Front strut brace

[bigjae46]

Unless you’re tying the bar into the firewall for front end clip like the F8X then the OEM bar is all you really need.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tbonem3]

Thanks! Yeah I forgot to mention I have GC camber plates installed on the car. Now to decide on a strut brace.

You'll be all set with GC plates and a strut brace - don't need any other reinforcement.

[LSBNick]

Anybody have any input on how much of a difference a strut bar makes on our vehicles? I have an early 01 pre LCI with no strut bar and have been eying the Rogue Engineering bar as my car starts too see more action.

I too have an early production build (2/01) and I noticed a pretty significant difference with my dmg bar. Granted the rest of the car was stock at the time, so any change probably would’ve been noticeable.

[MotorSportThree]

If you don’t have a strut brace already it’s advisable for street. You want one that covers the strut tower top to dissipate impacts. As for reinforcement plates, they don’t hurt. But a decent brace would have priority over that. The M3 top strut mount shape is larger than non-Ms to spread the load and limit “mushrooming”. Camber plates often have sharp edges and dig into the tower causing damage.

Thanks! Yeah I forgot to mention I have GC camber plates installed on the car. Now to decide on a strut brace.

[old///MFanatic]

My street car is lowered on H&R springs and I did not install a shock tower reinforcement kit. Should I be worried enough of a shock tower failure to install and strut brace? Again the car only sees street use.

If you don’t have a strut brace already it’s advisable for street. You want one that covers the strut tower top to dissipate impacts. As for reinforcement plates, they don’t hurt. But a decent brace would have priority over that. The M3 top strut mount shape is larger than non-Ms to spread the load and limit “mushrooming”. Camber plates often have sharp edges and dig into the tower causing damage.

[MotorSportThree]

My street car is lowered on H&R springs and I did not install a shock tower reinforcement kit. Should I be worried enough of a shock tower failure to install and strut brace? Again the car only sees street use.

[Tbonem3]

Those spacers are awesome! What luck too!

[G3N3M3]

If you’re not tracking the car, I don’t see how you could possibly push your car that hard on the streets to notice the bar to be working or not. My $0.02.

[eacmen]

The partsshopmax strut bar actually comes with a little spacer plate to fill that gap on the early cars:



I think ZHPizza has a set he wasn't using, not sure if it sold yet

FYI Mason will make a bar with the strut tower bumps for the older cars. No shim, its part of the one piece design. Just need to ask him when ordering.

[eacmen]

Exactly. A bar’s design is to keep the suspension same distance apart. Allow suspension to do it’s work. The stock brace does this adequately.

Stock brace is also made for easier access to work on engine. There are positives and negatives to this. Ease of just center bar removal and end caps untouched one of them.
One very overlooked point to mention with the stock design is its ability to function with the engineers “crumple zones”. Incredible amount of engineering and cost on the car’s body and frame to allow it in an accident or impact to absorb energy and keep passenger safe. Attach a steel brace with the design of a tubular subframe and this changes greatly how car reacts in an accident. Usually much more dangerous and costly. For a track junkie that’s not really a major factor anymore. For a street driven car it is.

Decades ago (in my E30 M3 days) Gustave wrote a great engineering paper on strut braces. What they are for and what they should and don’t need to do.

Mason Bar vs 120mph into tire wall. Not sure how much energy it absorbed but I’m sure glad it was there. The chassis was toast but I mostly walked away.

[RoyalFlushness]

I have one to sell if you want it. I love the design as it allows for a lot of camber adjustment by sliding the mounts in the slots, but she ain't light.
Yep just got them out as one of your Toronto neighbors wants them. Set them in place on my 2000 touring just to check fitment:

Yes sir. Thank you again for getting these out to me.

[ZHPizza]

This one is a beast and doesn't cost $700 lol

https://store.partsshopmax.com/shop/E36E46/BushingChassis/E46STB.html

Will likely go this route down the road.

I have one to sell if you want it. I love the design as it allows for a lot of camber adjustment by sliding the mounts in the slots, but she ain't light.

The partsshopmax strut bar actually comes with a little spacer plate to fill that gap on the early cars:



I think ZHPizza has a set he wasn't using, not sure if it sold yet

Yep just got them out as one of your Toronto neighbors wants them. Set them in place on my 2000 touring just to check fitment:

[timmo]

The partsshopmax strut bar actually comes with a little spacer plate to fill that gap on the early cars:



I think ZHPizza has a set he wasn't using, not sure if it sold yet

[old///MFanatic]

Thanks for the information. I wonder what the best approach will be for me since I ordered the DMG with the flat 100% contact and my 01 shock tower is naturally mushroomed. Perhaps source and modify some polyurethane washers and get it as flush as possible before bolting it up.

Polyurethane doesn’t sound like the right material. You’d want something more solid like a metal. And you’d want it about as close to exact thickness as the space it’s to take up.
If you really wanted to get involved you could get some aluminum plates same thickness (example 7mm) and cut curved strips to fill in excess areas.
Btw the term “mushroomed” strut tower is more used from damaging impacts underneath. It actually bends the strut mount tops (and tower) and then the studs are angled out and no longer parallel. But I get what you mean. 👍🏻

[Tbonem3]

I was actually just thinking of that. You could cut some "pads". The only thing is, for it to work as perfectly as possible, it'd have to be steel, and the tolerances would have to be very tight, basically perfect. Or use a material that can be deformed slightly, like poly, and have them be slightly thicker so that they get compressed.


It'd be hard to measure and get such precision, but if you could figure out the exact right thickness, then that would better spread the load. I wonder if the parts of your tower that extrude upwards have more surface area than the "feet" of the strut bar's end. If so, you'd have more load spread than the oe bar on a later car's tower.