I've been offered a genuine STi carbon front, top strut brace for peanuts. Can anyone offer any useful hints & tips for fitting this to a standard, 1999 UK Turbo 2000 (torque settings, replacement of locking nuts etc)? Cheers! 😊

 

Anyone? 😊

 

Undo your nuts , three each side on top of strut mount. Fit brace tighten up nuts, don't have the torque setting but I just go by feel, nip them up nice and snug but don't go mental. Very easy 5 minute job

 

Strut braces are a waste of money and do nothing according to my local subaru specialist, he told me the best thing to do is take it off and sell as they do nothing at all. He's knows his stuff so I'm not doubting him at all. He could strip and rebuild a subaru engine blindfolded.

 

They do work but normally as a package which includes uprated suspension parts (struts,ARBs etc) on a standard car then they probably don't do much.

 

The reality is I'm fitting a genuine STi carbon strut brace for cosmetic reasons as much as performance! For the same reason I'll fit a set of gold 17" alloys (hopefully OZ or Speedline) once the worst winter weather has passed. 😊

 

You may need to jack up the car in order for the brace to fit over all six of the strut bolts.

 

You wont need to jack the car up. If you did that then undone the nuts the top mount & strut would drop outta the turret. Unless you mean just jack to take pressure of the struts/wheels but not lift it

Nuts are only something like 20lbft.

Only issue i ever seen was where a car had replacement top mounts fitted and the top mount bolts werent tall enough to allow the sti brace to be fitted and still have enough threads to get the nuts on securely

 

Exactly. I had to do this when I installed mine as the three nuts did not line up on both sides on my car when it was resting on the ground.

Undo the nuts first while the car is on the ground, then lift it gently with the jack until you can fit the brace over the bolts, taking care not to lift it too high to avoid the top mounts falling into the turret. Once the brace fits, tighten the nuts and lower the car.

 

You just have to undo the 3 bolts on the chassis where the struts bolt.
I found easier to remove the bar from the base mounts ans then tighten the bar the bases.

When I bought my GC it was completly stock, I've installed by order: Front Strut Bar, Rear Strut bar. front lower h brace.
Front brace didn't notice anything.
Rear brace small barelly noticable change
Front lower brace - man.. I recomend everyone to do this! HUGE difference in steering feel and response!