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Thanks guys. The floor is from Race Deck. By the time I figured the prep and cost for epoxy, along with the ease to put the RD, I went with the RD.
Still looking for the Cavo’s.
I always wanted to upgrade my garage flooring, but living in Colorado you are always bringing in snow and crud on your car that leaves a huge mess on the floor. Haven't convinced myself it would be worth it to do something that nice. Although I see you are in NJ so I assume you are battling the same slop?
The 034 is nice looking. Looks like they designed it to follow the contour of the firewall, the ECS bar follows the contour of the engine cover. Both are a nice design touch. The ECS bar also uses two screws on each end of the cross bar (the hidden screws which are a pita to install) which may or may not control flex a little better.
I agree both bars look good, but for the price difference I’d go with ECS if I had to do it again.
The floor is RD Free Flow design. Water flows through the tile, through channels in the base of the tile to a floor drain.
I’ve washed the car in the garage many times without any standing water. Four years old and still looks good.
The floor is from Race Deck. By the time I figured the prep and cost for epoxy, along with the ease to put the RD, I went with the RD.
That's what I did. RD cleans up fine with a sponge mop. Epoxy is nice but will fail unless the floor is perfectly clean. No big deal with new concrete, but my old, oil stained, cracked floor was hopeless. If you're going tp buy RD, join The Garage Journal https://www.garagejournal.com/ and get a discount.
That's what I did. RD cleans up fine with a sponge mop. Epoxy is nice but will fail unless the floor is perfectly clean. No big deal with new concrete, but my old, oil stained, cracked floor was hopeless. If you're going tp buy RD, join The Garage Journal https://www.garagejournal.com/ and get a discount.
Thats the exact situation I was in and I received the GJ discount...👍🏻
I am not sure I would rate the installation a "1" though. It is all super straight forward but getting an allen wrench on the screws on the underside of the brace to tighten it up at the end is a bitch. Might have been easier with a 1\4 inch 6mm allen socket and a mini torque wrench. I ended up taking it back off and tightened the left side and kept the underside screws on the right side loose. Then I at least only had to tighten the right side where there is a little bit more space. Still, like any project I tackle, seems like it took 3 times longer than it should have. Looks really good installed. I was surprised at how light and insubstantial the factory bars were compared to the solid billet bars on the ECS brace.
I just installed mine and I can now see why this piece was “reduced” when compared to the competition — the bolts for the passenger side cross brace are virtually impossible to get to once the strut towers bars are installed! I followed your suggestion and had a 6mm allen socket with a mini-torque wrench and it did not help at all. I am heading out to buy a 6mm allen key and hope I can tighten it up with that.
I’ll be dropping an e-mail to ECS this afternoon. Really poor design in our cars, IMHO!
UPDATE: I noticed that this Strut Tower Brace is down to $93.00. My advice is too pass on it. On the B9 S5 it’s virtually impossible to get the passenger side cross-brace bolts tight or torqued to the spec, due to the engine and the cross-brace bolts underside location. I just send ECS an email asking if they had ever really installed this product on a B9 S5. I’m extremely disappointed in this product.
the bolts for the passenger side cross brace are virtually impossible to get to once the strut towers are installed!
Yup, that is why I gave up and preinstalled the passenger side bolts. Not that the driver's side is easy either, but mainly just because you can't see what you are doing. I needed one of those little telescoping mirrors and an extra pair of hands to hold it. I probably spent 20 minutes on the left side before I threw up my hands and went to plan b.
02-11-2019, 11:57 AM
