So ive been looking at picking up a set of front and rear strut bars for my eclipse. My question however is, after looking around I can see that a name brand strut bar normally goes for around the 120-140 range while most strut bars of similar or exact design can be had on ebay for anywhere from 25-50. Is there a difference in materials or workmanship between the two ? I know the horror stories of cheap ebay intakes and that sort of stuff which is why I am so reluctant to try one of these. Like the saying goes; "if its too good to be true, it probably is." So is it to good to be true or does it matter with strut bars ?

I always try to buy namebrand whenever possible. My suggestion would be to look at the material the strut bars are made out of. A lot of the time, the off-brands are picking a cheaper and weaker metal to cut the costs. I'm pretty picky about anything suspension related.

As far as strut bars go, the e-bay stuff is fine. Metal is metal, it's not like the ones on ebay are made of plastic. For what little they do, save your money and go with the e-bay ones.

Metal isn't metal. IF they're so cheap that they flex or bend under strain, then you just wasted 50 bucks.

I think what I may do is find a cheap name brand strut bar for the front simply for the purpose of engine bay dressup and ill get a cheap ebay strut bar for the rear where no-one will look, there are some pretty good deals on name brand strut bars if you search around.

My main reason for not wanting to skimp is that I drive alot on very curvy mountain roads with lots of twists, turns and hills so I want to maximize any performance gains (however minimal they may be) from these bars.

Well, you might want to consider a suspension upgrade instead.

yes but a strut bar is much cheaper and is a simple bolt on mod that even I can install. Im not looking for massive performance gains and dont want to invest in a more sophisticated suspension system at the moment.

I guess I kind of exagerated the extent to which i drive up in the mountains. Mostly I live down in the southeastern tip of S.C by Hilton Head island where everything is mostly flat. For the driving I do, I dont really see the need for a suspension upgrade as im only up in the mountains about 4-5 days a moth, but boy it sure is fun driving on those mountain roads :gitara:

Invest in antisway bars instead.

if you are talking about the tower strut bars, any ebay ones will work fine because unless your planning on driving on 2 wheels theres little room for them to bend or flex enough to break or bend permanently. when your talking about anitsway bars for your suspension there is no f-ing way that Ebay is a good place to find that stuff. but i would recommend getting the anitsway bars rather than the strut bars. strut bars are not that often needed for front wheel drives because of the weight that is placed on the front tires with the engine, transmission, differential axels, and differential hub assemblies in the front. unless you attempting to take a 90 degree turn at 60+ mph you don't really need one.


then there is also the under strut bars you can buy for your back suspension. these i would buy name brand when your talking about replacing suspension parts go for the real stuff not the cheap. but i guess it all depends on your preference of how you want your car to end up in a salvage yard from falling apart or being the car you give to your kids so they can destroy it either way when buying parts in regards to actual functionality go name brand, when looking for something to just look good i think ebay stuff looks good but not necessarily works good.

I bought a megan racing strut bar on ebay for 25 bucks. It is name brand and made of a high grade aircraft aluminum. You just have to look through the items and pick the best one.

If the strut bar has pivot points, it's pointless. The best from strut bar on the Eclipse is OEM. THe best rear would be RRE or DCSports if you can find one. Neither have pivot points and will actually serve a correct purpose.

Ive looked at antisway bars as well but was discouraged by the increased cost and the increased installation difficulty. Would a simple tire/mechanic car repair type place be able to install these ? Im much more inclined to have someone that knows atleast somewhat knows what they are doing installing these rather than trying to wing it myself.

If you're located anywhere near the Washington DC area - this is something you can have installed quickly at my shop. Email sales@sc-customs.com if that works and to get pricing.

Thanks.

I woulf certainly take you up on the offer but unfortunatley Washington D.C. is a bit far for me, seeing as how I live at the southern most tip of S.C near Hilton Head island. Theres a couple of mediocre shops around here but they will charge you out the **** for any work or product they provide.

eh - shop rates here at SC-CUSTOMS are $80/hr for custom labor and installation. Most likely, their rates are probably around the same.. 50-75 would be my guess for SC.

In case you think that price is enormous, I will tell you this much from a business owner standpoint. Built into that price, I have to pay out the tech, maintain overhead costs (which encompass utilities, tools, etc) as well as everything on payroll in regardless to unemployment tax, benefits, etc and also insurance rates covering a risk of a technician getting injured or killed from a shop accident.

A $1M liability business insurance policy is minimum and does not come cheap.

So don't compare cost figure to what you make per hour as you're comparing apples to oranges.

I can certainly apreciate good labor and service and im not unwilling to pay extra for it but the shops down here charge about the same as yours plus they tend to nickle and dime you for every little item and can be pretty **** unfriendly sometimes too. Im not talking blunt poking fun kinda of behavior but outright rude. for example when I had some stero equipment installed one of the install techs who was a diehard honda fanboy made incessant and (what I considered to be) very immature remarks simply because I drove an eclipse. I confronted the manager about his disgruntled employee and the only answer I got in return was a grunt and sneering "well he's rght, you should sell your pile of junk and buy a honda". at that point I was just dumfounded that an owner would say that to a customers face so as soon as the work was done I left and havent returned since. Unfortunatley unfriendly encounters like that are quite common down here. Its like I have to waid through a perpetual high tide of assholes every time I need labor or product. Not too sound like a constant whiner, ive just had alot of bad experiences with most of the car shops with the exception of the local mitsubishi dealer.

It makes me glad to see people such as yourself willing to offer free advice outside of work. I wish there were more shopeowners like yourself down here :beer: