great E34 strut bars

[scott540i]

I don't post much at all, but I should.
I have a 95 E34 540i 6-sp White/grey that I've owned since 2001.

I wanted to share my findings on one of my latest mods and give a shout-out to Custom Strut Bar LAB in Muldova
(rear bar) and Cosmo Racing in Canada (front bar).

Rear bar:

I installed a very well made rear strut bar on my 95 E34 540i. Made a huge difference in handling! It's made by Custom Strut Bar LAB in Muldova. I used ParcelABC to get it shipped to California. I don't know of anyone else
who makes a bolt-on rear strut tower brace like these guys.
I didn't expect a rear strut tower bar to make such a big difference. When I first backed out of my driveway, I noticed
immediately how quite the chassis was. No more subtle creaks from the rear. Handling: Markedly reduced
understeer, increased rear response and engagement. Surprised no one made this 20 years ago...

Here's their Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Custom.Strutbar.md/posts/
I contacted them through Facebook and then worked with a gentleman named Andrey B. over Skype to put in my
order and help with shipping. I had to setup up shipping myself with ParcelABC, which worked out to be about $91 USD
to get the bar to California in about 8 or 9 days. The bar itself was $160.

The bar is made from steel. You can choose different color options for the bar. I chose white with gold-zinc end plates.
It bolted on with-out any modification. Make sure your car is level when installing to reduce torsion twist which will affect bolt spacing!
(ask me how I know) ;-)


Labor to install: Usual process to access rear shock tops. If you have koni's with top adjustment (mine are custom), you may have to drop the shock in order for the brackets to clear. Tight area to slide in the brackets. Makes it clear how much
effort went into the design of these.


Front bar:

I ending up purchasing my front bar from Cosmo Racing. It's all aluminum. (I found Custom Strut Bar later)
On 540i's, front bars have a history of clearance issues with the hood mat. (eg: Racing Dynamics, etc)
The bar hits the hood mat enough so that some experience hood pushup and mat damage.
The Cosmo bar also had similar clearance issues (didn't dare close the hood with the resistance I felt),
but Paul at Cosmo let me mod the bar without risk.
I took the 10 degree bends down to 4 degrees (based on my pvc pipe prototype) and ended up with a perfect bar.
I used a heat gun and my truck with wood blocks as a leverage point, and a heat temp gun to keep it under 225 F.
Paul said they would probably start making a 4-degree bar for the E34 540i. Mine has about 1/2" space above the
engine cover, and only sightly hits the hood mat. This bar is also a work of art.

Custom strut bar looks like they make a front bar for the E34 that sits at the correct height.

Hope this posting helps out.

I'll post some pics of my installs.

thanks,
scott

- - - Updated - - -

Ah, forgot to mention that the front bar made a huge difference as well. If you run the front alone, you will get more understeer with the crisper engagement of the front. The rear bar dials that all out.

[theBMWbeast]

Any pics of the rear bar installed?

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[Singing6]

This has my attention. I reached out to them about the rear bar. Rasporki also makes a bunch of braces for e34’s, but the front bar is trash. Any bar with a bend in it is just engine bay candy. Simple static load path math will tell you this. It is “buckled” and so will continue to deform with ease rather than bearing real load.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scott540i]

Hi Gents, here's some pictures of my Front and Rear bars.

Cosmo_bar.jpg

E34_Custom_Strutbar.jpg

On side note about valve covers. You can see mine are bubbling again 3-4 years after repaint. What this image doesn't show is that the primer
underneath the top cover is fully intact. My next repaint will be primer only. I've seen this behavior elsewhere with oil residues. My theory is that primer is porous which
allows the oil vapors trapped in the magnesium pores to pass through. The porous nature of magnesium is why BMW painted the inside and outside of new covers.
(I'm not ever putting paint on the inside of valve covers) ;-)


Cheers,
scott

[scott540i]

Another note about my clean white shock towers.
After installing the Cosmo bar, I realized how bad my yellowed cosmoline finish looked. Looked dismal.
I removed it by carefully using lacquer thinner with rags, pieces of wood to scrape and sometimes a dull screwdriver +
a bucket of patience. Took about an hour I think.
This is my method that worked for me. If you go this route, note the lacquer thinner can eat through your paint as well,
so go slow!

[Singing6]

Hi Gents, here's some pictures of my Front and Rear bars.

Cosmo_bar.jpg

E34_Custom_Strutbar.jpg

On side note about valve covers. You can see mine are bubbling again 3-4 years after repaint. What this image doesn't show is that the primer
underneath the top cover is fully intact. My next repaint will be primer only. I've seen this behavior elsewhere with oil residues. My theory is that primer is porous which
allows the oil vapors trapped in the magnesium pores to pass through. The porous nature of magnesium is why BMW painted the inside and outside of new covers.
(I'm not ever putting paint on the inside of valve covers) ;-)


Cheers,
scott

I love that rear bar. It is much more of what I’m looking for compared to the Rasporki one

https://rasporki.com/netshop/bmw/ras...itovar_40.html

Will find someone to pawn this rear brace off to and get one of those!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scott540i]

I love that rear bar. It is much more of what I’m looking for compared to the Rasporki one

https://rasporki.com/netshop/bmw/ras...itovar_40.html

Will find someone to pawn this rear brace off to and get one of those!

Wow, and I thought Custom Strut Bar was the only one! I spent months looking for a rear bar. Changed my search just a bit,
and found only Custom Strut Bar. Ok, glad I found them 1st!

