Sparco Strut Bar.. Won't fit??

[Mick]

Originally posted by Magnus
...stand on top of the bar to force it to spread.

I had a date like that once.

[AdamF 88iS]

On my M3 (7/87 production) the bar was an almost perfect fit, only had to lift the front end a little. On my 325is (10/87) I had to lift the front end off and drop one of the struts to get it on.

No hammering/pounding/brute force required on either one. FWIW, both of them havent had any front end accidents either.

[Beau]

Originally posted by Mick
I had a date like that once.

HAHA


...so true

[EVOIIIM3]

Mine went on perfectly, and I have done another E30 that it fit on perfectly.

My friend with a 89 325 has one, and it was about 3/4in to long. We did everything that we could. It would just not go!! Finally we slotted out the bolt holes a bit and forced it on.

[EDWIN 88///M3]

I really don't think that bmw made two different chassis for our cars. From my understanding, all chassis flex overtime esp. a 15 yr old car. The shock towers tend to go towards the firewall and to the center. That's why sparco stress bar seems to be short. If you notice some M3 like mine, once you open the radiator cap-make sure do this when engine is cold, it touches the plastic part of the cover. This tells you that chassis flexs. Hope this help!

EDWIN

[1990m3]

my racing dynamics bar went on in about 5 minutes

[iluvm3s]

OIC, yeah when I open the cap it touches the plastic part, damn this sucks. I took pictures of it, how do I post it on the thread?

[ToCarpediem]

I had this problem....but with my first bar - RD bar from Bavauto.
I had a hard time installing it in my 89.
Finally got it on and drove the car for about 2 years.
Then when i swap that out for the sparco bar, it went on so easy....didnt even have to jack up the car.
So i think its probably the towers flexing.

I also think BMW made the 2 version towers for the 325e/es version only....but i could be wrong.

The Sparco bars is 37inches from one bolt on one side to the same bolt on the other....so maybe u can measure that way to see how far off u r.

Franklin

[Magnus]

[Jake]

After reading this entire thread, I think Mike (EVOIIIM3) is the only one that came up the more reasonable solution. What's wrong with slotting the Sparco bar anyway?

FWIW, my Sparco bar went on without much fuss, but then again it I've only test fitted it without an engine installed. It might be a different story if I ever get an engine back in there.

Here's something to consider (I think Mick touched on this a bit), what do you think force feeding your strut towers a bar that's too long is going to do to your alignment?

As Mick said (in so many words), spreading those strut towers will give you less negative camber; something we normally want to keep. You could almost say our alignment gets better with age (if indeed it is an issue with sag). :D

So I say slot the mo fo. Keep the negative camber your M3 has worked so hard to give you. On top of that, it would be forever easier to install!

HTH,
Jake Larsen

[M3Driver]

This isn't a problem with the strut bars, it's a problem with the strut towers. Like earlier posts, my car also has the coolant cap touching the plastic. When you look at the sheetmetal between the strut tower and the firewall, I can see waves and creases from stress where the towers have pushed back. Over time this gets worse, especially on track and street driven cars with high spring rates and aggressive driving. Next week I am having this fixed by a local body shop, they are going to reinforce everything as well when they're in there so it doesn't happen again. Hopefully I can fit a strut bar in there as well!

[Jake]

Originally posted by M3Driver
This isn't a problem with the strut bars, it's a problem with the strut towers.

I know.

Originally posted by Jake
You could almost say our alignment gets better with age (if indeed it is an issue with sag).

So I say slot the mo fo. Keep the negative camber your M3 has worked so hard to give you. On top of that, it would be forever easier to install!

Jake Larsen

[Magnus]

Oh poppycock!

[Mmark]

If anyone has access to bodyshop manuals maybe we could find out what the " As new" specification for tower width is.
Seems to be a unibody aging phenomenon to me. This problem is common in VW as well.
m.

[Mick]

Originally posted by Jake
So I say slot the mo fo. Keep the negative camber your M3 has worked so hard to give you. On top of that, it would be forever easier to install!

I wish it were that simple for me. My problem was that the extension that runs down the sides of the towers hit first. So although slotting the holes would have helped installation (because then I wouldn't have had to have dropped the struts), once the bar was pressed all the way in, the original holes would have been forced to lign up and the slotted holes wouldn't have mattered.

I'm not so sure this approach will work for anyone because the Sparco bar is made to fit between the "lips" at the tops of the towers. If the holes in the bar are slotted I don't think you'll be able to make it sit flush on the tops of the towers.