[kentgbr]

While searching for an incessant rattle from the center dash area, I discovered that the large middle strut brace bolt near the firewall was not fully seated against the brace forked ends. The bolt was very tight, but there was still a sizeable gap between the washer and the braces. It looks like the threads were not fully cut, causing the M12x1.5x39 bolt to bottom out early. This is on a CPO car I just bought and it's amazing that it could have been this way since new. I've used a few thick fender washers to fill the gap for now and the rattle is gone. It seems the best fix would be to re-tap the threads all the way through. May do it myself or talk to a SA about it. Has anyone seen or heard of this problem?

[Cloud9blue]

My guess is the previous owner has the M3 strut bar, which I think came with slightly longer bolt due to the thicker strut bar mounts. I know mine came with a new bolt, but I never bothered to compare.

[kentgbr]

Originally Posted by Cloud9blue

My guess is the previous owner has the M3 strut bar, which I think came with slightly longer bolt due to the thicker strut bar mounts. I know mine came with a new bolt, but I never bothered to compare.

Thanks for the response. I checked the bolt specs and it's the correct 39mm length. I added enough washers to bring the effective bolt length down to about 25mm. Only then would it not bottom against the bulkhead before applying force to the strut ends. I'd like to find out if the bulkhead should be threaded all the way through, allowing the bolt to extend to the other side. On my car, the threads stop about 1/8" short of going through, limiting the bolt travel.