Bracing

[slowklopdop]

Hello,
I am about to get coil overs and i was wondering for the rear strut tower reinforcements, if i need to get both a strut brace and rear upper strut mount reinforcements or will just the strut brace work fine?

Thankyou

[Cabriolet]

unless you are getting real coilovers. it is waste of time and money.
something like these are real http://store.vacmotorsports.com/jrz-...its-p2816.aspx

all the rest are just springs and shocks in the rear.

however, the sock mount reinforcements are a good idea

[slowklopdop]

So I don't need the rear strut brace. And probably just get the reinforcements. Could I ask the same question for the front strut towers as well?
I am just worried that the strut towers will start bending and cracking under stress.

[Cabriolet]

the front tower brace is a worthwhile upgrade. the weight of the car is carried on the strut towers. so bracing them helps. the rear carries almost no weight so not worth bracing. if you street drive a track setup, you will crack the towers. even with bracing. and before noobs jump in here and say this doesnt happen. i have seen it more than a few times. the tower separates from the outside of the car.

[Madhatter]

If you are getting full coilovers in the rear, you really need to box and reinforce the strut tower. A brace isn't enough. The sheet metal is thin and not designed to take the load, can crack/tear in all sorts of places, it isn't a case of if it will happen, it's when it will. If you are getting coilovers that still use a separate spring on the trailing arm, then you don't need to worry about the reinforcement.

[slowklopdop]

I will be getting the coilovers with the spring and shock separated. Ill probably just invest in a pair of rear shock tower reinforcements since their cheap anyway.

if you street drive a track setup, you will crack the towers.

How would i reinforce the towers to ensure that they dont crack.

[Northern]

How would i reinforce the towers to ensure that they dont crack.

DTM M3 (true coilovers):




And as for the front, a non-hinged strut bar and oem cabrio reinforcement plates would be a good start.

[Madhatter]

if keeping the spring on the trailing arm, then you don't need to worry about the bracing. Plates for the RSM is certainly a good idea though. The other bracing like found above is simply because the suspension setup wasn't designed to take the load through the towers, so the shock can literally tear the chassis to pieces if you have a proper coil over where the spring is on the shock too.

This is why the companies still make separate spring and shock combo's because it's a pretty well known issue. You shouldn't have any cracking issues with your intended purchase.

[slowklopdop]

Thank you for all your suggestions! Much appreciated

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[nando]

And as for the front, a non-hinged strut bar and oem cabrio reinforcement plates would be a good start.

I've argued this many times but there's no functional difference between a bar with a hinge and one without. the thin sheet metal near the strut tower and tiny nuts that are only torqued to like 15ft/lbs are not going to be able to resist any moment forces so there's no reason to worry about stiffness of the bar in the vertical direction. in fact making the bar overly stiff to try to create a moment connection at the strut towers is more likely to damage something than increase stiffness of the front end.

the primary forces on a strut bar are going to be tension and compression (at least that it can effectively deal with), which translates to shear forces on the bolts of a hinged bar - forces which are easily dealt with using a standard bolt.