Here's a pic of my car. I'm running H&R sports with Koni sports with customized rear shocks: 1/2" shortened shock body, threaded perch, & top adjustment.
I like a flatter rake than the "out of the box" springs offer.

my540i_2020_HR.jpg


I have a lighting system that I really like. The E34 is a lighting machine when it's setup.
Been running my HID setup for a few years now with some bulb adjustments.

Here's my current setup - best so far!:

All parts purchased at TheRetroFitSource unless indicated otherwise.
Low beams:
Morimoto Mini H1 HID projectors retrofit in original Hella projector housings
Morimoto 50w ballasts
bulbs: H1: XTR HID (Philips XV2 4800K) - pricey but, by far the best H1 bulb I've used
Clear glass lens (Ebay - Latvia seller) - note: had to grind edge a bit with Dremel for fitment
Pivot LED Halos (w/ rheostat to tone down the brightness) -these only come on with the headlights. I don't use them for DRL's or turn signals.

High beams:
Philips 9011 HIR Halogen bulbs ( Amazon) - about 200-300 higher lumen output than non-HIR halogens. Had to modify a bit to fit.
Clear glass lens (Ebay - Latvia seller)
-- high beams now behave like a distance spot beam. Fantastic reach.

Fog lights: (now driving lights) (orig oem projector)
Morimoto Pivot 35/50w ballasts
Morimoto XB 4500k bulbs
Clear glass lens (Ebay - I think Latvia seller as well)

LKM Hack to cancel bulb warnings and keep Fogs on with High beams. This was nerve wracking work with a test light with the LKM board
naked on live power. I found the the hack by testing the fog light relay with the light on & off.
So happy when I was done. Note, there is another computer board next to this one - a little bump tosses errors. Just re-seat it.
Here's photo I found on one of the forums with with warning cancel information, but I updated it with my Fog light fix and corrections.

bmw_lowbeam_fog_cancel.jpg


Low beam mode is very Nice. ;-) High beam mode on a long wooded road is Crazy Nice.
Most newer cars are not equipped with separate Fogs and have bi-function low/highs in small heat sensative housings. Limited potential...
My E34 still has more light potential with higher output Fog light bulbs and a projector retrofit, but I think I'm good for now.

Cheers,
scott

[scott540i]

For Custom Strut Bar LAB, please contact Andrey Bacancea on Skype: bacancea . He’s a great guy and is fluent in English. And he has an E34 as well. :-)

[Singing6]

You should have just used my guide for lkm mods. I go through exactly how to remove the warnings and the high beam and foglight correction. But this is off topic from strut braces.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scott540i]

What? Lol, i want to see your guide.
I did my mod in feb of 2018. I could not find anyone else who had done it. Very cool that you have a guide as well!

[Singing6]

Its in my signature now. I was still working out the kinks in my system in February (started in November 2017) and posted by April of 2018. Wish I could have gotten it done a bit faster!

[scott540i]

Wow- looks very technical. Nice work!
I’m going to attempt the same sort of mod on my 2010 Honda Pilot by modding the fog light relay.
The relay itself is about $8, so low risk there. Have to see how it goes. Haven’t found anyone who’s done this mod on this chassis.

[BleedsBlue]

Those are some very positive words about the trunk strut brace! It's an interesting topic, not too different from the front engine bay strut bar "worth debate".

We're focused on the X-brace, which makes a very tangible difference visible from the moment you lower your car off the jack stands from install. Unfortunately, the E31 donor part that Greg modified and wrote-up for the forums years ago 1) became an $800+ part new shortly after and 2) went totally NLA a bit after that. As usual, we're going to take that vacuum as an opportunity and design a direct E34-fitment X-brace simile, with some added aero panels.

As a lower priority we have designs for a front upper strut brace, but nothing yet for the rear.

To do this right we'll rent time on a chassis rig and demonstrate the various options' efficacy. Our options will also never compete cost for cost with Russian steel, but we will offer other advantages

[Singing6]

Those are some very positive words about the trunk strut brace! It's an interesting topic, not too different from the front engine bay strut bar "worth debate".

We're focused on the X-brace, which makes a very tangible difference visible from the moment you lower your car off the jack stands from install. Unfortunately, the E31 donor part that Greg modified and wrote-up for the forums years ago 1) became an $800+ part new shortly after and 2) went totally NLA a bit after that. As usual, we're going to take that vacuum as an opportunity and design a direct E34-fitment X-brace simile, with some added aero panels.

As a lower priority we have designs for a front upper strut brace, but nothing yet for the rear.

To do this right we'll rent time on a chassis rig and demonstrate the various options' efficacy. Our options will also never compete cost for cost with Russian steel, but we will offer other advantages

You well know I am very interested in what you guys come up with!

[sbeckman7]

Those are some very positive words about the trunk strut brace! It's an interesting topic, not too different from the front engine bay strut bar "worth debate".

We're focused on the X-brace, which makes a very tangible difference visible from the moment you lower your car off the jack stands from install. Unfortunately, the E31 donor part that Greg modified and wrote-up for the forums years ago 1) became an $800+ part new shortly after and 2) went totally NLA a bit after that. As usual, we're going to take that vacuum as an opportunity and design a direct E34-fitment X-brace simile, with some added aero panels.

As a lower priority we have designs for a front upper strut brace, but nothing yet for the rear.

To do this right we'll rent time on a chassis rig and demonstrate the various options' efficacy. Our options will also never compete cost for cost with Russian steel, but we will offer other advantages

That sounds sweet!