Elantraxd.com - Rear Strut Bar Install
Rear Strut Bar Install (On 5-door) - Submitted by Mr. Dan

Tools needed:

Pocketknife
Phillips screwdriver
10mm wrench, 12mm wrench and a 14mm wrench

1. First you need to remove the plastic speaker covers behind the seat. They are attached at four points. Two 10mm bolts which are under them, and one which is on the side in plain sight. The fourth point is a screw which is behind the seat. When you fold down the seats there is still a part of it, the part closest to the door, which stays upright.

Note from kylemorg: To remove the side bolsters, fold the rear seat bottoms up, then flip up the flap of black carpet on the bottom of the side bolsters -- you should see a hex-head bolt (12mm, I think) going through a loop of metal protruding down from the rear seat side bolsters. Remove the bolt. You then have to push up on the bolsters to unhook them from a latch about 1/4 of the way down from the top. They're difficult to reinstall -- it's tough to get the top hook to latch again, but with some trying, you should be able to get it eventually. Once the side bolster is hooked at the top, replace the bolt at the bottom.

Also, the speaker cover on the right side of my car was plugged into something, which I am assuming was a temperature sensor for the climate control system. Unplug that before yanking it off.

2. Once speaker covers are off just pull back on the black trunk lining (You might want to unplug the trunk light) to expose the top of the strut towers.



3. Use the 12mm to remove the 3 nuts you can see. Drop the mounting bracket thingy on top and then replace and tighten the bolts. repeat for the other side.



4. With the Kspec bar there was a little problem with the speaker holder. It was in the way of the bar and I was debating walking down the street to the harware store to get a file when I noticed my vicegrips and got an idea. It's soft metal so I just bent the corner back a bunch and the bar was clear.



5. Then bolt on the bar and tighten up. The black trunk lining and the speaker cover both have to be cut to make room for the new bar. After cutting way to much on the left side I saw that I could get away with a much smaller area on the right. You only need to shave a little off each side. I hope the pictures help, but it's hard to know exactly how much until everything is firmly back in place.



6. After a little shaving, replace the speaker covers, replace the evil screws and bolt it back on. I had a little trouble getting the covers back on, part of it kept sliding under something it needed to slide over, but if you can jam your hand in to guide it, it will go in.



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