I'm new to the do it your self stuff. I watched my friends work on my 92 civic before but I never got my hands dirty. Now is the time I want to start working on my own car. I already did my rear strut bar last night and I took my two hours. Can any one give me detailed instructions on how install the front strut bar. Thanks

 

Break the front lugs loose, make sure you jack up the car and i hope you jacked it up when you installed the rear one also or it is pretty much dead weight, take the 6 nuts holding your front struts on, place bar on car, put everything back where you got it. to make it easier you can take the nust off of the struts before you jack it up and install the bar and but the nuts on just enough to hold the bar (and keep the struts from falling) and then just tighten it when you have it jacked up

 

How could this make any difference, especially on the rear? Strut bars work in tension, not compression, so what's the point of jacking up the car?

 

I was told by Scion not to jackup the car.

 

You have to jack the front up, the clearance between the firewall lip and that damn back nut on the driver's side is about 1/8". The only way to get the nut out is to jack the car up-- just to get suspension droop, though... the tires never actually need to leave the gorund.

 

Tanabe suggests you raise the car when installing their front strut bar. Tanabe's bar is adjustable, so I dont know if this would apply to non-adjustable bars like the DC or Hotchkis bars.

From their site ( http://www.tanabe-usa.com/strutbars/default.asp ):
"A very common error when installing tower bars, It is always recommended to raise the vehicle when installing so that the load of the shock uppermounts on the shock towers is relieved and balanced out. When raised, and the tower bar is placed onto the vehicle, the preload can be adjusted and set. After it is bolted on and the car is lowered, each shock tower will have equal load and will prevent independent movements of each shock. This will provide an extremely noticeable difference after installing. If a tower bar is installed on a car that is not raised, great benefits will be missed."

 

I took that piece of sheet metal under the wiper motor out and bent that spot just above the nut out of the way. The way I did it looks like factory. I can put a deep well 14 on there without any trouble at all. Makes it really easy to torque too. They obviously put the wiper motor in after they put the suspension under the car at the factory, they'd never interfere with access to a critical nut like that if it wasn't already in place and tight on the assembly line.

 

I know this is from a BMW website, but the guy is pretty good at explaining a lot of chassis theory and supports it with decent drawings so you get an idea what he means.

I don't quite understand why Tanabe feels preload is important, but I haven't read all through their instructions, so, it's not fair to judge. If you read through this link, you'll at least understand why a bar can be useful, then maybe Tanabe's directions will make some sense. Not sure about that though.

 

one thing you will need to do is remove your wipers (remove the black topn on top of them, and remove the nuts, the remove the wiper cowl which is held down by clips, then follow what the above ^^^^ people said.

 

Thanks to all that helped out. I successfully installed my bar yesterday. I did not jack up the car and the suspension all most feels the same. There is a slight difference in the handling. I will go back and redo the install and jack the car a bit to see if there is a difference. I will post a reply on the results.

As far as the wiper lip I removed the wire harness and bent the piece of metal so I could get to the rear lug nut. After Installed I bent it back the way it was (almost).

Thanks again for the advice.

 

the reason you jack it up is to take the load of the struts so that the strut bar can tighten them done and hold them there when the struts to try to move when your on the road

 

Am I the only one who didn't remove the wipers and all to get their strut bar on? I put mine on while me and my friend had it on the lift when we were putting on my TRDstruts/springs. At no point did we bother taking off the wipers and all, just removed the anchors from the gasket and took off the bolts, everything fit right in place.

For those thinking that you shouldn't jack up the car to install a front strut bar, think again. Strut bars work in both compression and tension, all depends on the situation, continually changing as you drive. And of course suspenion companies certainly must have a reason why they recommend to jack it up before install.

 

are there any visual install pics for any of the bars online?

 

nevermind found it on yoursciontc.com