[FastF30]

Originally Posted by sspade

This one. They responded to my initial inquiry almost immediately (a few days ago). And shipped it immediately upon payment today. Tracking provided. Apparently they have these in stock unless they are lying.

Nice... that wasn't available when I bought mine... I might get it for that price... mine is solid across which I like but makes it a hassle to get underneath it for any service needed to be done...

[Logicoeur]

Originally Posted by sspade

This one. They responded to my initial inquiry almost immediately (a few days ago). And shipped it immediately upon payment today. Tracking provided. Apparently they have these in stock unless they are lying.

That's where I got it too.

[Logicoeur]

Originally Posted by FastF30

Soooooo... you notice a difference or what...

P.s. do your car a favor and clean it up a little under there... lol...

I did. I have a roundabout to go through to park near the door closest to my apartment. Car was pretty flat in the nose as I have to go the full 360° path. Noticeably less body roll for that kind of maneuver. Only a 3 minute drive from the shop to my house but it was definitely apparent there.

[FastF30]

Originally Posted by Logicoeur

I did. I have a roundabout to go through to park near the door closest to my apartment. Car was pretty flat in the nose as I have to go the full 360° path. Noticeably less body roll for that kind of maneuver. Only a 3 minute drive from the shop to my house but it was definitely apparent there.

Great to hear!... what was the damage $ at the shop?

[Logicoeur]

Originally Posted by FastF30

Great to hear!... what was the damage $ at the shop?

Just an hours work ($100)

[FastF30]

Originally Posted by Logicoeur

Just an hours work ($100)

Yea... that's what my shop want's to charge me to install it.. I might as well have them do it after reading this thread...

[henkinc]

The inexpensive option By Magan (either $85 or 109$ - not clear) is not in stock. They sold it to me and then gave me a refund. I went with a $250 one from ECS Tuning. Made in Germany. They have a cheaper steel one in RED but I didn't like the lack of flexibility in the attachment device. That was about $160.

Noone seems to have our car's strut bar in stock except the ECS Tuning options.
Charlie

[sspade]

Originally Posted by henkinc

The inexpensive option By Magan (either $85 or 109$ - not clear) is not in stock. They sold it to me and then gave me a refund. I went with a $250 one from ECS Tuning. Made in Germany. They have a cheaper steel one in RED but I didn't like the lack of flexibility in the attachment device. That was about $160.

Noone seems to have our car's strut bar in stock except the ECS Tuning options.
Charlie

As said above... the Megan one on eBay is definitely in stock at fastpartswarehouse.

Mines already in the air and should arrive Monday.

[Logicoeur]

As well as this seller https://www.ebay.com/itm/382551022291.

I was watching 3 sellers on eBay selling it for ~$90usd. 2/3 still have it in stock which have both been posted here.

The longer drive I went on tonight to pick up food was definitely fun. Same roundabout, a bit faster this time and no body roll to the passenger side. The car was soooo flat. So much so I was starting to oversteer because I have an lsd as well. On winter tires and xdrive back on but car feels really good.

[FastF30]

Originally Posted by Logicoeur

The longer drive I went on tonight to pick up food was definitely fun. Same roundabout, a bit faster this time and no body roll to the passenger side. The car was soooo flat. So much so I was starting to oversteer because I have an lsd as well. On winter tires and xdrive back on but car feels really good.

just wait until you get those coilovers... car does everything better... flat when it stops and quicker... accelerates etc... the stock suspension is so sad for this car, the front end really drove like a boat before... the driving dynamics are great once you get it all set-up... and it really doesn't cost that much... I'm really proud of this car... It's now a true badass sports sedan...

[AK415]

Originally Posted by FastF30

Soooooo... you notice a difference or what...

P.s. do your car a favor and clean it up a little under there... lol...

I felt the difference on mine. Steering wheel is slightly tighter (I still have RFT), and cornering at a higher speed (25mph on a regular 90 degree turn) seems more responsive and less body roll.

[AK415]

Here is a picture of the KC Design one.

[thejeremyman9]

So i finally installed my strut bar today. This is the one i got, ordered several months ago lol: https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-5...race-aluminum/

This isnt meant to be a comprehesive review, but i will say a couple things.

The most noticeable difference is stiffness of the chasis (particularly front half) when entering or exiting driveways at an angle. You can tell the car flexes less. It also seems like you feel more of the road (i.e., small imperfections, etc) through the steering wheel; not in a bad way, just more communicative, despite EPS. I honestly didnt really feel a different in turn-in, i feel like changing tires made the biggest difference there, and my turn-in is already extremely good with PS4S (and wider front than stock), so YMMV. I didnt hit the canyons yet or anything, so not sure how it will change performance when getting closer to the understeer/oversteer limits. The car certainly feels a bit tighter though.

