[Hunter399]

Originally Posted by ksfrogman

This would be a good question for Long to answer. He's jacked up his car and changed the wheels more times than I have washed my car. I have never seen the front wheel come off the ground almost exactly the same distance as the rear wheel. The stiffness of the car is like night and day post-sway bar and strut bar when going up a steep driveway or across a speed bump diagonally.

Which is why I just ordered Sway bars

[ksfrogman]

Originally Posted by hunter399

Which is why I just ordered Sway bars

We are modaholics.

[Hunter399]

haha

i think your E90 is my favorite on here

everything is so well done

How do you like the black and white roundels?

[Hunter399]

I saw them on a grey e46 ci yesterday and the roundels were the same color as the car was.

I thought they looked very nice

[bavarian19]

Originally Posted by hunter399

I saw them on a grey e46 ci yesterday and the roundels were the same color as the car was.

I thought they looked very nice

How are those roundels done? Is it just a layover piece on top of your roundel? Or does it actually replace the roundel???

[Hunter399]

overlay

[bavarian19]

Originally Posted by hunter399

overlay

bah

[longtran]

Originally Posted by ward

yo Frogman,

did you ever try that without the stress bar???

I haven't, but on my Z4 I get the same effect with no mods (I know it's smaller..... ) but just curious??

I bet you'd be able to get the same effect (front wheel lifting) without the bar

i've done it many times. if you lift from the rear, the front tire will go up too...without the strut bar or sway bars.

[longtran]

Originally Posted by hunter399

overlay

michael bought roundels.

[ksfrogman]

Originally Posted by hunter399

overlay

Believe it or not, I got the roundels from Taiwan--you know the ones where the shipping costs more than the actual roundel. There are no overlays. The clearcoat covers the entire emblem.

From a quality standpoint, they look like they're made the same--they may even utilize the same original manufacturer. The only difference is that you cannot feel the BMW lettering on the stock ones. On these, you can feel tiny raised letters covered by clear coat, but to the naked eye, you cannot really tell the difference. Quality is quite excellent.

[just4kickz]

ae long so which strut bar do you have?

[longtran]

Originally Posted by just4kickz

ae long so which strut bar do you have?

i got oem...

[just4kickz]

oh so im guessing this one isnt oem.

[longtran]

Originally Posted by just4kickz

oh so im guessing this one isnt oem.

nope. but it does look oem. and it doesnt look cheesy.

[ages944]

Originally Posted by ksfrogman

Okay, here's my simplistic take on the strut bar issue. Remember Newton's Third Law:

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Now imagine that you are looking at your engine bay from the top without the hood. The strut bar towers can be seen from above. Pretend that the O's are the front strut towers.

O......O

and by bracing those towers together, we are minimizing body flex by preventing inward displacement:

-->O....O<--

and outward displacement:

<--O.........O-->

Now I know I haven't answered your question yet, Elaine, because I know you know all of this already.

Now if you were to weld and attach both strut towers together with straight 4130 chrome moly tubing, you would effectively prevent the body from flexing inwardly and outwardly, right?

The problem is that the engine is in the way, so you must put a bend in the tube. So the next questions you may ask yourself are "how rigid is the strut brace?" and "how would bending the bar affect rigidity?"

More importantly, it is not practical to weld a solid piece to the strut towers, so we must be able to attach and detach the strut bar. So now look at the attachment points. You'll have to agree that these are the potentially weak points of the design. The OEM strut bar that Long and I have utilize fairly thick (I believe they are 8mm) bolts with hexagonal heads and/or torx. However, the bar is hollow (good for being light). The design seen in this thread seems to use solid aluminum, but it's in three pieces. I would be most concerned about the bolts that are used to attach them. Will they loosen in time with body flex?

lol, what he said

I agree, the joint work looks marginal. That, and see the joints where the center section connects with the two next outermost pieces? I dunno about you guys, but to me, those overlapping pieces of Al look awfully thin...

[Powertools]

Originally Posted by longtran

found it on ebay. looks good. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2006-...00866954QQrdZ1

it's does't fit our us spec e90...

[ctgazer]

Originally Posted by skillzaw

it's does't fit our us spec e90...

what what what? how'd u find out?

[Powertools]

Originally Posted by ctgazer

what what what? how'd u find out?

know the seller ,to day at 10 am went down to their place and we try to install it in my car..

[ctgazer]

Originally Posted by skillzaw

know the seller ,to day at 10 am went down to their place and we try to install it in my car..

then he should write that on his listing instead on tryin to make a quick buck on us na spec

[Powertools]

Originally Posted by ctgazer

then he should write that on his listing instead on tryin to make a quick buck on us na spec

agreee.. told them just that. and give em

[ksfrogman]

Originally Posted by skillzaw

agreee.. told them just that. and give em

Wow. That's interesting. You mean this fits the Euro cars, but not ours?

[ctgazer]

Originally Posted by skillzaw

agreee.. told them just that. and give em

dont give him ...tell him to make one that fits na spec and sell to e90post members at 50% off man...now we will forgive for that