A little imagination and a beer break helps too!

 

What this guy said^

 

well consider me a parts changer. LOL.
I went ahead and installed the FSB without modifying the two holes on the drivers side and securing the middle mount. (I'll do that later when I have time to remove the cowl...and when Im not at the parking garage of my work place...hehe). Anyways, here it is:



here's the drivers side that needs to be modified.


here's the passenger side.



I had to lose my hood shocks to mount this... It appears the drivers side mount for the hood shock hits the strut bar not allowing the hood to close properly.


Here's another interesting find. the duct under the hood hits the strut bar...


its rubber though so it'll bend. here's how it looks closed with my hood schock mount hitting the strut bar. it does close a little better after i removed that mount but i never took a pic.


u could always trim it so the hood will close properly. i grabbed the bar and shook it. holds up pretty nice. the passenger side is firm ....but the drivers side does have a little give when i pull up on the bar (because the other two bolts are not installed). Now I just need to install the subframe 4pt and the lower front tie bar.

 

I can see why guys are getting upset now that I see your pictures... I didn't order the top strut bar because the air intake hose from the cowl scoop to the intercooler would have to go.... Big washers will cover some of the trimming you had to do.... My wife freaked out when she came into the barn and saw the pile of metal I had cut from the underside of the hood for louvers and a larger air filter but she approved the end results... Good luck on the remaining bars..

 

Well it's been a week now since I paid them my remaining balance, couple emails and still no reply back. I'm starting to think I paid them for no reason. This sucks. = /

What's really messed up is they didn't even send out a PM or Email when the parts came in and started shipping. Would have been nice to have been reminded to pay these off and gotten them shipped along with all the others. I'm starting to get pissed at this horrible customer service. I don't care if they are doing multiple group buys. If you are making your work load so much where it starts sacrificing the service you provide, then you're taking on more work than you can handle.

 

Hi.

So I installed all the TT bars as well as my Swift springs today. I have to tell you, the combination of all the bars and Progress RSB as well as my larger tires and springs makes the car a hell of a fun car to drive. It's perfect and is everything I want in the Fit (would like more HP, but oh well at this point).

I did have to file down the sub-frame brace one-bolt hole, very minor. Also for the front tower brace, everything fit perfectly and bolted up super strong. I did have to modify the corner left and right of the cowl by taking off some plastic (about 2") on either side. I also had two cut the cold air intake sleeve that's connected to the hood as it was interfering with the strut bar. All in all, I did a very professional job and you can't really tell.

Take a look at the pictures below:









Enjoy!

 

Nice work, man

 

Yeah, he did a very professional installation... I'll bet his car rides like a Euro touring car with quicker steering.

 

All -

So I posted yesterday how everything was good and great with the TT bars and new suspension.

Well, it still is - BUT I HAVE TO GIVE YOU A WARNING!

This morning I was on my way to the store, backing slowly out of my garage to take some pictures. I moved the car back and forth and no issues like the night before. All is good. I then got back in the car after taking pictures, slowly backed up about two feet and heard a 'click' noise.

I looked around and holy shit! my front windshield cracked over a foot long. Something obviously was stiff enough to twist or crack the windshield. After being pissed and stressed out, I took apart the cowl to look underneath. Sure enough, the crack extended all the way to the edge of the glass under the cowl.

My thought of what might have caused the issue was the mounting of the TT strut bar to the center (i.e. 3rd point) with replacement red 6" bar. It sure as hell was stiff when I put it on. After taking that off, and detaching the third point, I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how the car could flex or not flex. In close examination by putting the stock wavy black bar back in the way it was stock without affixing the 3rd point of the TT bar, I had noticed that the stock wavy black bar actually had some spring or give to it. Thereby, my thought is that with the TT 3rd point and red stiff bar to replace the springy bar gave enough strength that the surrounding area wouldn't give and hence cracked the windshield. This is my thought, I wasn't too sure. I also examined both sides of the TT bar, and there is enough bounce/flex/give that I doubt the ends caused it. However, I can't for sure provide the flex or twist of what caused this issue.

So, the cowl is still off, the stock wavy bar is back connected up normally and the 3rd point will not go back on!

Long story short I have a new windshield that is going to be delivered and installed via my insurance company next Friday at my house which coincidentally works out well because I have the day off. Furthermore, I have a $0 deductible so I kind of got lucky in this unfortunate situation. I'll be driving my other car for now as the Fit is ready to be worked on again.

Damn it!

