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.
**********************************
again here are some pics i took. enjoy
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.
********************************
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
**********************************
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.
**********************************
the bar itself is around 100 bucks i guess, so it's quite affordable.
**********************************
again here are some pics i took. enjoy
