Strut Bars..valuble or scrap?

[RoyBoy]

OKay, so i have been reading a lot, and checking out different places, along with hearing different reviews.


Are strut bars worth it?

If all goes to plan my setup in my car will be :

H&R cup kit
IE Sways Front and Rear

I was thinking of going with the Sparco Front Strut bar.. u can find them on Ebay, maybe go with Eibach or Racing Dynamics.

However due to all the mixed reviews I"ve heard.. anyone know if they are worth it?

if I am going to spend $100+ on a bar, i want it to do something and seeing as how i want to do the install of my suspension at the same time, is it worth it to pay that much for the bar?

what are your takes?
Experience/stories?

If they are pointless, that will save me a good amoutn of $$, if they are, maybe it is worth the extra effort at work to get them.


thanks,
Roy (the noob)

[500ke30]

strut bars deffinitly make a difference. after putting my sparco bar on, I noticed that the car was stiffer just by going into the gutter at the end of our drive way. I would diffenitly spend the money again.

[AdironRider]

Theyre only 100 bucks so you cant really go wrong. They dont make to mcuh of a difference. Id save for sways personally.

[nando]

read this:

http://www.e30m3performance.com/myths/Strutbar_Theory/strut_bar_theory.htm

and you will also understand why it doesn't matter if you have a hinged or solid bar..

[fretburnr]

my sparco made the front end of the car feel like new again - so much more solid in hard turns and over rough pavement.

i dont know if i can attribute all that to just the extra stiffness, or partially pushing my slightly sagged towers back to where they should be

[KangamangusDriver]

what is the best place to purchese a strut bar?

What is considered the best bar to get?

[RoyBoy]

what is the best place to purchese a strut bar?

What is considered the best bar to get?

THink i'm going to go with Sparco, relatively cheap, good name, etc.

I am also getting IE Sway Bars Front and Rear

along with (hopefully) the H&R Cup Kit that was posted on here recently.

SO i think its a decent setup :-)

[AdironRider]

A bars a bar to me personally so go with the Sparco. Its the cheapest out there I believe but make sure you get the right size, theres a slight difference between earlier and later cars.

[silverfbimmer]

That was a pretty bad ass argument about what the strut bar does. I have also heard they don't do much from some people...But I figure my car because of the age could be stiffened up a little bit by this! I think I will also get a sparco!

[Axxe]

Huge difference. I had mine out for a few days as an experiment, then I threw the R-comps on and took a couple offramps, very big difference with the bar. The bar helps the car stay planted in the front.

[Hartge_H27]

according to BMW hear in europe the front strut towers can bend up to 12mm. during the course of a cars lifetime. and that is for normal street driving. so I agree the brace is worth the money.

[delatlanta1281]

The brace is worth it. It made a difference for me. I like the sparco, so that is what I bought. I hear the IE is good too.

[1991 318is]

read this:

http://www.e30m3performance.com/myths/Strutbar_Theory/strut_bar_theory.htm

and you will also understand why it doesn't matter if you have a hinged or solid bar..

Regardless of the degree of function of a strut bar as commonly configured, the desired effect is chassis rigidity. For that a triangle works better. E30's aren't really suited to this because there's no solid anchor point in the center of the upper firewall or core support.
Can you believe that some folks actually buy the rear "strut" bar? How about the one that connects the rear subframe bolts?
We're deep into boy racer territory here. If you do buy one make sure it's chrome!
The author of the article admits that there is no handling improvement from them. Their benefit is reducing stress and wear that fatigues the metal of the strut towers over the life of the car.
"Even though the strut tower is designed mainly to manage vertical forces , 333 lbs in the horizontal direction is not going to permanently deform the chassis. But the problem is that this force is repeatedly applied over many cycles during the life of the car. The more you drive it hard the more cycles you generate. This can lead to fatigue failure of the material that forms the strut tower (or where the strut tower attaches to the inner fender well).
What a strut bar does is tie the two strut towers together so that they share the load applied at the outer tower."

[Dave]

If you do buy one make sure it's chrome!

No - Carbon Fiber.