strut tower bars

[cnilkyrclit]

hello all, i have recenlty purchased a 1998 honda accord ex. i plan on doning some simple mods, i have already purchased the front and rear strut tower bars. the question that i have is as follows " is there anything special or anything that i need to worry about befor einstalling these, also they didnt come woth instructions, so is it just bolt them into place or is a little more complicated then that????" thanks everyone.

[AccordCodger]

Have you ever replaced struts before?

[pimprolla112]

Un-bolt the bolts to the sruts usually 2 or three slide the brace on then bolt them nice and tight, remember this is what keeps the car suspended above the so if its loose then you will have problems.

[cnilkyrclit]

no i have never replace strurt before, is there anything that i should be careful of while doing this?? does the car need to be lifted off of the ground, are there any special adjustments that i have to make etc.?????

[Igovert500]

Nope, pretty self explanatory. Easy mod. The front is easy. The rear I'm not sure about, as I never put one on my honda. But on my Mitsu, I had to take out alot of the interior paneling in the trunk to get access to the top of the strut towers. And then once it was installed, I had to cut small holes in the paneling to allow for the bar.

Anyway, it is simply, the hardest part is getting the bolts loose. Get a breakerbar or just a long steel pipe on the end of your wrench, so you get generate enough torque to break them loose. Plop the bar down, and tighten them back up. Also keep in mind, some cars have a battery 'tie down' that secures itself to one of the front struts. If this is the case, you may have to remove it for fitment issues (if this happens, find an alternative way to secure your battery in the engine bay). Otherwise, if it does fit, be careful not to overtighten the battery tiedown, as I have seen people snap them while installing strut bars. If you don't have one, then ignore all that.

Good luck

[cnilkyrclit]

ok i have now purchased the lower rear strut tower, i looked for the upper and couldnt find it no where, how is this one installed, thanks all for your help.

[Whumbachumba]

I found an upper strut bar without any problems. http://www.andysautosport.com/produc...rs?_v=vmd00187

I ended up getting the black Neuspeed, and it will be in sometime this week. They say parts are delivered in 5 to 7 days if they are in stock.

[Igovert500]

There are strut bars and sway bars. Sway bars are under the car, strut bars connect the top of the struts (under hood, and in trunk) I think you need to use different terminology if you are having a hard time finding a strut bar.

Sway bar replacements are a bit harder, as you will have to be under the car dealing with actual suspension work. What did you buy?

[pimprolla112]

They do make lower strut braces for under the car, and im 100% sure its not a sway bar. Hell with the right struts, braces and sway bars you could make an economy car hanlde like a porsche, once again with the right parts.

[cnilkyrclit]

sorry about the terminology, im new to this sort of stuff. i have purchased the strut tower bar to go under the hood, and i have (as it was called when i bought it "Rear Lower Tie bar"). how hard is it to install this particular item???? and what are some other inexpensive mods/upgrades that i can do (performance and appearance). thank you all for your input.

[Whumbachumba]

You should look at some shock/spring combos or some quality coil-over systems. Other basic mods are CAI/SRI/V2 intake, headers (recomend Comptech if you have money), and exhaust (greddy, tanabe, apex'i, and magnaflow are all good).

After that, save up for some rims and tires, then a basic body kit and paint job, like a BW2 or WW lip kit. You could also get some blackhoused OEM headlights, or get some HID or Retrofitted headlights.

Once you save up 10k, supercharge it with a Comptech S/C and a Dr. Evil transmission. If you save up even more, you can get a 3.2TL/CL swap and the boost that. That is considering that you have the V6 version, if you have the I4, look at turbos.

There are quite a few things that you could do, the 6th gen aftermarket is starting to pick up as of late. v6performance.net has a good 6th gen accord subforum. You can find some very nice 'Cords over there, great for ideas and questions.

[hondaboy16v]

return the front strut bar if you haven't installed it already and get your money back. the 98 has a firewall strut brace in it from the factory which is stiffer than a standard strut brace simply because it ties the strut towers to the firewall. then take that cash and get an aem cold air intake. AEM. Nothing compares. I highly recommend the Greddy Evo2 exhaust and Greddy header next. the whole system including the header will cost close to 1k but the f23 responds really well to more airflow. greddy has a good sound too, not too loud, just a nice deep tone and a very nice roar when the vtec hits. my biggest piece of advice to you is save your money and buy good, name brand parts the first time, you'll be much happier in the end. especially when it comes to suspension parts.

[pimprolla112]

So your saying that instead of tying the struts directly to each other at one point its better to have them braced like this because the firewall is well a piece of sheet metal. Sheet metal flexes, and tying the struts to 2 points doesnt help much, creates moe flex. The strut brace ties the struts across the same piece so theres less flex in the brace and more in the car.

Oh yeah you sound like a spokes man for aem and greddy.

[hondaboy16v]

that firewall will flex, but not side to side, which is the type of load the strut brace will create. and i'm not a spokesperson, i've just wasted a lot of money on crappy parts and that intake exhaust combo is the best i've found. just giving my two cents, that's what forums are fuckin for.

[kicker1_solo]

Originally Posted by hondaboy16v

just giving my two cents, that's what forums are fuckin for.

but forums aren't for giving bad advice

here's a pic of my upper and lower rear strut bars


the night I wrecked my car, you can see that it bent a little bit (just like everything else on my car )