As for the bolts, i see no reason to get longer ones. The bolts that i took out were very long already. And yes, I know the threads are a bit recessed in the hole, but these seem plenty long. See photo below.

The wire on the passenger side was very much in the way, and undoubtably had to be moved or it would be totally smashed after installing my bar. I unclipped it, put a bit of wire loom over the part where its normally clipped (because it has a "sharp" edge), and let it rest against that and the bar with the zip tie moved slightly so the point of contact between the loom and the bar is the zip tie. See photo below.

The main reason i got the bar i did is because of the ability to adjust it and preload. Thankfully, you can do it, but not in the way you think. The ends of the bar did not seem to be threaded correctly so that when you spin it, it would either pull or push on both sides - it would basically just thread out of one side and in the other, so you weren't actually adjusting the length. So, what you have to do is put all the mounting bolts in loosely, then remove one side of the hinge, then through trial and error spin the bar and the hinges so that the overall length is increased (i.e., "unscrewing" hinges and exposing more threads out of the bar). Then, when its basically a little bit too long to fit if the moutning bolts were already tight, you put the bolt that holds the hinge back in - at this point its only going to go in because the mounting bolts to the car are still loose. Then hand tighten those side to side slowly and you will see this pulls the bar down and already puts it under some compression. Torque those down - i used about 22ft-lbs with re-used bolts - then when its mounted to the car torque down the bolts on the hinger per the included paper (24 nm i believe). Finally, do any small adjustments to the bar to get it totally flat and tighten the lock nuts. The bar is now installed and already pre-loaded/pushing on the strut towers.

I did measure the breakaway torque of all of the bolts coming off and they were all almost exactly 21ftlbs (used a digital gauge) except one was 27. They seemed like they wanted to just keep going a bit when i was around 21 ft lbs, so i did two passes of 22 ftlbs on all of them. The 2nd time they seemed to move a bit more. Could be because they are used TTY bolts. I'm sure they will be fine but if i remember ill check them again in a while. The ones coming out felt pretty lose so im not worried about it.

[FastF30]

Originally Posted by thejeremyman9

I didnt hit the canyons yet or anything, so not sure how it will change performance when getting closer to the understeer/oversteer limits. The car certainly feels a bit tighter though.

Strip right next to the tracks and you got canyon roads... how lucky can you be...

Please please do a canyon run and let us know!

[kitchener]

Good info. Thanks.

[SmellyGreek]

Originally Posted by AK415

Picked one up from KC Design. Ordered through facebook chat, took about 3 days to deliver from Taiwan.

Nice one piece design and powder coated in black. Install was simple, took longer to open the package than to install it.

Haven't had a chance to drive the car yet...

Did you have to pay tariffs? If so what was the rate and the process for paying them?

[motorwerkeman]

My Megan Racing bar arrived this week and I have now installed it, albeit with 2 issues.

First, I needed to trim away a bit of the body seam sealer to get the left mount to sit on the tower properly. Not a big deal, but there was no other way to get the holes aligned.

Second, I was under the impression all of the 3-bolt pre-LCI cars have the M10, my car with the base suspension had the M8 bolts. I made the mistake of trying to re-use the existing bolts. The threads were slightly corroded and I suspect they may have already been re-used once when the dealer replaced the engine. One bolt thread stripped as I was tightening down the right side and I had to stop, thankfully the thread inside the mount was still good. I got 6x 31306869931 from BMW and found they have a more robust top washer, and the way it sits allows these to engage 1-2 deeper than the existing bolts. These went in much better than than the old fasteners, torqued to 30nm+90.

How does it drive? Night and day. I can echo the sentiments of others in saying that it should have been like this from the factory. Immediately pulling out of my driveway, I noticed less flex and no dash creak. There is a manhole cover just down the street that used to shake the front end and interior, now the car shakes the manhole cover. The steering feels more precise and the car more is willing to turn in. There is also an improvement in stability when unloading the suspension which helps the car feel much more direct out of corners... I could go on

[DJSF3014]

Originally Posted by thejeremyman9

So i finally installed my strut bar today. This is the one i got, ordered several months ago lol: https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-5...race-aluminum/

This isnt meant to be a comprehesive review, but i will say a couple things.

