Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Group Buy OMP Front Strut Tower Bar Group Buy

Ya don't have to yell at the guy for trying to move some product. The price wasn't that bad.

i don't think you can call a product "junk" just because there was 1 or 2 incidents with it. i think there are quite a few who have that piece and haven't had any problems.

I think I differ with many of you. First of all the idea of a strut tower brace is to control the flexing of the strut tower. Duh. Connecting directly to the strut is perfect, go right to the source of flex and brace it. Second, no drilling in the sheet metal to weaken it? Sounds perfect to me. Omp is also just a brand name. I believe sparco also makes one. Sometimes a bar is just a bar with a name. You could probably find a local machine shop to bend and cut the bar of your choice and weld a couple rings to mount to the strut, or bars to bolt in, whatever tickles you, for probably less than $100. Then paint it your own color yourself, with some heat resistant paint from discount.
Cost of bar: $10
Cost of labor: $50
Cost of paint: $5
Cost of knowing you have a custom bar to fit your car: Priceless

We discussed this on the mailing list a while ago. Anything that prevents the natural strut movement is bad (see them big rubber mounts at the top.. they're there for a reason, NVH is part of it, movement is another part). I suggest reading the archives.

I'll help..
http://www.coldair.org/archives/0003/msg01403.html
http://www.coldair.org/archives/0008/msg00748.html

Yes, It is a horrible idea. Although Sho Shops replaced my Koni, I'd never ever put a brace that attaches to the strut top back on my car. Very horrible design!!!!!!!

That's right. You need a strut TOWER brace. Not a Strut Brace. The SHOShop is a Strut Brace=BAD.

i paid $100 even. no taxes no shipping. nothing. the local performance shop had extra and he sold me it cheap.

One of our N.Cali group members had his strut ripped off by the Sho strut brace. Mirko was the first to tell us how horrible it was as he laughed at there product.

I

Well is it really bad? What is your purpose of doing performance mods? You need to be willing to sacrifice some things in order to improve your performance. Why do you think Ford didn't include a brace from SVT even? Why is a strut brace used on every race car? ( And many cars have them as OEM like the Miata and Celica, etc) If you are trying to improve the handling characteristics of the car you will, I repeat, you will risk a chance of damaging the car in some way. If you put shorter springs to lower the car you put more stress on the car, but it looks cool so it doesn't hurt? Come on guys. Every mod you make to the engne changes the original performance plan that will , I repeat, will have an adverse effect on other parts of the engine. It is bound to happen, but if you are serious about improving the performance of your 3000lb+ sedan you have to make some sacrifices. Taller wheels like 17&18's increase the load on the suspension under lateral acceleration. Causing ripping and tearing of the bushings, prematurely. So than you put spherical bearings in place of the bushings, so you have to improve the strength of the control arms, than you need to improve the chassis to prevent flexing which can flex body panels and cause stress damage which can affect the stability of the ride cruising down I-95 at 55mph. When does it end? All I am saying is if you are going to hurt the car in some way, get the most out of the changes you make.

But there are better options than the SHO-Shop bar. The Sho-shop ties the actual struts together which is a bad way to increase stiffness. The other bars(OMP particularly) tie the strut towers together. If you have ever looked at any car that comes with an OEM strut bar(Acura ITR) they connect the strut towers, not the struts themselves. The point of a strut tower brace is to brace the strut towers not the struts themselves.