Stut Tower Bars

Front and rear Strut Tower Bars

 

An easy and inexpensive suspension mod is to install strut tower bars. They stiffen the body and reduce roll in cornering. These particular bars are the "Buick" strut tower bars you can get from any dealer for about $10 - $15 each. There are a number of aftermarket bars out there that don't require any drilling and look fancier but they are significantly more expensive. In addition, the aftermarket bars are bolted using the strut mounting studs and therefore could actually increase the amount of damage done to the car in a side collision. The "Buick" type uses aluminum nuts and bolts that would shear in half and allow the body to absorb the damage. The front bar does require drilling as shown. In addition the drivers side has a small stud that a wire harness is clipped to. You will need to grind it off. You can move the harness to a similar stud just down the strut tower.

strut-bar.JPG (61728 bytes)        strut-bar2.JPG (63617 bytes)        strut-bar3.JPG (63769 bytes)

The rear bar is mounted a little differently. Remove the inside strut mounting nut on each side. You will need to open the width of one mounting hole on each side of the bar. The bar will slide over the mounting stud and then just put the nut back on.

reat-strut.JPG (71376 bytes)        rear-strut2.JPG (78250 bytes)        rear-strut3.JPG (59008 bytes)

Yes I was too lazy to remove the factory sticker, so sue me.