Vibrant
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Vibrant
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Victor at Saturn Saab Isuzu of Thornhill suggested we install a strut tower brace for more ridgidity on our S series cars. I can't say that we push our cars that hard but I have notice a bit of a creaking sound from the struts on our 99 SL2....
The Vibrant brand strut tower brace comes in a plain white box and is pre assembled. It does not come with installation instructions so you need to be careful when you do your installation that you put it on correctly. The above photo shows the WRONG WAY to install the bar! Ok so I was told to mount the bar to the rear....didn't make sense since you can't access the power steering or brake fluids easily.
This is the correct way to install the bar! Installation is pretty simple and straight forward. I used a torque wrench to remove and then install the strut tower nuts. The brackets can be installed with the bar hanger to the front or rear of the car. You want them towards the front! It's important that the car NOT be jacked up when you do this! I retorqued the nuts to 21 foot pounds. Then you basically install the bar loosely and jack up the car with your strut tower nuts tightened. Then you tighten the bar and it's locking nuts and you are done. I double checked all the nuts after driving the car for a few days. Some folks warn not to overtighten the strut tower nuts as the bolts can break.
Looks pretty good, this car doesn't get driven in the winter so hopefully rust won't be much of an issue. Guess the only thing left to do is to add a cold air intake in place of my drop in K&N air filter. A Katzkin leather interior kit looks pretty good as well.
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