front strut tower bar? how come no one does it?

[dgrs4sd]

when I had my B5 A4 1.8Q I put one on and the difference was great, how come, everyone tells me not to worry about it on the S4?

thoughts?

[JDM EJ1 95]

what did you feel in difference.

musta been in your head..

sorry but in the 15+cars i owned and many with and without strutbars.. ive never once felt a SUBSTANTIAL difference whatsoever...

not enough to justify buying one.


and id always assuemd that the huge ass brace that encorporates the firewall and shock towers was support well enough...

i duno though i could be wrong but thats a pretty heavy piece of metal in that area.

[Squarrl]

your s has one already

[Rapter]

what did you feel in difference.

musta been in your head..

sorry but in the 15+cars i owned and many with and without strutbars.. ive never once felt a SUBSTANTIAL difference whatsoever...

not enough to justify buying one.


and id always assuemd that the huge ass brace that encorporates the firewall and shock towers was support well enough...

Maybe not on the S because of what you said which is the last thing I quoted you on, but I definitely felt a difference in my old school(93) Accord and in my 98 Gti Vr6. I don't have my S with me so I can't go out and look, but what you said gives me a mental picture, I can see what you're getting at and I would have to agree with you. As for other cars I disagree. In my Gti I had both Neuspeed bars front and the rear K bar where it would mount to both shock towers and one bar mounting to the floor board. That without a doubt gave the car a much more solid feel to it.

[sCeRaXn]

Unless you have really stiff suspension and sticky tires, you wont feel much of a difference from it. I had one on the crx when it was just a basic koni/gc setup and didnt notice any difference, so i took it off. Once i upgraded to the f&f type II co's(with HEAVY springs) i had to put it back on. At that time i was at VIR every chance i got so it was seeing some serious twisty action. One day while changing the oil i noticed that the sides of my hood had been rubbing the fenders, but while the car was sitting it was aligned perfectly and wasnt near the fenders. It turns out that when i was cornering hard the body would flex a little causing the rubbing between the hood and fenders. I made a bar that connected the strut towers to the firewall and it went away. Once again, this was in a car with heavy suspension mods and r compound tires that was easily pulling WELL over 1g in a corner. I then switched to HASports "semi-solid" race mounts which eliminated the need for the bar.

In a street car, i seriously doubt youll see any difference. Like JDM said, that brace is probably more than enough for anything the car will ever see.

[JaredVL]

Audi gave you one for free from the factory, look into it, it's great.

[saucys4]

^ true, the reason everyone tells you not to worry about it is because you already have one

[DFens]

Audi gave you one for free from the factory, look into it, it's great.

^ nothing is ever free from Audi. haha

[Siena]

S4 / RS4 / 1.8TQS already has a substantial brace bar, as standard.

It sits quite low in the scuttle area, and not instantly obvious, but it's there.

[speedydragon]

any pics of the OEM strut bar?

[Siena]

I don't have any pictures, sorry.

[ny02s4]

i dont think anyone makes one for the B5 S4 anyways... all i ever found was B5 A4.

[NoLeafClover]

take of the battery cover and look between the battery and fire wall u will see a nice aluminum bar

[JackalS4]

^ nothing is ever free from Audi. haha

Hahaha great line.

But I still <3 Audi.

[tike0rz]

Its not a Honda dude

[mholme]

what did you feel in difference.

musta been in your head..

sorry but in the 15+cars i owned and many with and without strutbars.. ive never once felt a SUBSTANTIAL difference whatsoever...

What kind of cars were these? My old I-5 4000 benefited greatly from a front strut bar, night and day difference in handling. Not needed on the S for sure. As others said, it's already there.

[S4evr]

agreed^ my 95 mustang tightened up a ton from putting a strut tower bar on.

[1997gtx]

^ Our cars WOULD tighten up a ton, IF we didn't already have one.
--Adam

[RolledMySTi]

I wonder myself why there are no strut bars for our cars. You see how much a DTS and a snub mount help with this floppy chassis I would imagine strut bars would help too. I put strut bars on my STi, even though practically everyone at NASIOC said they don't do anything, and they made a great improvement. The car rode better and handled choppy pavement so much better.

[1997gtx]

^ You didn't read the thread, did you?
--Adam

[JDM EJ1 95]

Placebo Effect!!!!!!!!!!!!!


it's like saying you can notice a 2 hp increase at 6500 rpm. on the butt dyno..

[Militant-Grunt]

Not to mention that the fact that our cars have the double firewall construction meaning its quite still as it is.

[RolledMySTi]

^ You didn't read the thread, did you?
--Adam

I read the thread and I know our cars have one, but I feel the car could still use more stiffening. My STi had a far stiffer chassis to start with and front and rear strut bars made a noticeable improvement.

[1997gtx]

^ Well, sure, we could use a stiffer ride, but a 'different' front strut tower bar isn't going to do it.
--Adam