extreme mod part II - Neuspeed upper tie bar

[rominl]

so the part I went to the 6000K HID low beam upgrade. now it's off to part II.

in finally finally installed the upper tie bar (also called the strut bar) under the hood. man what a history. for those who stayed in the forum long enough you know that i literally broke two wrenches trying to put on the bar in the past. this past weekend, with the help of my friend i finally took off those bolts and installed the bar.

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installation was easy, you will know when you get the bar and put it under the hood. you just need to take off 4 bolts and you are in business. now those bolts are pretty tight to begin with, and i have to say here..... get CRAFTMAN tools from sears! first they are extremely strong. i think even when your car break they don't break, so there you go. second, they have lifetime unlimited warranty. even if you break it without using it properly, just bring it back to sears and you get a new one. get them!!!!!!!!!

and for most people, when you try to fit the bar if you will find out that it doesn't fit, probably you still need another 1/2 inches or so. couple of things you could do. first you will see that there is already a stock strut bar in the car. try to loosen those bolts as well. don't take them off, just loosen them a bit and see if that helps.

second way is to flex your car. it doesn't fit now coz' the upper part of the cars are "bent" inwards and hence gives a shortly distance. what you need to do is to get a jack and jack up your car from the front. you might achieve by jacking up one side of the bar, but the best way is always to jack up the front. there is a jack point right in front of the car under the engine bay. in my case jacking up the car from the side didn't help, and so i jacked up the car from the front and boom, it's in.

btw, if you jack up the front of the car, make sure your parking brake is on. since both the driving wheels would be off the ground, if your parking brake is not on, all you will see if your car going out of the garage when you jack up the front!!!!!!

tighten all the bolts again and you are a happy man

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now off to performance. seriously, i don't think you will feel that much difference due to the fact that we already have a stock strut bar. it's not as thick but still. in my case since i have springs and sways already so the effect of the strut bar was minimal too. but for me it's more of a look.... it definitely makes the engine bay area looks much sharper, specially if you get the chrome one like i did.

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the bar itself is around 100 bucks i guess, so it's quite affordable.

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again here are some pics i took. enjoy

[rominl]

pic 1

[rominl]

pic2

[rominl]

pic3

[evolaerok]

Coo, finally man... Yeah the struts don't make that much of a difference. IMO it actually causes more understeer...

[rominl]

Originally posted by evolaerok
Coo, finally man... Yeah the struts don't make that much of a difference. IMO it actually causes more understeer...

well if you can feel the understeer it probably helps the handling already, coz' that means the bar is holding up the body during cornering. in my case i don't even feel anything, haha

[TunerTL-S]

hey rominl,

im thinking of getting CT sways too!. in your honest opinion can you feel a difference on a daily basis? and do you have any additional cabin noise due to the sways?


if possible can i get a test drive in your car? we have a pretty close set up in cars....

[rominl]

imho, the addition of the sways is day and night. the handling of the car is improved dramatically. cornering are not sharp and crispy, and there are much less body roll than before. i drove a stock tl-s some time ago and when i did the cornering at speed that i always do with my sways, the car tilted so much that it was scary. it seemed like the car was gonna flip over. but with the sways, it stays flat.

with the sways, it virtually doesn't add any road noise to the car add all. on the other hand, if anything, the springs give the car more noise (but still very acceptable imho). ride quality should still be very good with just the sways, but i have the springs as well so i can't judge that.

yeah if you can come down to san jose and find a good place for a little drive you are more than welcome to come.

[TunerTL-S]

hey rominl

i heard that the sways bars squeek? are you using some type of greese or tape to stop the squeeking? did you install it yourself? and where did you purchase your sways?

the only thing i've done do far is lowered my car and added z rated tires to our stock TL-S rims....

if you have some free time this weekend, maybe we can meet up this sat or something at Milpitas square?

i really want to improved our suspension, our car is joke when it comes to twisties!

thanks for the info...

[songoku]

Congrats rominl,

That's exactly how mine looks like.

[rominl]

i got my sways from tim of acp, but he doesn't have the best price any more. read this thread

http://www.acuraworld.com/forums/sho...&threadid=3444

a guy from comptech is selling parts to us and you can definitely contact him about the sways. don't worry about the deadline, talk to austin519 too if you want. that's the best price on comptech sways i have ever heard.

when i got my sways it came with the tape. i didn't install it myself but brought it to a shop in south cali (i go down from time to time) and had them installed for 80 bucks. they didn't use the tape and instead used grease. so far i haven't hear kind of squeak at all and they are going very strong.

the handling of my car is much better, but keep in mind my tires are still stock and that sux big time. so every now and then when i do tight cornering, my car goes well but the tires give in.... that really stinks.

weekend isn't good. my gf only comes and visit during the weekend and i wanna spend more time with her. can you make it weekdays? i am off at 7 usually and we can meet around here. let me know or pm me.

[rominl]

Originally posted by songoku
Congrats rominl,

That's exactly how mine looks like.

oh yeah baby, it's hella nice

[baggsTLS]

where's the pix of your bloody knuckles?

[Austin519]

TunerTL-S:
You may also want to look at the Neuspeeds that I have...I felt a larger improvement than a guy with CT sways...but well :shrug:. CT sways have been said to cause squeaking because they use Teflon tape...the goo that Neuspeed uses is top notch...no squeaks. But definitely go with that Comptech guy if you're getting Comptech...he has the lowest prices anywhere...plus Tim at ACP is a bad businessman.

Austin519

[rominl]

Originally posted by baggsTLS
where's the pix of your bloody knuckles?

well it's healed