I know, You get what you paid for. But has anyone tried one?
its a piece of metal man... how different could they be?
strut bars pretty much all do the same thing. just like an intake, your payin' for the name
eBay doesn't sell all junk! You have got to check out who your are buying from and what you are buying. There is plenty of junk, and plenty of high quality stuf. Koni's are sold on eBay, they are not junk. But dropzone is also sold on eBay, they are junk.
As for strut bars. Find a good name brand one, and buy the cheapest on you can find. Don't buy no-name junk.
In my opinion those ebay strut bars are kinda flimsy. I like my GM bar bolted down to the firewall.
if it gives you peace of mind, then get the gm one, but its been tested, by someone, i forget who, and all strut braces are basically the same, just get what looks the nicest to you and is cheapest
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I bought a rear strut bar for my 2003 cavalier from Ebay. It didn't fit, I tried everything.
It said it was for '95-02 but the '03-'04's are exacly the same right?
Oh well, I only paid $50 for it.............
Yeah 95 to 05 are identical (other than Eco computer).
I love my GM bar. I agree with Zach that it just seems 10 times better designed. Like someone actually thought about the design. Crafted it just for my beloved j-body.
But, strut bars are really only mean to stop the strut tower from flexing inward. Which any solid bar will do. Personally, I think the GM bar does a better job than any of the after-markets I've seen. But I know others disagree.
mikec2003 wrote:if it gives you peace of mind, then get the gm one, but its been tested, by someone, i forget who, and all strut braces are basically the same, just get what looks the nicest to you and is cheapest
yup... it was mastin.
totally agree though.
way i see it, if race teams and top level cars are using titanium or aluminum 3 piece bars, etc obviously its working.
their not gonna spend 3000$ on coilovers and go cheap with bracing, especially in race conditions. and yes some of those race cars arent japenese, but cavalier unibody race cars as well.
eBay last I checked does not make strut bars.
I bought mine from eBay, it is a Ractive bar. $21
Art, you are trying to say that this:
is as good as this:
I think your wrong. Regardless, tower flex isn't a huge problem in our cars.
Sorry, this one is bigger:
[IMG]ttp://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/images/mazdaspeed/large/pho_pro_23_5_lg.jpg[/IMG]
I got a set, but becareful. My rear bar doesnt fit, but atleast the guy is nice enough to have a new one machined for me (seemed that mine was too short, although the sizes were the same as they one they had), but atleast its gonna get fixed. The front is a beauty and looks great, it almost looks stock sitting under the hood the way it does, which IMO gives it that clean look. Also, i personally think it helped with wheel hop, atleast when its dry out, as before i would get wheel hop when doing a burn out, but its more minimal since the bar (plus new BFG Traction T/A's in there too), which is another plus.
Zach wrote:Art, you are trying to say that this:
is as good as this:
I think your wrong. Regardless, tower flex isn't a huge problem in our cars.
if you are in a car that doesnt flex as much as another, then why all the extra bracing? overkill is something easy to achieve.
the picture you showed with the extra bracing... the strut towers are in the middle of the engine bay...
ours are welded in the corner.....to the side of the unibody frame as well as the firewall....
its welded on two out of 4 sides as opposed to the one you just posted which is only connected to the frame by one side.
the braces made for each cars differences will be effective for said car. being that the strut tower is already welded to the firewall itself, its not gonna flex to the front and the rear of the car.....
the whole point with the majority of braces, and i quote the staff from Lingenfelter Performance who recommended the chassis books to be a while back, is to box things in... in a nutshell.
Have you ever shot a bow & arrow? Those ebay bars are shaped like a bow and you are putting heavy loads on the ends. Whats going to happen then?
I stand by the fact that my GM brace bolted to the firewall in two places is much firmer than any bar available. You think the firewall will flex, but I think those ebay bars will flex before my firewall.
