Freedom Design Strut Brace Install

I picked up a great deal on this bar from Freedom Designs. It was a blemished bar that was on sale. Originally priced at $160, I was able to buy it for $45!

The blemishes only include two small, hardly noticeable nicks in the carbon Fiber. It had never been installed before. I was lucky enough to here about this great deal on the Ford Probe FAQ before there supplies of blemished ones ran out.

This is a great suspension mod that can greatly reduce body flex under hard cornering. A Strut Tower Brace is a tubular bar that fastens the towers (tops) of the struts together to actually make the body of the car stiffer.

Installation: The brace is very simple and doesn't take more that 30-45 minutes or so to install, Let's begin!

- We'll first begin by removing the 8 (4 per side) nuts on the tops of the strut towers.

See Img 1.

- Take each of the end plates off of the strut brace and slide them down over the strut bolts. Take note that there are left and right sides to the mounting plates. The Passenger side plate is also "broken" up into two separate pieces. This allows for use of the hood prop.

See Img 2

- Now, tighten the 8 nuts down on the ends of the strut plates to fasten them to the tower.

See Img 3

- On the actual brace, each end is adjustable. Bolt down one of the ends down to the plate first. It does not matter which plate you bolt it to first because there are not "lefts" and "rights" to the actual brace itself.

- Then, adjust the brace to the needed length to bolt the brace to the other plate.

See Img 4

- As a safety precaution, go back over all bolts and check them for secure ness.

- After that, WHALA! Your finished!

- Now go take a test drive and see what you think, I was personally impressed!

I have actually heard of people "pre-loading" the bar. If I'm correct, this includes jacking up one side of the car to flex the body inward and then install the bar. Then when the car is lowered down it actually pulls the towers closer together (I'm sure no more that a milameter or two). I don't think I would recommend "pre-loading" the bar. It seems as if the car being flexed in ward, the tires will wear on the inside. Though, only being MM or two, it might not effect the tires at all, that's just my opinion, and I might not have the total grasp on this "pre-loading" thing. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me on it.