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steve shares his experience installing a stillen strut tower brace
Here is a repost of my experiences installing a Stillen strut tower brace
on my 1996 Maxima SE. I'll follow it with a copy of a second post which
includes some info from Mike O'Gara who did the installation on a 1995 SE
and had a few clearance problems:
Steve Cutchen
scutchen@phoneix.net
----FIRST POST----
I promised the folks on the Maxima mailing list a report after I installed
the strut tower brace and Eibach springs I ordered from Steve Millen's
outfit last week. The salesguy at Stillen, Jared, told me 7-10 days
shipping. Well, I ordered on Wednesday and the stuff got here yesterday
(Monday). Quick! I won't be able to install the springs until Saturday,
but the strut brace is a snap and I couldn't wait, so I installed it last
night. About a 15-20 minute job, garage doors up to garage doors down.
Stock, the '96 Maxima SE is quite a bit softer than I wanted. Or rather
it wanders around when loaded in corners more than I'd like. Hence my
interest in the suspension upgrade... There was quite a discussion a
while back here on r.a.d concerning the performance compromises built into
the SE compared to pre-'95 models. What particularly bothers me is a kind
of combination roll and yaw action that occurs when you hit rollers or
bumps while loaded in a high speed corner. Really unsettling at first,
but I came to realize that the car would hang tight anyway, and any
breakaway would be gradual (in the dry) so I just lived with it. Dive in,
and hang on. I think some of the good grip is also due to the Pirelli
P600s that I installed right off the lot, trading in the Toyo A05s.
I really wasn't expecting much difference from just the strut brace.
Well, I was wrong. Drove it this morning and noticed a BIG difference on
the first high speed sweeper. A rather bumpy swoop from one freeway to
another here in Houston. The car still moves about its roll axis as you'd
expect on the soft springs, but the yaw action is literally gone. Zip,
Nada... Gone. The turn in at high speed (80 mph) is much crisper and the
car just takes a line and stays there! Wow! I am really amazed. I'm
guessing that there must be a pretty significant change taking place to
the camber in the stock setup while under significant cornering loads.
The brace would stop this.
Even in low speed corners I noticed a big difference, primarily better
turn in and similarly, a perception that understeer was reduced on through
the corner. Heel and toe into the corner, point the nose and squirt the
throttle! What a blast! I didn't get a chance to take it through my
favorite ess turns yet, but I'm really looking forward to it.
It may be that just a strut brace is a good upgrade for folks that want to
tighten up the car a bit in corners without doing anything to ride height
or ride harshness. I'm looking forward to the spring upgrade as well!
With the sweet engine and snick-snick 5 speed, I think this will move my
SE from 9/10 to 10/10! I'm happy as a clam!
------SECOND POST-------
Dan Grostick, cyber.one@worldnet.att.net, asked
>I'm considering purchasing a strut tower brace for my '97 SE. For those
>who've done this already, is it a true bolt on?
>My AC line protrudes about 1/2" above the lower edge of the strut tower,
>and wonder if there is a clearance problem there or anywhere else?
I have a 96 SE. I had no problems at all. Yet Mike O'Gara did have
problems with his early '95. Here's what he wrote about it (I saved it,
Mike...). I definately agree with his comments as to the benefits of the
bar. I can repost my comments there or email them to anyone interested;
just ask... but this post is gonna be long enough already
---repost from mogara@ix.netcom.com (Michael O'Gara)---
Hi, folks:
Here's my experience with installing/using the Stillen
strut-tower brace in my '95 Maxima SE.
The bottom line is, it works! In a sweeping downhill right
turn near my place, there's a depression. Before, when the
car would hit it, it would pitch up and down, and also "yaw"
- the nose would move from side-to-side. Now that the strut
brace is in, the yawing motion is essentially *gone*!
In general, the car just feels much better in turns - less
upset by changes in road contour, etc. It also is much more
controllable under full-power acceleration than it was before,
since most of the erratic yawing I'd see there is also gone.
It also *seems* that the infamous "Maxima clutch groan" is
noticeably less! Probably due to the elimination of a
suspension resonance - or moving it to a new frequency.
Now for the downside: Installation hassles.
The mounting brackets bolt on using existing nuts & bolts.
You'll need a 9/16" wrench (or metric equiv.) and an 8 mm
(or inch equiv.) allen wrench for the nuts/bolts at the
rod-ends of the bar.
The problem I had was that the bar strongly compressed
wire-bundles, hoses, throttle cable housings, etc. When I
bolted in one end, the other end, with just the weight of
the bar pushing it down, was 3/4" above aligning with the
eye of the other-side mount. I could push it down fairly
hard and it would line up. But it didn't feel "right" to
me. The engine rocks backward/forward on its mounts, while
the bar is stationary. I don't like things rubbing like
that.
The pictures in the catalog indicate that only the Maxima
strut brace is a straight bar - the rest of them appear to
be arched up, to clear the engine or whatever. Understand,
I'm *real* picky about this kind of thing. I work on high-
volume assembly machinery, and I expect every mechanism to
be able to run for millions of cycles without failure.
You may not have the same "mindset" as I do.
I ended up re-routing wire bundles, bending tubing, bending
mounting brackets, etc. to get everything to clear. Then
I wrapped the bar with masking tape and went for a drive,
using *vigorous* acceleration and engine deceleration.
Found some "rub marks" on the tape, did more bending, etc.
of tubing and mounts. Finally got to a "nothing hits the
bar while driving hard" state. Done.
A lot more hassle than I expected, but worth it.
You can reach Stillen at www.stillen.com. Their catalog
is $7.00, or if you know they carry what you want, just
call and ask for it, and save the $7. The bar is listed
as $199, but it appears to be standard for them to tell
you "there's a sale on on that, it's now just $179."
-- Mike
---end repost---
Mike and I corresponded quite a bit during his trevails. I felt somewhat
responsible since I gave the bar such a glowing report. I also reported no
interference problems.
Here's what I told Mike:
>I just went out and checked clearances to be sure. The bar touches the
>accelerator cables and some of the wiring across the top of the engine.
>But if I press down on these, they clear with only light pressure. So I
>don't think there is near enough pressure to cause any chafing. The only
>thing that appears to touch tightly is the little brass-colored bracket
>that holds the A/C line rubber bushing. It is mounted to the passenger
>side strut tower. There is no evidence that the bar has been touching the
>underside of the hood.
Mike replied
>The biggest thing I see is that some sort of black plastic thing - about 2" in
>diameter with 3 hoses on it - smacks the bar pretty hard on the front of the
>bar. In about 10 miles of city driving, it hit the bar hard enough, often
>enough, to almost tear/wear through two layers of masking tape! I think I'll
>have to bend the bracket that holds that "thing" and put in longer hoses so it
>can still connect to the stuff behind it. I don't know what it is, and don't
>really care, since I'll just lengthen the hoses by about 1" and be done with
>it.
To which I replied:
>This thing is in front of my bar and clears without hitting. It has the
>number 5612 stenciled on it... The bracket (5619) it is mounted to the top
>of the throttle body, just behind the engine side flange.
Mike's car is an early '95. Mine is a mid '96.
The tubing which caused Mike the most problems is not a problem on my car.
In fact, the metal tubing appears to be bent in such a way as to clear the
brace; out, down and under the bar... I speculated to Mike that Nissan may
have modified their routing in response to a request from Stillen during
SMX and strut bar development. Don't know for sure.
----END----
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