Front Strut Tower Brace - Comments

[Mike Star]

Has anyone seen the advert on E Bay (see link below) for a front Strut Tower Brace for the Euro?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Honda-ACCORD-EURO-2003-2008-Front-Strut-Bar-Brace_W0QQitemZ190198527587QQihZ009QQcategoryZ4380 7QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The company? has braces available for other Hondas including S2000 as well as Nissan etc.

The price is currently $99.99 and you can Access a Buy It Now price of $109.99 as well. Freight to Australia is $22.50

Has anyone bought and fitted one of these?

Thanks heaps Mike :wave:

[snYpz]

I've seen it on ebay for quite some time now. Im my opinion, might as well go for a brand that is reknowned such as Cusco. I think it is $250 on ebay and free shipping. =)

[EuroAccord13]

JDM Concept (Our Trader In The Forum) stocks alot of CUSCO products, you can ask him for a price, he has supplied Euro owners with numourous products over the years.

[tony1234]

JDM Concept (Our Trader In The Forum) stocks alot of CUSCO products, you can ask him for a price, he has supplied Euro owners with numourous products over the years.
Yeah i got one from Leo,good guy,$249 shipped i think.

[Feverpitched]

I've used a no-name strut brace before and to be perfectly honest I couldn't tell the difference between it and a custom made one. They'll both give you a positive outcome on your car's initial turn in 'bite'.

[m0nty ITR]

Spot welded bars > single bolt joint bars.

Try to avoid a single bolt joint strut brace. They just pivot on that point. They only stop compression between struts, not chassis twist which is the main task of a strut brace. Search for a spot welded one piece strut brace if you seriously want to make a difference with your braces. Best brands for braces are Carbing and 5Zigen and anything else is pretty much rice.

Welded
http://www.evasivemotorsports.com/merchant2/graphics/suspension/carbing_fstb_evo.jpg

Bolted
http://www.roadraceengineering.com/4g/racecar/laautoshow-06/640/stb.jpg

[snYpz]

Yeah i got one from Leo,good guy,$249 shipped i think.

JDM concept also sells on ebay. Thats $249 plus shipping.

[Mike Star]

Thanks heaps for the advice guys. I'm not rushing into this so I'll continue to look around and see what turns up. :thumbsup:

[Feverpitched]

Spot welded bars > single bolt joint bars.

Try to avoid a single bolt joint strut brace. They just pivot on that point. They only stop compression between struts, not chassis twist which is the main task of a strut brace. Search for a spot welded one piece strut brace if you seriously want to make a difference with your braces. Best brands for braces are Carbing and 5Zigen and anything else is pretty much rice.

Welded
http://www.evasivemotorsports.com/merchant2/graphics/suspension/carbing_fstb_evo.jpg

Bolted
http://www.roadraceengineering.com/4g/racecar/laautoshow-06/640/stb.jpg

Great points. I'd go on a tangent and say that adjustable bars - the ones with rose jointed ends - are of more benefit because you can adjust the preload to your own liking. Leave it static for static bracing and wind in two extra turns each end for some massive understeering/snap oversteering fun :cool:

Just an aside though, if you can find a 3 point strut brace (as pictured above) then jump on it and buy it. The third bracing point will really, really, add to structural rigidity. Which is the ultimate purpose, isn't it?

[JohnL]

Spot welded bars > single bolt joint bars.

Try to avoid a single bolt joint strut brace. They just pivot on that point. They only stop compression between struts, not chassis twist which is the main task of a strut brace. Search for a spot welded one piece strut brace if you seriously want to make a difference with your braces. Best brands for braces are Carbing and 5Zigen and anything else is pretty much rice.


Tower braces only work in compression and tension, they don't and can't stiffen the chassis in any vertical manner (beyond to the most insignificant degree). They simply don't have the beam strength or tri-angulation required to contribute any significant vertical stiffness at the towers, to do so they would need to be substantial 'girders' or tri-angulated structures, and none of them are.

Imagine that you place one end of the tower brace tube securely in a vice, then lean on the other end, what will happen? The bar will flex along it's length, more so the closer to the end held in the vice. If we assume any significant vertical chassis flexure at the towers as a result of bump loading or weight transfer, then the forces involved will be far greater than the force we can apply to the bar when we 'lean' on it. A tower brace can't resist such a force.

Imagine the front of the chassis to be like this, l___l, with the lower cross member being the 'cross member', and each vertical member being the unbraced towers. If we place another member across the top (tower brace) then we make the structure a rectangle and brace one tower to the other tower (in compression and tension) which makes the towers more laterally rigid than without the brace, but it's still not going to resist vertical loadings very well because a vertical loading will cause the rectangle to become a parallelogram. No tower brace is going to be vertically rigid enough to resist the rectangle becoming a paralleogram under vertical load, unless it had a similar sort of beam strength as the existing lower cross member, which no tower braces are even remotely close to.