The most noticeable difference is stiffness of the chasis (particularly front half) when entering or exiting driveways at an angle. You can tell the car flexes less. It also seems like you feel more of the road (i.e., small imperfections, etc) through the steering wheel; not in a bad way, just more communicative, despite EPS. I honestly didnt really feel a different in turn-in, i feel like changing tires made the biggest difference there, and my turn-in is already extremely good with PS4S (and wider front than stock), so YMMV. I didnt hit the canyons yet or anything, so not sure how it will change performance when getting closer to the understeer/oversteer limits. The car certainly feels a bit tighter though.

As for the bolts, i see no reason to get longer ones. The bolts that i took out were very long already. And yes, I know the threads are a bit recessed in the hole, but these seem plenty long. See photo below.

The wire on the passenger side was very much in the way, and undoubtably had to be moved or it would be totally smashed after installing my bar. I unclipped it, put a bit of wire loom over the part where its normally clipped (because it has a "sharp" edge), and let it rest against that and the bar with the zip tie moved slightly so the point of contact between the loom and the bar is the zip tie. See photo below.

The main reason i got the bar i did is because of the ability to adjust it and preload. Thankfully, you can do it, but not in the way you think. The ends of the bar did not seem to be threaded correctly so that when you spin it, it would either pull or push on both sides - it would basically just thread out of one side and in the other, so you weren't actually adjusting the length. So, what you have to do is put all the mounting bolts in loosely, then remove one side of the hinge, then through trial and error spin the bar and the hinges so that the overall length is increased (i.e., "unscrewing" hinges and exposing more threads out of the bar). Then, when its basically a little bit too long to fit if the moutning bolts were already tight, you put the bolt that holds the hinge back in - at this point its only going to go in because the mounting bolts to the car are still loose. Then hand tighten those side to side slowly and you will see this pulls the bar down and already puts it under some compression. Torque those down - i used about 22ft-lbs with re-used bolts - then when its mounted to the car torque down the bolts on the hinger per the included paper (24 nm i believe). Finally, do any small adjustments to the bar to get it totally flat and tighten the lock nuts. The bar is now installed and already pre-loaded/pushing on the strut towers.

I did measure the breakaway torque of all of the bolts coming off and they were all almost exactly 21ftlbs (used a digital gauge) except one was 27. They seemed like they wanted to just keep going a bit when i was around 21 ft lbs, so i did two passes of 22 ftlbs on all of them. The 2nd time they seemed to move a bit more. Could be because they are used TTY bolts. I'm sure they will be fine but if i remember ill check them again in a while. The ones coming out felt pretty lose so im not worried about it.

So with this my coilovers go into the holes for my strut bar so would I use the nuts from my coilovers into the then put the nut on top of the bar to tighten it as well as use the one or two open spots for bolts?

[thejeremyman9]

Originally Posted by DJSF3014

So with this my coilovers go into the holes for my strut bar so would I use the nuts from my coilovers into the then put the nut on top of the bar to tighten it as well as use the one or two open spots for bolts?

Sorry this sentence is hard to understand with punctuation...

Are you saying your coilovers use some or all of the 3 bolts on each side that hold the strut bar? And these bolts are going up from the bottom?

The holes are threaded so the bolts for your coilvers would need to thread into the existing tower holes and then leave enough threads to put a nut to hold the strut bar (assuming threaded up from the bottom). If other holes are not used for the coilovers, then you should be able to reuse the factory bolts to hold the strut bar as with stock suspension.

Post a picture.

[DJSF3014]

Originally Posted by thejeremyman9

Sorry this sentence is hard to understand with punctuation...

Are you saying your coilovers use some or all of the 3 bolts on each side that hold the strut bar? And these bolts are going up from the bottom?

The holes are threaded so the bolts for your coilvers would need to thread into the existing tower holes and then leave enough threads to put a nut to hold the strut bar (assuming threaded up from the bottom). If other holes are not used for the coilovers, then you should be able to reuse the factory bolts to hold the strut bar as with stock suspension.

Post a picture.

Only 2 out of 3 holes are used by my coilovers but the other hole is blocked maybe I need to rotate my coilovers around a bit? And they are all studs from the coilovers that come up from the bottom and only a nut is used to hold it in.

[Logicoeur]

Your coilovers clearly show three studs and nuts. You'd tear the frame apart if it was just two. Furthermore we still don't understand what you are asking.

[DJSF3014]

Originally Posted by Logicoeur

Your coilovers clearly show three studs and nuts. You'd tear the frame apart if it was just two. Furthermore we still don't understand what you are asking.

Yes 3 studs but 2 in the place of where the strut bar would go I see others put bolts down into it so I'm wondering if I remove the nuts for the coilovers put the strut bar over it and then the nuts back on top.