I searched around, but couldn't find info on the front stb, mostly just on rear bars. Anyways, I need to uninstalll the STB on my MR to reach in behind the motor for an egr hose, is it possible to just unbolt the 8 bolts, and when I'm finished just bolt them back up, or will this disconnect the strut and cause any issues? Is there a torque spec for the STB nuts? Thanks guys, hoping to solve one problem without causing another one!

 

someone out there must know the procedure for adding/removing the front STB?

 

1. What you are basically going to do is drive the car on a level surface.
2. Completely straighten the wheels.
3. Basically unbolt the Strut Tower bar brace from the strut tower on each side and in the middle where it's bolted up to the frame with 2 bolts.

I will get the Torque specs for you...hopefully you have a good Torque wrench.

 

I was a little weary at first on taking mine off...whatever you do don't jack the car up and attempt to remove it. Just follow those 3 steps above.

It's super easy once you have done it. You will probably want to use some loctite on the threads of the struts bolts coming through the frame of the car before you put the nuts on and torque everything down.

 

Here you go...

 

dont move the car when bolts are unbolt. thats it!

 

Not to hijack this threat (it seems like you've got your answer already anyway), but about a week or two ago I was installing an engine damper to the strut tower and also changing my oil at the same time. Figuring it would save a bit of time (and obviously not thinking too much when it happened), I unbolted the strut tower brace and then started to jack up the front passenger side of the car. After a bit of jacking, I noticed the wheel wasn't sitting right in the wheel well. OH CRAP! I realized what I did, jumped up to the engine bay and noticed that the 3 strut bolts had pulled out as I lifted the car. So I carefully lowered the car and lifted the wheel up a bit to get the strut bolts to sit correctly again, and then finished doing the engine damper before changing the oil.

My question is, did I potentially do something damaging to the front suspension? Everything seems to drive ok, but I want to know if I may have fatigued any parts or anything. Should I take the car in for an alignment? Thanks for the help!

 

I did the same thing but the bolts did not recede through the frame. It's OK, if the car's not pulling or exhibiting odd noises then I wouldn't even worry about it. All that happened is you allowed enough relaxation in the struts to allow it to slip through.

BTW, any change to the physics of the suspension (meaning ADDING aftermarkets springs, shocks, etc.) should have an alignment done.