A single bolt attachment looks as if it's an 'articulation', but in reality it isn't since the forces don't act in a manner that will cause it to articulate, or rather, they will but some slight articulation at this point is unavoidable whether the bolt acts like a hinge or the bar flexes. If the bolt is properly tight then the bar will flex slightly in any case.

It makes no significant difference whether or not the bar itself is welded or bolted to the brackets that attach to the tower tops, nor whether the bar attaches to each bracket with one or two bolts. It is important that the bar tube itself be rigid in compression and tension (compressive rigidity requiring significantly large OD and / or wall thickness in the tube), and that the brackets that attach the tube itself to the towers be robust and very rigid.

It is also important that the tube be absolutely straight, any bends seriously compromise both the compressive and tensile rigidity of the tube. If a bend is unavoidable in order to clear components, then the bar OD and wall stiffness needs to be substantially greater than with a straight tube. There are a number of braces that have bends in the bar, but the OD of the bar isn't great enough to minimise compressive and tensile flexure in the bar.

There are a number of tower braces on the market that have rather fimsy attachment brackets, they are made from material that is too thin and otherwise not well designed to carry loads from the bar through the bracket without the bracket flexing. If the brackets flex then it doesn't matter how rigid the bar is, the tower brace as a whole is only as good as it's least rigid components. The brackets should be made from steel plate at least 4mm thick, and designed (i.e. braced) to transfer loads from the tube into as much of the bracket's 'base plate' as possible, not just to a localised area in the base plate.

Bracing to the firewall is a good thing, but won't make up for the main tube or brackets being too flexible. If the entire tower brace isn't rigid enough then it won't have much affect on chassis stiffness and thus on handling. I suspect this is why there are a lot of people who have fitted tower braces but claim they do little to nothing for handling, i.e. they have flimsy braces not rigid braces. My home made tower braces are very rigid (in compression and tension, and in the brackets), and they definitely do make a significant difference.

Mike,
The bar you're asking about looks flimsy to me (at least in the photo as best I can see it). The bar tube itself looks very 'flat' in section (= small 'diameter' in one plane), and when placed in compression will tend to flex up and / or down in the weakest plane. The brackets also look less than rigid. The OD of the brace's tube needs to be significant in both width and depth, not just in width as appears the case with that brace tube.

[Suntzu]

I agree with John on this one. They arent designed for every axis.

My cusco has made a significant different to the front end, especially once i got the tein ss. You can really feel the stiffness when you hit bumps. The bolts dont move at all.

[enkay]

hm mike if your interested, i may be selling my cusco strut bar and lower arm brace type I. PM me for details

[hondar]

go here..

good stuff from cusco about choosing brace

http://www.cusco.co.jp/en/movie/effisency_of_strut_bar_lower_a.html

[Mike Star]

go here..

good stuff from cusco about choosing brace

http://www.cusco.co.jp/en/movie/effisency_of_strut_bar_lower_a.html


Thanks heaps Hondar!!
I found that link very interesting and a good explanation of the strrut brace and its function.
Cheers,
Mike

[EuroAccord13]

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[tony1234]

I'd only install a strut brace if you have aftermarket coilovers,springs,shocks.because of the stiffer settings you'll notice more of a difference in turn in,steering response etc.over stock.

[JohnL]

I'd only install a strut brace if you have aftermarket coilovers,springs,shocks.because of the stiffer settings you'll notice more of a difference in turn in,steering response etc.over stock.

I had a significant improvement when fitting tower braces to a CB7 fitted with Koni yellows and stock springs, at softer and stiffer damper settings. I can't say with any authority how much improvement there might have been with old stock dampers as the Konis preceded the braces, but I'm fairly sure there would have been some improvement. I do tend to think that the stiffer the suspension the more likely tower braces are to make a more significant improvement.

Another thing that makes a real difference is stiffening up the stock upper damper bushes, either by replacing with polyurethane or pre-loading the rubber with a 5mm thick washer that fits over the crush tube. The washer should be about the same OD as the stock bush retaining washer with an ID very slightly larger than the crush tube, and fitted under the retaining washer so that it compresses the rubber bush.

If you can push the chassis down and observe any significant vertical motion in the upper damper bushes, then you will benefit from compressing the stock bushes, or replacing them with something stiffer. I did this with my CB7 and the handling sharpened up noticably, though the ride became slightly harsher.

[EG5]

Cusco strut bar for Euro In stock too here