Quote:
if it gives you peace of mind, then get the gm one, but its been tested, by someone, i forget who, and all strut braces are basically the same, just get what looks the nicest to you and is cheapest
Yeah,
Too many strut bars, too many tests. Don't know whee the post is but I think I deleted the pics anyway.
As for the bow and arrow thing. On ebay you'll get a bar either like:
o-------------------o, similar to Vibrant
or
o\____________/o which is the similar to a Freedom Design, Ractive (cylindrical shaped bar), and DC sports
or the GM brace
____
0 \______0 and the 1 or 2 firewall poins in the middle. Which by the way, you'd want to reinfore with a plate behind the firedwall to kep the screws in tight. The metal is way too thin on th firewall to shove a screw in by itselt to be very good effective.
Point being, for our cars you can get whatever. There's no earth shattering diff between them.
Now having or not having sway/anitsway bars is a different story.
-M
Remember....syringes go in the RED waste basket.
Zach wrote:Have you ever shot a bow & arrow? Those ebay bars are shaped like a bow and you are putting heavy loads on the ends. Whats going to happen then?
I stand by the fact that my GM brace bolted to the firewall in two places is much firmer than any bar available. You think the firewall will flex, but I think those ebay bars will flex before my firewall.
i dont think the firewall flexes... i;ve spent over 250$ in testing to find out from a chassis shop and on a skidpad i know it DOES flex...
its sheet metal...sheet metal flexes, especially when it doesnt have much structural support.
the ebay bars may be shapped like that, however the bar you posted is the SAME EXACT THING
the point where it bolts to the end pieces is WAY above the plane of where the end pieces bolt to the tower... as it stands they are atleast 2 inche maybe 3 ABOVE the actual BASE of the endlinks...
try bending a ractive round bar... even with leaning 341 lbs on it last year its hard to get it to bend....
and yes i have flexed the gm bar before... its hard but it can be done... its of a thinner steel hollow tube than most any aluminum tube strut brace... small things i picked up with a pair of calipers and a hacksaw...
and like mastin said, just cause two bolts go into sheet metal doesnt make it strong... it just makes two points going into a flexible metal. make a plate....although going through that much trouble for virtual no gain...you;d accomplish more of a "look at me" mod than anything really. i;ve already shown how thick the firewall of sheetmetal is...
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=3&i=91576&t=91478#91576
sheet metal is good....for blocking heat and or helping slow down the force of kinetic the engine has if you plow something... thats about it... .047.... thats not really what i consider THICK... its not even a half of a full tenth.
but i;ll leave it like this.... go to any LARGE SCCA event where road course is running....
whether its people like RJ DEVERA in his acura rsx or peter kleinburg in the real time accuras....
their bars are bowed and they put way more stress on any strut tower than pretty much anyone else here will ever do besides an auto accident.
keep in mind BOWS resist flex more than anything.... thats the point of a strut brace to keep the towers from flexing inward...
you mention bow and arrow like the bar is made of fiberglass like materials... and yes from taking archery with a mathews setup... i know how bows work... they resist hence the way a bow shoots
mikec2003 wrote:if it gives you peace of mind, then get the gm one, but its been tested, by someone, i forget who, and all strut braces are basically the same, just get what looks the nicest to you and is cheapest
ok i want to bump this because im looking at bars from ebay. i want to know who has them and are they worth it. does it make a difference in cornering? how come they say it wont fit the 03?
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I have the a spec bar from a plus performance. Only bar I've ever had on my car so I can't say how it compares to other bars, but I can say taht I feel a difference in steering. Car feels more solid going into and coming out of turns.
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This is why fender bars either by themselves are combined with a strut bar is one of the best combinations you can get. The firewall flexs quite a bit the closer to center you get, but the strongest points are where the outer edges are, at the point of your door hinges. This hands down is a much better improvement over the GM bar.
There is a valid reason why i put bars in here that arent readily available for j body's in here.
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=3&i=111441&t=111441
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, July 05, 2006 9:41 AM
dose any one have the part number for the gm strut bar?
GM Strut Tower Brace Part #: 22604347
