Strut tower bar fitment

[WRXtricky]

I just bought a Tien front strut bar for my '02 WRX. The packaging for the strut bar says it is for an 02+ Impreza. My problem is i couldnt for the life of me get the strut bar to fit in my car. It doesnt make sense to me that there would be a difference, but should a strut bar for a base impreza fit on a WRX? Its not the intercooler that is getting in the way, its the plastic piece between the windshield and the hood thats in the way it seems. The mounts for the strut bar fit perfectly onto my strut tower, but i cant even torque the bar into place between the two mounts, unless there is supposed to be massive amount of torsion on it when its mounted. The only thing i can think of, if the same bar should mount on a wrx or a base impreza regardless, is that at some point before i owned my car, it was wrecked and that readjusted the strut towers several inches? So im confused, any insight or help is appreciated. Thanks

[JMack]

I don't know for sure but here are a couple things that I would try

**DISCLAIMER**

I am in no way saying this will 100% work.

1. Try jacking the front of your car prior to installing the brace. The car may have been in an accident that altered the static geometry of the front suspension. Jacking the front of the car may releive some of the torsion on the frame allowing you to install the bar.

2. Call the TEIN and ask if there is a difference in the RS and WRX bars. I would think that there would be some sort of difference due to the TMIC, however from a structural standpoint the strut towers should be located in the EXACT SAME SPOT on both cars as they are built on the same chassis.

[CharT]

Pictures would help to show what problem you're having. Most front strut tower braces for the WRX seem to require some bending of the AC lines, if that's what you're running into.

[CKYDavid]

my freind ran into the same problem assuming i am understanding yours, he trued fitting a strutbar in his 06 impreza, the way we got it to fit was take a small block of wood and hit it with a hammer to give the bar clearance. this works 100% unless you care of the slight banging

[rr1911]

i banged mine in on my sti