Fitting a front strut brace... help!

[Duggie]

Hello there all, I managed to unwrap a Forge strut brace this christmas (many thanks to me mum and dad). I have been looking at my Haynes manual about having to undo the upper retaining bolts on the fabia to fit it. The manual says that when i undo the bolts (which I suppose you have to to fit the brace) you have to replace them with new ones rather than just using the old ones again. Have any of you got any experiance of fitting one of these or undoing the retaining nuts? Any advice or help is greatly apprechiated.

Many thanks,
Duggie

[Decron]

Hmmmm.

Not sure what it says, but I had my brace on and off about once a months for 2 years to get at the air filter and I never had any problems.

[ScoobyChris]

Shouldn't have any probs reusing the bolts just make sure you don't over tighten them when you do them up (25Nm rings a bell but hopefully it says in the fitting instructions with your brace)

Chris

[Duggie]

Also, do i have to jack the car up? Or can I just undo the bolts with the wheels on the ground?
Many thanks,
Duggie.

[devonutopia]

Can undo them on the ground. Don't worry. Actually, doing it on the ground prevents movement of the suspension cup underneath those 3 bolts, as the weight of the car is keeping it all down.

I'm still on my original bolts and god knows how long I've had a strut brace.

[Fezboy]

All the times I have fitted a brace I have never jacked the car up!

You can just undo the 3/4 bolts and fit the brace

10/15 mins and job done!

[Duggie]

Cheers guys, That's fantastic!

[Offerman]

I know what you mean Duggie; just blipped over the manual myself. When it says replace bolts, its actually wordly badly. Its actually saying when doing work on suspension components replace all fittings with new ones as a matter of course. What it means is when removing any Nyloc bolts, or locking nuts or bolts - aka ones with a Nylon ring in, or anything that effectivly is a one use bolt these need to be replaced. For example when doing springs and dampers, the nuts holding on the track rod, and ARB at the front are Nyloc - so in theory when you remove them you should replace with new ones.

For the top bolts on the suspension however - the ones that you are going to remove are just normal bolts, and are not locking ones so they can be used over and over.

[vRSLen]

The only problem you may encounter is movement of the strut top.

You could counter this by inserting a stud when removing one of the bolts

[Duggie]

Guys, just to let you all know that i fitted the brace today, it was far easier than i thought and was done in around ten minutes, I havn't had a chance to take a drive but it looks great running over the engine... really flash. I didn;t hae a torque wrench so i kind of guessed it... all seems to be ok.

Many thanks once again,
Duggie.

[rum4mo]

Just remember a couple of things, first - 25NM is a very low torque setting - so I hope that you didn't end up over tightening them, second - the ends of these bolts get exposed to all the crap - ie salt etc being thrown up from the road, so they should idealy get replaced, also some of the rusted up thread is now carrying some of the load. These bolts are pennies so you should think about replacing and torquing the new ones sometime soonish.

[yashicamat]

As has been mentioned, the critical thing is the torque figure. Either buy or borrow a torque wrench to check they're at the correct tightness (if you haven't already). 25Nm is a suprisingly low torque (when I fitted my strut brace to my Fabia I actually double checked I had the wrench set correctly because it didn't seem tight enough to me!).

They do look pretty good though. I seem to be one of the only ones who noticed a significant change in the handling, but I was always pretty sure it did sharpen things up a bit.

[Duggie]

Ok, I'm not saying I have because I was very careful but what happens if the bolts are over tightened? Major stuff? I'm not too worried because I have a trip to Jabba planned soon for some Eibachs and they'll sort it then... just wondering guys!!!
Many thanks,
Duggie.

[Decron]

Originally Posted by Duggie

Ok, I'm not saying I have because I was very careful but what happens if the bolts are over tightened? Major stuff?.

You could strip the threads in the top bearing meaning you will nead a new one which can mean taking the strut out and compressing the springs to replace it.

[Duggie]

ARGH! FINGERS CROSSED! Second question, why I am up so late worrying about the car?

[rum4mo]

Originally Posted by Decron

You could strip the threads in the top bearing meaning you will nead a new one which can mean taking the strut out and compressing the springs to replace it.

From working with these soft little bolts I would have thought that the bolts would stretch, weaken and with a bit more torque, shear - but I have been know to be wrong!