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Lotus Elan Central
Rear Suspension Strut Bar

This part is sold by Club Elan in Korea

Rear strut bar

High performance suspension components, combined with spirited driving, place extra loads on your car's structure. Flexing of the body structure can in turn lead to suspension geometry changes which may affect handling. The JUNTOS strut tower brace features quality design and construction details which both enhance performance and appearance.


Final pictures of fitting and the installed product attached, I will be out for a drive tomorrow, if the weather stays dry, but here is a review of fitting.

Rear wheel

Install involves lifting boot carpet. Locating two big bolts inside boot, just forward of suspension tower fittings. One each side of the car. If the car is 50k + miles it's worth getting some WD40 on the underside nuts, they are inside the box section of the suspension tower. You should not have to remove the wheels, unless the nuts are really rusty. As you loosen the bolt from above, use your spare hand to catch the nut underneath the wheel arch - in the suspension tower box section. Once off, you will note ( and see from attached pictures ) that its the triangular metal section attached to it that keeps it from spinning - as its trapped in the square box section. I had trouble on one side where the triangular metal just got all chewed up, as the nut was rusted onto the bolt. A fair bit of WD40 and then applying some heat ( just my luck it was on the petrol tank side of the car - hence extreme care with blow torch ) got the nut off in the end.

Now make your own choice on how to get the strut to "live" with the boot carpet. You could just have one bolt hole each side of carpet, and bolt down on top. But I choose a slit in the carpet, so bolts are under carpet and the strut passes through the carpet. You may have been supplied two long bolts with the strut. Some people I hear did not receive the bolts. I did, however, even though they were longer and the correct diameter. The thread was spaced different to the originals. Hence they would not fit the original nuts. So a quick trip to a local store with one of the original nuts/bolts and you will easily find a match ( the ones I got were labeled 10mm - 1.5 x 50mm, but not sure the labeling was correct on shelves ). Mine cost 48 pence each and I got some spare nuts at the same time.

Strut connection 1     Strut connection 2

Now using the new longer bolts, pass these through from inside the boot, with a washer, through the strut and hole in boot floor. Pop the original nut on the underside and tighten up. I used one of the new nuts as a lock nut on the underside. Sort out your carpet and check its tightened down. IF the original nuts come off easy, then its a 60 minute job, real easy--just a socket set and a craft knife required.

Done 1     Done 2

Done 3


Write-up by Rod Little

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