Is there any gain in support going with brace that uses all four bolts on each tower vs. one that uses 2 on each? I don't see a lot of 8 bolt braces, mostly 4 bolt.

Thanks

 

"They say" the s t b only helps slightly to firm things up. That being said I would say that using all 4 bolts on each side would be for looks only. Please correct me if I'm wrong. <-----disclaimer

 

You are pretty much correct.
It may reinforce the top of the shock tower mounting though.
I don't think that it really needs more strength either.

 

Correcto'. To really Brace it, you should add an A-Arm Brace underneath also. Two bolts up=top is adequate for what it does.

 

Ditto on this!!! also on the 4 vs. 8 debate. I would go with 4 after my experiance. I have an 8 I put on about 1.5 years ago. I just noticed that my camber is off pretty bad. It corners really nice but the inner half of my fronts are worn a 32'nd or more than the outer half. I have not looked into what is causing it, but I am assuming that when I put my STB on, the top of the struts moved since I had to take all four nuts off to get my brace on.

 

That's a great point!

 

That is an assumption of course.
I took great care to make sure nothing moved when I installed mine.
One more question. What are you going to do about it, no matter what caused it?

 

For the moment nothing. In a month or so I will put it up on stands an look it over. I need to read about it and try to figure out how to measure how far it is out. More for the knowledge, as I could just go down the street and have it fixed in 30 min. I just noticed it last week and I only drive it 1-2 times a week. Worst case I get a camber bolt/kit/plate and call it a day.

 

I think the best setup would be a strut tower brace that not only braces the towers (4 or 8 bolt) but also mounts to the firewall. In addition an A Arm brace below. Not every likes the look of the firewall mount. So you have to weigh looks to functionality. Next step would be to upgrade your K-Member and A-Arms, your looking at 1K + for that from BMR.

Jed

 

Jed , the reason most don't mount to the fire wall , is that the front one that it would attach to is a fake one and doesn't add real support. You'd have to run it through to the back one ...

pebkac , I've had several different braces on and one of them was a four bolt and I too was worried about removing all 4 nuts. There's a hole , or holes I don't remember exactly , with the plate exposed below it. I took a pencil and traced around the hole onto the plate so I would know if it had moved. Mine didn't , but it's a way to tell if it did ...

 

So the best way to keep it from moving when I install mine is to trace with a pencil? I wish there was a better way...

 

I didn't say that would keep it from moving , only that if it did move you would be able to tell ...

 

Yeah sorry I should have clarified... So do you have to take the bolts off to make the marks or are they reachable before you unbolt them?

 

The hole isn't under a nut or anything , it's about the size of a nickel and you can see the plate through it. I just traced a circle around it on the plate and checked that when I was done. If the car doesn't move the plate shouldn't , and mine didn't. I put the parking brake firmly on and put chocks both behind and if front of my wheel to make sure it didn't ...

 

That makes sense using chocks down... That will put my mind to ease a bit more. Although, I don't know why I'm worried all that much b/c isn't the worst that could happen is I have to take it in to get realigned???