BRZ/FR-S Strut Tower Brace - Any Interest?

[xwd]

Originally Posted by 5150unltd

Big fucking problems! Installed GrimmSpeed front strut bar this morning exactly following the directions and using a torque wrench set to 12ft lbs to tighten to factory spec i drive it all day and its fine... took it for a couple hard runs down some back roads and head home for the night.. pulling onto main road I hear a rattling noise and get home and pop my hood and find the strut bar is very loose at 1st touch pull out my phone and this is what I find! All the bolts snapped! What the fuck! Either terrible design or 12 ft lbs is to much torque

What kind of torque wrench were you using? Most 3/8" and 1/2" drive torque wrenches aren't really that accurate at something as low as 12ft-lbs. I just hand tightened mine to snug and that's generally about all you need with something like this.

The bolts were obviously way overtorqued and stretched.

I might have to do the polish treatment on mine as well, that looks good.

[Evil Jesus]

Originally Posted by 5150unltd

Big fucking problems! Installed GrimmSpeed front strut bar this morning exactly following the directions and using a torque wrench set to 12ft lbs to tighten to factory spec i drive it all day and its fine... took it for a couple hard runs down some back roads and head home for the night.. pulling onto main road I hear a rattling noise and get home and pop my hood and find the strut bar is very loose at 1st touch pull out my phone and this is what I find! All the bolts snapped! What the fuck! Either terrible design or 12 ft lbs is to much torque

Holy shit, that sucks. This issue would be the only thing that would prevent me from purchasing this part.

As other have said though, it seems that you may have over-tightened the nuts. I notice that you have a Crawford sticker on the strut-to-firewall brace. Is that just a sticker or are those aftermarket braces as well?

[Mr.Jay]

Been a bit now since I've had mine and just did a autox with it. No issues at all. Still love it but now I'm deff goin to sand and polish that Grimmspeed logo.

[Nardi330]

OMG im scared. i torqued mine to 12ft/lb according to my torque wrench but it feels pretty tight. then i used the torque wrench to tighten the stock nut near the firewall and it turned a little more. left it overnight then saw the above post and i loosen all nuts a bit and hopefully they won't snap.

[chanomatik]

Sorry, no install pic. Been raining like crazy here. I LOVE the feel of the car! Definitely a noticeable difference! Thank you so much, Sirs!

[GrimmSpeed]

Originally Posted by 5150unltd

Big fucking problems! Installed GrimmSpeed front strut bar this morning exactly following the directions and using a torque wrench set to 12ft lbs to tighten to factory spec i drive it all day and its fine... took it for a couple hard runs down some back roads and head home for the night.. pulling onto main road I hear a rattling noise and get home and pop my hood and find the strut bar is very loose at 1st touch pull out my phone and this is what I find! All the bolts snapped! What the fuck! Either terrible design or 12 ft lbs is to much torque

This is extremely unfortunate! I'm sorry to see that happen to you or anyone. I must reiterate that 12ftlbs is the factory torque value for those studs, and that I have personally removed and re-torqued ours literally over 100 times with no problems. It is a dry torque value, so if you used lube, and then torqued to 12ftlbs it could have possibly lead to an over torquing. Additionally this is the only case of this happening thus far, and we have many other people autocrossing with this bar, on top of other people running it hard.

It appears that the problem is most likely with your torque wrench. The fact that all 4 studs snapped makes no sense, because if the bar was the issue at least one side of the bar would have had to remain attached in order to apply force to the opposite side's studs. Even if that did happen, the other two breaking with no applied force is physically impossible. What makes even less sense, is that you were able to recover the studs and bolts, and that they did not fall to the ground somewhere during your spirited drive. The only explanation for this failure mode is that the studs were over torqued either during the install, or were over-torqued at a previous instance that caused the studs to begin to stretch, at which point they were already ruined. The fact that all 4 failed backs up the fact that either the torque wrench is out of spec, or that the studs themselves were a poor material composition (however unlikely).

Again, we're very sorry that happened to you, this is why we made it very clear to be careful on these studs. However, unless the material composition on all 4 studs was bad, 12ftlbs is the factory torque spec, and would not cause the studs to stretch. Additionally, the bearing surface (the surface of the strut bar that would physically interact with the stud) is substantially thicker than the stock triangulation bars, and thus substantially lowers the shear force acting on the stud, it does not raise it. Think cutting through something with a thin knife blade, and then trying to cut through the same thing with the opposite, dull side of the knife that is substantially thicker. So, I can safely say it is not "terrible design." I would think about throwing away that torque wrench, or try to remember if you or anyone had previously torqued those studs before this incident. We'd like to hear more about it to help prevent this from happening in the future, and as always you can give us a call or send us an email to talk about it.

612 379 0000 or engineering@grimmspeed.com
Chase
Engineering

[SkAsphalt]

Good news, LOVE this strut bar

Installed the bar and my MCB and both look at home in my car I have to take some new pictures of my car so the will end up in my build thread. Love the stuff you make Grimmspeed!

