please help with strut bar.

[bmw325csi]

Ok so at BimmerFest I bought a strut bar from Ireland Engineering's booth. They let me know about a difference in stock strut sizes on the e30 and everything. My car in question is a 10/87 vert, so technically 1988.

Well after getting home, I couldn't get the bar on for the life of me, Its about and eight of an inch off, after I have one side on loosely. The guy from IE came and looked at my car at bimmerfest and told me it would fit, and that I just had to jack up one side of the car, is this true. Anyone have this bar installed?

Worst case Ill just get myself another bar, but I really liked the simple design this one offered. So bottom line, should a bar just slap right on, should I make the holes on the strut bar bigger, anything? I can snap pics if that helps anything.

[DRTSRFR]

Strut tower bar?

Is the bar too long or too short?

I had to jack up the middle of my car to get my sparco to slip over the bolts because it was longer than the span between the towers. It would make sense to jack the side if the bar is too short.

[dude8383]

here's how i installed mine:

get the car jacked up from the subframe, once it is in the air, loosen the strut mount bolts and slowly work the bolts in.

worked like a charm.

[bmw325csi]

Thanks for the reply guys. BTW my bar is too short, about an eight of an inch.

[hoyabmw]

I'd bet they gave you the wrong bar. IE is the only company that claims there are 2 lengths of strut bars due to build differences. You probably need the longer bar, and they gave you the shorter one. There's not going to be that much flex in the chassis just from jacking it up on one side.

Either that, or they f'd up another part and the bar you got is just wrong. I've got one on my car that I've got to do something with as it's in contact with the manifold all the time (and they claim it's made on a jig, but I checked another one out on someone else's car and the measurements are clearly different)

[gearheadE30]

And if that was the right bar, it would be slightly too long rather than too short.