LOS-323

I did a search and couldnīt find this particular question asked...

Iīve read that a strut brace or strut bar is designed to tie the two opposing strut towers together as a single solid unit to reduce flex that these towers experience during hard cornering. As strut tower bars are designed to keep your strut towers from flexing, they distribute the pressure applied to one strut tower when taking a turn to both towers instead of just one.

But I have seen adjustable braces and those that are one single piece of metal with no joints at all. I have also read that the ones that are one single piece of metal are much better.

It seems to me that they would be, since having joints in the part would just add more points where the piece could bend and not transfer the force to the other side. I thought that maybe the body of the car could flex, and the bar would not transfer the force to the other side because the joints could move and defeat the purpose.

What do you guys think... shouldnīt strut tower braces be made of a single piece of metal so they are stiff and actually resist body flex the most? Just like sway bars... they donīt have any joints in them.

carguycw

Yes, one-piece bars are theoretically better, but adjustable bars are OK if they're designed properly. If the adjusters are located at the ends rather than the middle, they will hardly flex at all. Most adjustable strut bars use spherical bearings at the ends and will work just as well as a non-adjustable bar.

BTW comparing strut bars to sway bars is like comparing apples to oranges. Swaybars are designed to twist, strut bars are designed to resist compression and tension through the center of the bar.