So I just put on my downpipe and when I was taking the tie bars off one of the bolts broke off. How much of a diffence do these tie bars actually make?

 

If its the one I'm thinking about, you should be just fine.

 

its two of them but yeah only one bolt broke off on one of them

 

Well turns out they dont even fit back on with the megan downpipe in there anyway. I guess I will be drilling that bolt out and tapping a thread just because I cant stand the thought of having a broken bolt in there haha.

 

you can either buy RMR x brace which clears a 3 inch downpipe(200bucks) or u can get some aluminium spacers(<$1) to clear teh downpipe. I used the latter. No problems and its clears my 3inch helix downpipe.

 

Im sure its there for a reason, but you most likely wont feel any difference

 

You will lose some chassis rigidity, but you wont notice when DD. Like the others said, a couple spacers and/or washers will give you the clearance you need

 

I felt a small difference just pulling out of the driveway (big bump), I'd say they are worth it. $10 worth of bolts and spacers worked for me.

 

I've wondered about this alot too, as my dp was also rubbing against one of these. Thing is, the k-member is already such a beefy piece that I just don't see how the tie bars could be contributing a significant amount to the rigidity.

The tie bars can't possibly add much strength in compression, so it must be in tension that it's designed to assists with loads. So in order to come into play, the k-member, along with the rest of the chassis that it's bolted to, would have to flex enough to introduce a load in tension along the bar. I just don't see that happening. Maybe Tommi Makinen in a big air jump might need it, but not me.

I may test this sometime by lengthening the mounting holes in one of mine, and putting some marker or dye to see how far along the hole the bolts/spacers will travel along, to see if/how it's loaded in tension.

 

If you are tracking your car ... then removing the bars will make no difference at all.

If you extend the bolts with spacers you pretty much remove any of the rigidity they provide anyway. The stock bars are crap.

 

Alright, thanks guys. I think I'm going to pick up the RMR brace.

 

Great that I found this topic on here - I just lost 1 of the 3 bolts and spacer from the front tie bar tonight. So, i took off the tie bar by removing the remaining 2 bolts/spacers. To find out if the one bolt that I lost has done any damages to the bolt-hole (whatever it's called), i tired to put on 1 bolt out of the 2 bolts, but I couldn't get it to go in straight. It would only go in in an angle, not straight. So, i'm wondering if that hbolt-hole threads got messed up? If so, how to fix or replace them (Looks like there is a "nut" behind the mounting place?? Also, can anyone please tell me the size/thread pattern on that bolt?

Al last, should I leave that front tie bar out since I need quite a lot of spacers in order to clear out my dp anyways??

Any input would be highly appreciated

 

Just get a tap and run it through. It will be fine.