Dyna Autosport Strut Brace

[alanbradley]

Hi folks,

Right, the story so far is that I received my strut brace from Rob (aka Jaxx) yesterday and rushed home last night to fit it. So far so good...

Unfortunately once I'd opened the bonnet and was trying it for size before undoing the nuts on the suspension towers my worries were confirmed... The intercooler (and some associated pipework) is in the way

Below are some annotated piccies that show what the problem is...

Any suggestion of solutions would be gratefully received....

Cheers,

Alan

[jaxx]

is the intercooler fixed solid?

[alanbradley]

is the intercooler fixed solid?

Unfortunately...

So's that bit of piping on the bracket :(

[Moffmo]

Could you take the intercooler COVER off?

[jaxx]

whats the brackets like??

are they big rugged things or small clasp thin steel stuff?

[Ryan1985]

Could you take the intercooler COVER off?

And then it would blow up! I can't see an easy solution but u could maybe bring it down 2 the meet and all of us could have a look as possibly help u! 10 heads r better than 1!

[earpl]

see if theres enough thread and if so pack it up with washers :)

[jaxx]

see if theres enough thread and if so pack it up with washers :)

was thinkin of that but there aint much stud length

[yvvan]

Hi Alan,

Could you not make up new brackets for the intercooler so that you could, using the original mount points, let it sit a tad lower, there is enough flex in the air ducting to allow for that.

Also for the other pipe, can you bend the bracket enough, or make up a new one so as to let it sit lower to the bulkhead.

Please retorque the strut top nuts correctly (39 Nm), don't want them to come loose while driving.

Cheers, Yves.

[alanbradley]

Cheers for all your help so far folks..

There's one more pic that I should have taken last night but forgot to...

(Post continued below... )

Matt, I know what you mean about taking the cover off the intercooler, but I'm not sure that that will help too much as right underneat there's a pipe about 40mm diameter that's the air inflow (I think) to the intercooler. The cover also provides a seal between the top of the intercooler and the under-bonnet ducting (see the new pic above). Ryan, I'm not sure that it will explode! ;)

Rob, the brackets are actually quite rugged things and have rigid piping leading up to them rather than a hose passing through (If you know what I mean...)

Earpl, there really isn't much stud length.

Yves, yours is by far the best engineered solution if there's space (totally off the subject, but I saw the pics of your car... wow!), but I'm not sure if my workshop skills are up to it... I'll take an good look and see if there's enough space to move it down a bit.

Thanks also for letting me know how much to torque up the nuts when I re-fit them I thought that they were too important to just be "tighten them up as much as you can"! I hope that the others have read that...

Right, now that it's stopped raining I'm off out to have another poke about... If I still can't see a solution than I'll just hang on until the Glasgow meet on the 19th September.

Thanks again folks,

Alan

[yvvan]

(totally off the subject, but I saw the pics of your car... wow!)

Huh, could you enlighten me on this one?

Cheers, Yves.

[Moffmo]

ok.. waht does retorque them mean??

Looking worried here

[Ryan1985]

ok.. waht does retorque them mean??

Looking worried here

U are supposed 2 re-tighten the nuts to a required tightness so they are tight enuf!

[yvvan]

ok.. waht does retorque them mean??

Looking worried here

Hi,

(re)torque means to tighten something with the correct torque (force).

It is, in the SI-model, expressed in N(ewton)M(eter), older models used ftlbf (foot-pound-force) and kgm (kilogram-meter) and variations thereoff.

Cheers, Yves.

[alanbradley]

Yves,

This is what I was talking about...

Yves's Little Dragon thread

Hope I haven' t got IceHz into trouble here

A

[Moffmo]

erm, i just tightened the nuts as tighten as possible.

I used a massive lever soooo its tight!

Lol

[yvvan]

Yves,

This is what I was talking about...

Yves's Little Dragon thread

Hope I haven' t got IceHz into trouble here 

A

Oh Dear Lord,

that is NOT my car.

A 20 odd years reputation is now crumbling before my eyes.

Nah, seriously, while I can appreciate people's efforts on these sort of mods, for me this is, to put it diplomatically, waaaay over the top. The only exterior mod on my Yaris is a front end splitter/venturi underbody and possibly OZ Superleggera (the real thing) alloys, although I am doubting between the Yaris and my new project. Oh, also the red "TOYOTA" Badge is "cleaned", but that's because some :censor: nicked it. :D

Cheers, Yves. (looking for a rock to go hide under)

[alanbradley]

Oh! Sorry! It is pretty OTT

Anyhow, back to the matter in hand... I went out and had another prod about last night, looking at all of the various brackets and stuff. Whilst there is space under the intercooler to lower it the brackets are large, complex pressings that at the front support bits of what look like part of the fuel system. I'm not sure that changing then would be particularly warranty friendly.

Then it struck me! I took of the plastic cover over the intercooler off (clearing out more baked insects than you would care to imagine) and found that the strut will (just) fit under the lip on the bulkhead. Why move stuff around in the engine compartment when it's simply a case of fabricating a pair of new brackets for the brace! Doh!

I'll get round to doing drawings for them at some point, but in the mean time I'lll take the brace down to Glasgow with me next month and see if we come up with anything else...

Thanks again,

Alan

[jaxx]

cool!

are you in engineering alan?

i maybe gettin a chance to 'prod' a d4d tonight or tomorrow so ill have a good gander

[T V O R]

Is there a brace available specifically for a Yaris diesel?

[jaxx]

possible but doubtful

strut braces are a generic design for the structure of the car and the addition of the intercooler on the diesel is an alien object in the way i suppose??

perhaps its time to front mount that intercooler alan!

[Moxy]

I fitted my bar yesterday and have a similar problem. The bar fits fine but it almost (about 2mm of space) lies on the airbox. When you turnover the engine and reversing, you can hear the airbox banging against the bar. When driving you can't really hear it even though I presume its happening anyway.

Will this be okay if just left, or will it eventually smash open my airbox

Good luck on finding a solution Alan

[alanbradley]

cool!

are you in engineering alan?

i maybe gettin a chance to 'prod' a d4d tonight or tomorrow so ill have a good gander

Um.. Yeah, sort of!

I do actually have a mechanical engineering based degree, but I'm a product designer for a company that makes stainless steel and leather gifts 'n' accessories 'n' stuff. I sounds naff, but it isn't really. Our website is www.dalvey.com . I spend quite a bit of time doing engineering drawings (what I'm meant to be doing now!).

Have a good gander about - there's not much space at the back of the engine compartment...

Cheers,

Alan

PS I also spend time taking photos annd drawing arrows all over them to point out stuff that's crap to some of our suppliers! You's never guess... ;)

[jaxx]

moxy i assume you have the engine with the airbox mounted on the top of the engine?

was just asking alan as im a CAD man meself! but work in programming CNC machiner ;)

let me take a gander at this car later and ill get back to you

[Kenno]

ok.. waht does retorque them mean??

Looking worried here

U are supposed 2 re-tighten the nuts to a required tightness so they are tight enuf!

My spanner refuses to tell me the torque value, so I just did it as tight as I could (only a little spanner so couldn't get much leverage - but I'm well 'ard so it should be ok!). Does it matter if it's too tight? Getting worried now!

Good luck getting it sorted - I'm sure someone else will buy it off you if you can't get it to fit? (I know, not a very optimistic solution!).