I found that by tightening the upper strut mount 2- 1/8 turns (1/4 turn total) that the car feels so much tighter up front. So solid over bumps. Even a dash rattle I had went away. It feels how I would expect a strut tower brace to feel on a car without one. I wouldnt over do it so as not to deform that rubber bushing, but just something more snug than it comes from the factory. My car is an early 01 with 54k miles and it feels absolutely new again. Amazing.

I also put small rolled up pieces of electrical tape in the upper radiator mounts because I could feel vibration when the electric fan came on. I think this also helped with general vibration since the radiator isnt able to move around like before.

I hope these little things work for you as well.

dgracer

 

A strut tower brace reduces body roll in cornering/evasive manuvers. All you did was tighten the strut assemply to the shock tower. All that is doing is making your ride a little stiffer.

Cheers anyway for the post.

 

Thanks for the tips

 

Actually, you are describing the characteristic of an anti-roll bar or sway bar. A strut tower brace reduces chassis/body structure flex making the car body feel stiffer and the suspension more 'accurate' and consistent.

I agree that all I did was snug up a bushing but was surprised how much better it made my car feel.

 

Thanks for the tip...

 

good find .. ill check it out later today

 

so would the ride be stiffer on the freeway and better cornering????
or just better cornering???
not really looking to make my ride less smooth on the freeway, long hours on crappy freeway makes me wanna get a lexus

 

just tighten the friggen bolts. You can always loosen them if you don't like the change.

 

It just changes the feel. When the front wheels hit a bump, there is a more solid single thump then what it was which was thump, small shudder. The shudder is gone. Again, like what you feel in a new car. It is a small difference that some people may not even feel. I drive on concrete freeways and it feels much better to me. Not stiffer, just more solid over the bumps.

 

As for cornering, the initial turn is in a little sharper but it is not like you can suddenly add 10mph to corner speed. This is a small change that does nothing for grip, just a bit of feel.

 

i wonder, should i try it on a my car? it's only 7200 mi old

 

It wont hurt anything and worst case, you'll feel no difference. It could be that the factory leaves these bushings slightly looser than is optimal. Try it.

 

dgracer, could you really distinctively feel the difference? Why would just making the bolts tighter make any difference, if its already on there pretty tight. Your talking about that stock bar behind the engine right?

 

If the bolts loosen up it no longer sturdy and so tightening will make everything sturdy....

 

you guys crack me up....

 

It is cracking me up too. I was just under the hood snugging up a few bolts for good measure after passing the 50k mark. I'm talking about the rather large (17mm I believe) single nut that mounts the top of the strut to the rubber bushing connected to the body. I was just surprised that by snugging it down a little more, (the bushing will twist under the torque, then go back to shape) that you can actually feel it in the way the car rides.

 

This is really cracking me up!

Have your struts been replaced? If so somebody didn't tighten the nuts.

I just took apart my struts last week and that nut is suppose to bottom out on the collor (spacer) thats inside of the rubber bushings. It keeps the right amount of load on the bushings.

DGRacer, What you need to do is tighten it down with a wrench holding the shaft with an allen wrench. Tein recomends 29.4 nm or 3.0kgm. Don't know what that is in ft/lbs or what acura recommends but the Tiens use all the OEM upper mounts and bushings. They also reccomend not reusing the nut.

No wonder it was making noise.