This is why shock tower reinforcement plates are a must

[Sockethead]

Hmm, I might have to get the plates too.

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John, you have springs and shocks... pretty much the same setup I have. I'd definitely get them sooner than later....

[ecrabb]

Since I'll have the wheels off to get cleaned up and powder-coated, and was going to doing FCABs then, I guess it'll also be the perfect time to do the reinforcement plates and a strut bar.

Thanks for posting this!!!

SC

[NorCalZman]

good thread. I thought I was pretty much covered with just the M3 strut bar protecting the top of the struts towers. Good wake up call. Watch out for those grand canyon sized road imperfections!

[ecrabb]

Did you replace the spring pad/shock mount at the same time? Probably not, I guess... It looks like it's not really necessary unless the tower is so badly mushroomed, that the bolts start splaying out of vertical.

SC

[stephenkirsh]

That's a good point all though even if the strut bar mount covered the whole thing it still wouldn't stop the upward force of the shock mount. Only the reinforcement plates will do that...

Here's a pic of mine not as much coverage as I thought...

Looks like there's only about 50% contact area. I wonder how much that impacts it (pun not intended).

[Sockethead]

Did you replace the spring pad/shock mount at the same time? Probably not, I guess... It looks like it's not really necessary unless the tower is so badly mushroomed, that the bolts start splaying out of vertical.

SC

I'm replacing mine only because I have close to 140K on the clock and I'm swapping out the shocks anyway.... removing the strut isn't one of my favorite things to do so I'm doing a little preventative maintenance with the shock mount, pads, boots and bumpers

[wertyu78]

Bummer. Good call on the drill stops. Easy repair, just time consuming.

[Sockethead]

Yep, much easier than the other body/frame failures on this car...I'm eventually going to install all of the reinforcement kits for this car. I want to keep it a very long time.

[az3579]

I think at this point, the strut bar should be considered a "Stage 1" mitigator of mushrooming and the plates "Stage 2". The highest stage is always best.

[ecrabb]

With all due respect, I can't see how a strut brace will prevent any deformation of the shock tower - at all. The force is in the wrong direction.

IMHO, there is no stage 1 or 2. There's only "spreading out the forces all over the top of the shock tower" and "not spreading out all the forces all over the shock tower."

It looks like to me, if you DD your ZHP on rough east-coast streets in northern climates, or if your car sees track duty, then this is a mandatory mod.

My car is a low-mileage fair-weather car, but its clear this is a weak-point in the E46 chassis design, and I will certainly address it, especially given the low cost.

SC