GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I got my new strut tower bar today, and wow it feels alot stiffer around turns. I found it on Ebay for the Toyota Matrix. Only paid $44.00 shipped.

Attached files

How was the fitment? I can swing $44 for a strut bar, but $100 plus seems like a waste... I may have to hunt one down on Ebay now. Was it new?

fits perfect, and was brand new. Took about a week and a couple days to get here. You really can feel a difference, i'm glad i got it. Only took 10 minutes to install.

Well I sent payment for one of my own. Got it for $31 plus $13 shipping. Not a bad deal if it's as good as you say. It's the same bar as yours, got it off ebay. Thanks for the recommendation!!

No problem. I really like mine. The front end feels much stiffer around turns, not so much body roll. Good luck with it. Make sure you tell me how it looks. Also, there is one little thing i recommend. On the driver side, on the sturt tower, there is a little pastic piece that holds the air filter box. Remove the bolt, and put the sturt tower brace under the plastic piece. If not, it might crack the plastic over time.

I have an air intake so I don't think there will be a problem with the plastic on the stock airbox. I'll take your advice though if that plastic is still there.

I think you would of removed the piece i mentioned. Either way though, no problem.

The springs are installed, the strut bar should be on by the end of the week or first of next whenever it arrives via UPS from CA. I'll let you know how I like it!

We are going to have the same suspension set-up.

It appears so. Who is copying who? I got the springs installed first, strut second. You got the strut installed first, springs second.

I'll get the Injen intake and 18's. They will appear different

Good, didn't want to confuse our cars.

I installed it, went very easy. Quality of materials for the $45 shipped price is pretty nice. The bar seems to have a bit of flexibility, so I don't really know how much chassis stiffening it does, but it certainly doesn't hurt anything and it looks good under the hood. I give it a

For the price i'm impressed. I can't complain, just waiting to get the springs on.

My wife said she couldn't tell any difference after I installed mine. Burst my bubble! LOL

Really, my wife told me the exact opposite, but she might have been just saving my confidence.

I just got mine yesterday. Was it really that easy to install????

Only took about 15 minutes.

Yeah, 15 minutes tops adjusting everything and making it all nice and centered, etc...

when i installed the bar, it seemed like it was still pretty loose in terms of the rotation that was allowed since the bar wasn't really secured to the horseshoe (don't know what it is called) looking part of the mount. for example, the TRD brace looks like it's all one piece fused together, but the F1 bar looks like it will only brace lateral flexes not necessarily vertical ones. Does anyone know about this? is there some sort of hidden adjustment or tightening that I'm not aware of?