[stokeballoon]

i have got my hands on an S3 strut brace, second hand very good price. I have offered it up and it fits great. My only question is if you bolt through the strut towers, wont the bolts heads/nuts foul on the suspension strut tops within the tower?

Also fitting - do you have to remove the struts?

Cheers

Dave

 

[Caged]

No and no...

You may have to remove the wheels though

Scott

 

[stokeballoon]

http://www.tyresmoke.net/gallery/album65?&page=2

This is a good (ish) how-to fit an S3 upper strut brace, I fiited mine in 1hour today, the only snag was the access to get the drill in straight, the underside of the bonnet gets in the way. fits very well, had to bend a pipe out of the way and take a little of thye rubber hose to the exspansion bottle, to make the bend to it less acute.

Lots of waxoyl and paint later! Oh and 10mm x 30 long (6 off) allen cap bolts with lock nuts fitted very well. Look professional too.

 

[GaryM]

Looks simple enough, an angle chuck may come in very handy though.

 

[Foxy]

I need to get my mitts on the right bolts for the GB items, and seeing as VW don't do them (the S3 has studs and nuts), i'll have to look elsewhere.

Ideally, i'm looking for sheradised / zinc plated allen jobbies - sounds like 10x30 are the kiddies, along with nylock nuts.......anyone got a good place to get such hardware online??

 

[GaryM]

Jon, it may work out much cheaper buying them from a local fastners as postage will be quite a bit on a few of those.

 

[aRd]

Jon have you fitted the brace to a TDi or know of some who has

 

[GaryM]

Has anybody got the P/N for the upper strut brace?

 

[Foxy]

8L9805629A

 

[GaryM]

Cheers Jon

 

[stokeballoon]

Jon,

I bought the bolts, washers and Nylocks from my local fastener place, all BZP for ?3.20. I will have a look under, you may get away with 25mm long bolts. I have done a lot of sheet metal repairs on aircraft, and the only very slight snag i had was the angle and compensating enough to get the centre of the hole. Also get the Dyson out, to clear up, and a magnet to remove the hard to get swarf.

The guy fits his with the heads underneath, i went the other way to make it look better, the bolts wont foul the spring if you get it right with the length.

As for fasteners, Screwfix are about 4 miles away from me, but they dont do the bolts in the required length/cap bolts.

Dave

 

[Foxy]

Cheers Dave.....was gonna have a scan over the Screwfix catalogue (i buy stacks off them regularly) but perhaps a my local hardware store will come up trumps!

 

[Milkfloat]

I went to B+Q to buy mine. Crap shop, but everything is available off the shelf. TBH it has been sitting in my garage for a year unfitted. I actually need to get around to doing it.

 

[stokeballoon]

Right, been under the car, M10x25 will do the job, 2 x plain washers per bolt and nylocks are required. The wheels dont have to come off to do the job, just jack it up to get inside the arch. The allen key size at the top is 8mm.

Hope this helps.

Dave

 

[Foxy]

Nice one dave

 

[stokeballoon]

Right, gave the car bit of stick around a couple of roundabouts (big ones) and what a difference the upper strut brace makes, feels a lot tighter and half the annoying rattles have gone, obviously the body is not flexing as much now!

Check tightened the bolts too, all is well. Good cheap mod!

 

[GaryM]

You've just convinced me Dave, I'll order one tomorrow!

 

[Foxy]

Gary.....i have two spares

 

[GaryM]

well, what you waiting for me old mucker!

Send us your paypal addy and a total to include bolts and postage if thats what you are doing.

 

[stokeballoon]

Right Foxy, 1 down one to go!! I am on 25% comission of your total GB sales, kind of the sleeping partner in all this.

Foxy to rule the GB world!!

Dave