Many of you may have seen the ridiculously low priced strut bars by OBX on eBay and wondered about the quality of a $55 dollar part. I decided the financial risk was low enough and the potential bang for buck was pretty high so I went ahead and clicked the “buy it now” button. I thought I'd share my experience so it's not as much of a gamble for you.

Background

A couple of months ago I bought a ’97 850 T-5 for $1700 bucks in excellent condition, although somewhat high mileage. My mechanic, a Volvo specialist (Foreign Carriage in Thousand Oaks, CA) was pretty impressed with the quality. Since this is a play car I started upgrading. I have done a full stage zero, cold air intake, MSD ignition coil, and MBC set at 14 PSI. The car goes well enough and it was time to start with the handling upgrades. As you know this is where stuff gets expensive. I have two kids (and a third on the way) and a wife to take care of. I work in automotive business intelligence so right now is not the most lucrative time for my industry, so expensive upgrades are going to have to wait until the economic turnaround starts to gain some traction.
This left me looking for the biggest bang for the buck upgrades. In terms of handling, the strut brace is clearly the cheapest available. The prices I had seen out there were basically $170+ or $50-55 for the OBX. I decided to give the OBX a try, after all it doesn’t get much simpler than a strut brace how badly could they screw this up?
There were two options for the OBX V1 where the brace that connects the struts is an Aluminum Tube and V2 where it is an elongated hexagon. I went with the hexagon ($55) as this design is better at handling non-compression loads than a tube.

Shipping and first impressions

I ordered the strut brace from eBay with shipping and tax (the seller is out of CA) the total price was $70. When I pulled the brace out of the box the first thing I noticed was that one of the arms that connected the base to the brace was slightly bent out where it connected with the brace. I wasn’t thrilled, but figured this would snug up once I tightened it down. The other concern was that the base only connected to two of the strut bolts on each side and didn’t fully encircle the strut. Apart from these concerns the welds were acceptable and a large bolt and nut would be able to handle the loads placed on them as ultimately the loads placed on the strut brace will end up on the hinge points.

Installation

Installation was quite easy. The most challenging part was getting to the allen head closest to the fire wall. I used blue Loctite on the strut bolts and red on the brace hinge bolts. The base plates conformed nicely to the strut tower as I tightened the bolts down, and the slightly bent connector snugged right back up as I suspected. I have read that other strut braces interfere with accessing the brake fluid, not so with the OBX V2.

Driving

While backing out of my parking space I turned the wheel and noticed my steering felt a bit more precise. I thought this might just be in my head considering it was such a slow turn. As I turned again the usual creaks and groans I get when turning the wheel at or near lock were gone. I was already pretty happy with my purchase. The front end of my car felt substantially more solid as I drove over speed bumps and out of the parking lot. I have to say the biggest improvement is cornering during spirited driving. Turn in is better allowing me to get on the right line and hold the line through the turn. It is a lot like having a stiff fork on a bike or motorcycle the increased precision adds predictability and confidence allowing you to go faster.

I have noticed a modest improvement under braking. I stay on my line better than I did but still have some surging. I guess I need to look into my braking system for that one.

Overall Impressions

I have been quite pleased with my purchase, particularly considering the rock bottom price. Looking at the design and materials used for the IPD brace I’m quite certain the IPD will deliver superior performance, but I wonder how much better for nearly three times the price.

 

Huh, I guess I will have to add that to my list of parts to get for my wagon. Nice write up.

 

Nice write up! I wish I did it for the Version 1, it is in fact TOO SHORT. I got it and had a very bad experiece with it. I need the money to get the version 2 now. Any pictures? I'm very interested!

 

Nice Write up! I would add a pic if you can for other members. BUt good job on that..... I too will have to look into this. I will say I was at the OBX booth at SEMA and was impressed with a lot of their exhausts and other accessories.

 

Yeah, I have their exhaust and I was so pleased how it installed, fit like a glove, they even included a piece of straight pipe so you can easily add a cat. They are definitely getting better with their stuff.

PICS PLEASE!

 

I will post some pictures soon. I'm in the hospital waiting for my 3rd son to be born.

 

Congrats! Post pics of him too! on the strut bar, weight testing it

 

Nice write up

I am sold so I used 'Buy it now' on ebay...get this. I bought it yesterday...its in my hand right now!!!! Holy Cow Fast shipping!!

 

WHAT????? Nice, TAKE PICTURES! I gave you pictures, now you must return the favor.

 

I am still at work so I will install it tonight. Here it is...

 

Looks pretty solid as well as a perfect place to mount a catch can when that time comes.

 

Those welds don't look that bad.... I will have to look into one of these. Keep this thread up to date. I'm curious what you still think in 45-60 days!

 

It installed pretty easily, a couple minutes. Fit well. I dont have pictures cuz it got dark.

 

Nice! That will be a definite addition to my wagon.

 

More Pictures

 

Looks awesome. Have you given it a test drive yet? Any difference?

 

Looks Good!

 

I'm glad boxpin added some pictures. Things have been rather crazy with a new baby, work and Thanksgiving.

As a follow up after about a week of driving some of my creaking started coming back. I re-torqued the bolts and it went away again and remains gone.

I also spoke with my older brother a mechanical engineer about the hinged vs. non-hinged debate. He wasn't sure but didn't think the hinged should be a big deal as long as you could get enough torque on the bolts and the hardware was sufficiently strong. He suggested a test. Take some nail polish and paint across the joints, he recommended pink polish (just kidding about that). Let the polish dry and go driving. If the nail polish doesn't crack there isn't a substantial amount of flex. If it does, well that doesn't tell you anything conclusive other than there is some flex, it doesn't take much to crack nail polish. He also said that historically box section aluminum is stiffer than trussed steel (see motorcycle frame development), this isn't a function of materials, but geometry. This isn't to say that this is stiffer than the IPD but something to consider. If IPD wants to give me a strut brace to test I'd be happy to do it, but until then I'll just have to wonder.

 

i bought one on ebay, and i got itand tried to install it,and behold it is too small by the smallest fraction, i contacted them to see if they can do anything for me they have not responded yet. i amalso a bit worried about where the hole placements are on the bar platform, the holes seem to be drilled a little to close to the edge of the platform, have you found any issues with that?

 

Mikeawd850,

I didn't have any problems that you describe. I have heard of people having that problem with other much more expensive strut braces as well, however they attributed to problems with flex in the strut towers that had occurred over time. I can't remember exactly but they described something like driving one set of wheels up a curb to get the tower to lean in a bit. I don't recall exactly so don't try it based on my work here, but I think I saw it on this forum so try searching it out.

Best of luck to you.