Well I installed my AEM CAI today...ofcourse it went smooth until the LAST FRIGGEN PART...when I went to put all the bolts back in for the strut brace...the holes weren't matching up right...i noticed when I took the first side off...it kinda moved quickly, like the force between the to was lessended causing it to not be aligned correctly....so I twisted the strut brace to make it shorter to match the holes up better....but then the bolts weren't going in to smoothly...I think it was cuz I was trying to force them in when the holes didnt match up correctly.

I got 3 in on one side and 3 in on the other...am I gonna be ok like that?

 

Hmmm, try putting your front end up on jack stands to lessen the force on the strut area. You should be able to realigned the STB relatively easy.

 

haha, if you think that's bad i had my car jacked up and was trying to get the bolt out. i even used a pipe to get more torque. it stripped the bolt completely and now even my gator grip won't grip it. i'm going to have to get it drilled out.

 

Sounds like you have tightened one side down, which has changed the angle.

Line up, get the bolts started... THEN tighten them all down.

 

I brought the car in the garage for a bit and jacked it up....took another try at the bolt that only went half way it...for some reason I was able to ratchet it all the way in now...so I have all four in

I hope giving the strut brace 3 spins to make it a little shorter didnt mess anything up.

 

Sounds like you didn't relieve the stress on the strut brace. Did you back the center nut off like the manual says. If the bar shifted like you said then you didn't.

I've taken mine off a couple of times and had absolutely no problem getting all 4 bolts/nuts back on. You need to get all four points tightened.

If you PM me your email address I'll send you the Manual section so you can do it right.

 

oops...didnt know you had to relieve the stress on the strut brace...I just went by the AEM instructions.

You mean the center nut of the 3 nuts on the left hand side? Darn..i wish I knew about that. I got all 4 bolts back in and i dont know why they are such shallow bolts....you think the heads would be longer so a ratchet could grab them easier....I'm afraid of striping them now cuz I think I kinda messed up 2 of the holes a little tryign to force the bolts in when they didnt match.

Like I said...i did spin the strut 3 times around to get a closer match.