Im thinking that that little bit of play in the shock towers helps the wheels contour to the road, therefore helping them grip better. Like I said it feels like the outside wheel is pulling on the inside wheel therefore reducing its grip.

 

like i said, I can feel every little detail with this car. If the strut bar made the car feel more firm for me and several other people then it must not have felt firm before, hence loose, sloppy, flopppy whatever you wanna call it.

 

Some people are so offended and or scared by the fact that a strut brace, I/H/E, throttle body coolant bypass or anything small like that will make a difference.

 

its perhaps possible that with front bar increasing overall shock tower stiffness they loose that tiny bit of flex they usuall have when stressed with G forces, since front UCAs are mounted on top of towers that change can lead to having less dynamic camber curve ... or im just dreaming ?

 

I've never felt anything "real" from a front strut bar except very slightly from my neuspeed strut bar. I haven't driven with a 3 point strut bar, but even the neuspeed bar made a very slight difference on turn in, and it was minimal. The ONLY reason I even picked up my neuspeed was because someone sold it locally on craigslist for $25 and I figured why not haha. Strut bars are mostly a "butt dyno" thing and most of the time its a mental thing. Invest in a good sway bar set up. Strut bar didn't do **** before I had my sway bars, now with 25mm ITR front/24mm ASR rear, I have completely minimal body roll if any at all, car is completely flat (no body roll) through the canyons and even 120mph turns on freeway interchanges

Neuspeed bar (my dd)

 

 

That valve cover is sick! Im telling you I felt a major difference, but I also drive through mountains and **** 7 days a week pushing it way to hard, damn red bull givin me wings n ****

 

After reading your other thread I would guess that you have other issues going on past that of a shitty Ebay STB. You crash your car after adjust the stiffness of your suspension? Sounds like someone trying to blame the tools instead of the person operating them.

 

That's great, but it's still not going to do what you said it did. It wont cause you to lose traction, destroy handling. i think you're full of ****.


Who said a strut bar wont make a difference? I have one, I know what they do.
Make the front end feel firm, sure, make the car lose traction? no.
and even then, that piece of **** no-name strut bar wont do it.

 

The reason companies make these bars are to help tie the chassis together as much as possible. It's always best to have an extremely rigid chassis and leave the suspension to do all that work. Chassis flex is an inconsistency.

 

??? I dont even know how to respond to this. Is your life so sad that you have to pick fights with people online? Ya I crashed my **** because I adjusted the stiffness and it took me by surprise. What does that have to do with a strut bar? Ive got my suspension all dialed in now anyways. If that crash affected anything my alignment would have been off. Ive gotten my car aligned twice since then and its golden. And yes my tools are what made me crash, I spun out of control while daydreaming over a snap-on torque wrench.

O and fwi, your cats still ugly

 

And you're still hallucinating because what you're describing, in both threads, is just not possible in this reality.

 

Ya, Im lying about my experience with a strut bar. This lie is really gonna put me ahead of the pack. holly ****. Next time ill keep my experiences to myself. I bet even the 5.0 community isnt filled with this many naysayers