See picture below:

 

My windshield cracked from the right side just an inch or so up from the corner. I hadn't had the car long and had done nothing bud park it in the sun after washing it.... There was a chip that had been done before the windshield was installed at the factory and the a dealer checked it out and installed a new one... A friend that owns a body shop and installs windshields told me he has seen it happen on lots of cars of all makes and models. I see that I didn't mention that the crack gradually grew and ended to the left of the rear view mirror. I would try and see if the windshield might have been chipped like mine had before being installed.

 

Your fit had a glass problem too?

Wow! I actually feel better hearing that (sorry).

I just went in the garage to literally try every damn thing I can do under where the cowl is and everything flexes (it didn't before with the 3rd point). So, I'm pretty darn confident that everything will be fine come next Friday.

I'm going to be safe and not connect the 3rd point. It might have been coincidence, who knows!

Thanks for cheering me up!

 

Ok, I'm not entirely following your thoughts on what caused the windshield - but I haven't even attempted to get that front bar on yet.

Isn't the middle (3rd) mounting point the reason a front strut bar works? Otherwise, without that triangulated anchor, it'll just twist with the movement of the subchassis.

Are you thinking that there is a design flaw and that anyone who installs the FSB with the 3rd anchor is going to have a cracked windshield?

From looking at the upper parts of the subchassis around the struts, I noticed that the strut housing area is integrated with firewall. The firewall is essentially providing the stiffness of a FSB. I suppose it's possible that this bar could somehow hamper that design and transfer the flex up into the windshield - but again I haven't had the cowling taken apart yet to really see what I'm speculating on here.....

 

So, here's what I can tell. I had a triangulated (super heavy duty) front strut tower/firewall brace and had no issues. However the third point connected to the firewall, whereas the TT third point connects to the bottom of the cowl cover which also theoretically supports the bottom of the windshield. I do indeed think this caused the problem, but why after near ten miles on the odometer, and simply backing up 2 feet on smooth level ground. I dunno. I did take some pictures as the car sits in the garage for your viewing pleasure. Also, what I just did in between the third point on the bar and the bottom of the cowl tray I put a little rubber spacer to help ease the flex and to make sure the bar doesn't rest on the tray (as it did). Furthermore, this will help putting the plastic cowl back on as it was super hard/tight before without it.

Here you go:

 

Most just mount to the tops of the front struts but I have seen others that also mount to the firewall to add rigidity. With the lower bar installed it is less likely that the upper bar is the cause. It is possible that his windshield, like mine was chipped below the cowling and the crack spread on it's own again as mine did.

 

There was no visible chip that I could see when I installed everything. Hell, I've done TOO MANY CARS in the past and never ran into this issue!

Seeing that not many have installed this bar, I wanted to give a warning and give it to the user's discretion to decide. Why else would Honda design a springing s-type mount? It's not there to give any support to anything on top, but rather to assist with flex.

I'm not the expert, but I've got some experience behind my thoughts.

 

Yeah, after seeing that springed design, that is obviously doing a job of some sort.

I'll go on the record now and say that I am feeling unhappy with the design of the strut bars - and seeing your pics has pretty much cemented that. The rear bar sits on top of 3/4 inch rubber bushings, for pete's sake. What kind of rigidity can that possibly add into the frame??? Sure, energy will transfer through the bar and allow the struts to share the load a bit, but that isn't what the bar is supposed to be doing!

The subframe bars are well designed, but the strut bars are looking more and more to me like a rip-off.

And Tiger Tuning has pretty much lost my respect with their post-sale disappearance.

 

Actually I don't disagree with what you are saying, however I will say that all the bars installed (including the front with the 3rd point) made a huge difference on par with my prior Mazdaspeed Protege (heavily modified) as well as my Acura Integra Type-R (heavily modified) when it comes to suspension. All these parts turned this car into exactly what I wanted (minus the glass crack). Live and let learn.

I'm working right now on updating my pictures of the car. I'll post a link for everyone in under an hour.

 

I think I'm just doubly dissappointed because the SCCA won't let me use the subframe bars in ST class haha. I want to put them on so bad but they will bump me out of the class I'm in haha.

Did you have any problems getting the nylon threaded nuts off the rear upper struts? I had a helluva time breaking them loose, then they got 85% of the way up the bolt and just started spinning! I got them to grab and go back down again and said eff it. I need to pick up new non-nylon nuts before i try to get that bar back on again.

 

And, I believe I haven't mentioned this yet, but THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the info and intelligent discussion. This community is the best.

 

Pic request: the trimmed section of the plastic air cowling under the hood.