Now where is your intake info thread? month out or so? I need something else to follow religiously this christmas

[GrimmSpeed]

Originally Posted by xn7485

So I borrowed your ideas of hose clamp and mounting point. I had planned to utilize your setup, even have the $5 rubber thing from HK, but then I came up with a design of my own and thought I'd share. Any constructive criticism welcome. And yes I quoted pictures for easier comparison.

Main difference here is a spring extension; 1/2"x2-5/16"x.062" (12.70mmx58.74mmx1.60mm)

And oh yes, installed bar:

Hey thats pretty cool too man! I love your guys' solutions. If it were my car I would paint the brackets, and try and find some black coated hardware to be extra stealthy. Hopefully one of these days I can try my hand at a DIY solution

Originally Posted by OICU812

Yea I did mine to be different, seems others have as well already. A fine file some sand paper and 5 minutes for a different look. Personally I like the subtle change and abit O' bling factor.

Those look so good!!! I brought a bar home this weekend to start doing a little customizing for fun, but just didn't find the time to get to it. I am truly jealous as I want that look on our car, and I guarantee you're making some of the other STB owners run to their garage to do the same.

Originally Posted by Mr.Jay

Been a bit now since I've had mine and just did a autox with it. No issues at all. Still love it but now I'm deff goin to sand and polish that Grimmspeed logo.

That is great to hear, glad you're enjoying it, and I hope you had a hell of a time at the autox!

Originally Posted by Nardi330

OMG im scared. i torqued mine to 12ft/lb according to my torque wrench but it feels pretty tight. then i used the torque wrench to tighten the stock nut near the firewall and it turned a little more. left it overnight then saw the above post and i loosen all nuts a bit and hopefully they won't snap.

I would not be worried if I were you, and in fact I would have left them torqued as you had them. You do not want them to be undertorqued and let the bar come loose. No reason to be scared! I just talked to the user that posted up the broken studs, and his case sounds like a problem with the studs themselves as it seems he did everything correctly. This isn't the first case I've heard about people torquing those studs correctly and having them fail, but it certainly is very rare.

Originally Posted by chanomatik

Sorry, no install pic. Been raining like crazy here. I LOVE the feel of the car! Definitely a noticeable difference! Thank you so much, Sirs!

Hey no problem man, and thank you very much sir! Also rain = less tire wear :P

Originally Posted by SkAsphalt

Good news, LOVE this strut bar

Installed the bar and my MCB and both look at home in my car I have to take some new pictures of my car so the will end up in my build thread. Love the stuff you make Grimmspeed!

Now where is your intake info thread? month out or so? I need something else to follow religiously this christmas

Oh, I LOVE good news. That is great to hear, and thank you very much! The comments that you guys make, and the support that you have for us literally fuels us through the day.

Hahahaha, I am not sure of when yet. We are still very early into this project, but I promise there will be a development thread.

5150ultd thanks again for giving me a call so we could figure out what happened, hopefully it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Folks, thank you to everyone so far for the nice comments, and for posting up pictures of your installs and how you have customized the logos, and ac line brackets. I honestly love to see what you guys are coming up with, and I have to apologize for not coming up with any cool custom bar yet myself. It'll happen!

Chase
Engineering

[RazBRZ]

It has begun. A little behind schedule, but whatever. GrimmSpeed Cherry Blossom paint

[Evil Jesus]

Are new people still installing these? Impressions? Issues?

Can't wait to pick mine up if all is well.

[sierra]

Originally Posted by Evil Jesus

Are new people still installing these? Impressions? Issues?

Can't wait to pick mine up if all is well.

15 days since I ordered mine. I went out to the garage the next day and fitted a 12mm socket and short extension onto my torque wrench. I even loosened a couple of strut nuts and retorqued them to get some practice in.

In Oz, waiting.

I would appreciate knowing if the broken studs were overtorqued so we can relax about that aspect?

[Evil Jesus]

Originally Posted by sierra

1

I would appreciate knowing if the broken studs were overtorqued so we can relax about that aspect?

It really seems that that was the case. The GS guys have put on 100s of prototypes without issue they said. Haven't seen a single other person with issues either.

How tight is 12 ft/lbs anyway? Just slightly snug? Not looking forward to buying a $100 torque wrench to put on a $160 part if I don't have to. :happy0180:

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by Evil Jesus

It really seems that that was the case. The GS guys have put on 100s of prototypes without issue they said. Haven't seen a single other person with issues either.

How tight is 12 ft/lbs anyway? Just slightly snug? Not looking forward to buying a $100 torque wrench to put on a $160 part if I don't have to. :happy0180:

If you plan on working on your car with any regularity, buy the torque wrench.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[disgruntld]

Originally Posted by Evil Jesus

It really seems that that was the case. The GS guys have put on 100s of prototypes without issue they said. Haven't seen a single other person with issues either.

How tight is 12 ft/lbs anyway? Just slightly snug? Not looking forward to buying a $100 torque wrench to put on a $160 part if I don't have to. :happy0180:

$20 for a 0-80 ft-lb torque wrench at Harbor Freight.