Around here, I've seen many people comment on various pieces of equipment and the responses always are on total ends of the spectrum... some swear things are great, some swear they suck.

Anyways, I went out and bought the Tanabe SUSTEC strut bar for the front of the TC (Paid 99 Bucks for it at Speed Concepts, In Aloha, Oregon).

Some of you around here say the strut bar makes little to no difference, but for 100 bucks, the thing was easy as pie to install and made a significant and very noticable difference with my setup.

I'm running TRD Springs with a TRD rear sway set on low and with this bar, turns at even low speeds show improvement. The most improvement is definately at speeds above 55... The entrance to turns and changing lanes feels much more controlled and now I glide through traffic with much more ease.

For those who say that the body is rigid enough, I really don't agree at all. I was expecting just a showable mod, and no real performance gains, I was gratefully impressed.

For that little money, it is a definate must have.

 

i have the tanabe bar as well. i didn't really notice that much of a difference to be honest. i also might be a little burnt so i don't really remember what it feels like without the strut bar.

 

Did you install with the car jacked up and the stress off the struts? that's what Tanabe suggests...

http://tanabe-usa.com/strutbars/default.asp

From the website:



Adjustable Preload
"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."

 

Glad to hear you liekd and it helped, myself, I ordere done and plan to put it on with my Hotchkis Springs, so I can raise the cara nd get both doen at teh same time. I'm anxious, and the polishe dbar looks so nice, versus the other red one or most other brands sticking with powder coat.

Thanks for the input!

 

Glad to hear you liekd and it helped, myself, I ordered one and plan to put it on with my Hotchkis Springs, so I can raise the car and get both doen at the same time. I'm anxious, and the polished bar looks so nice, versus the other red one or most other brands sticking with powder coat.

Thanks for the input!

 

Have you had any issues with understeer when you're pushing it? My fear is that adding the front strut tower bar w/o having a, thicker, rear strut tower bar would further induce the cars natural habit to understeer, possibly counter acting the effects of a beefed rear sway bar (or a front and rear set, w/ a stronger rear).