What the heck is that sound?

[4wheeldrift]

Notice anything missing in that picture? Lots of fun yesterday, when the supports on the light bar on the front of my car broke. I was cruising down deerfoot minding my own business when I noticed the car was getting really noisy and starting to ride awfully rough. I wanted to make sure I hadn't hit something, so I sat up a little straighter in the seat than I usually do and noticed something missing: IE I could no longer see the tops of the back of the reflectors over the hood. CRAP. Pulled the car over on the ramp from deerfoot northbound to 64th ave west bound and got out, to find the light bar resting under the front of the car. The only thing that kept it from coming away completely was the wiring, which held the bar under the front end of the car. I had to cut the wires to get the light bar off, it was hard wired in and didn't have quick disconnects. From the looks of things, the weld on the top support (its basically supported in 3 places, one support at the top that goes back beneat the grill and two that go under the front end. The top support broke just before the weld to the main loop on the bar, leaving the bar free to sway back and forth, which resulted in the breaking of the bottom two mounts. There's no sign of corrosion (the bar is made of Cro-Mo alloyed steel) so I can only guess that the up and down motion of the weight of the lights caused stress fracturing in the upper mount (Chro-Moly steel is very brittle and can't take much of that kind of abuse). Once that let go, the rest was history as the full weight of the bar, lights and all had to be supported by the bottom while it was moving. The upper two lights are intact, but the lenses on both the bottom lights are broken, and the case on one is quite heavily scarred because the cover came off. Not sure what I'm going to do now, finally had everything all ready to go for the navex rally season this year. :banghead:

[4wheeldrift]

The lower mount:

[4wheeldrift]

The upper mount:

[4wheeldrift]

The bar, face down in my trunk:

[4wheeldrift]

The upper mount on the bar (close up). The weld is intact, the metal support split where the weld ended (in the heat affected zone from the looks of things):

[4wheeldrift]

The remains of the lower mount:

[4wheeldrift]

Overall view, both the lenses on the bottom lights shattered, heavy damage to the case on the light on the bottom left:

[4wheeldrift]

Heavily road rashed covers, the only thing that kept the top two lights from shattering as well:

[lammer]

oh damn man sucks sorry to hear that.
i saw the picture of your car i was like "ummmm, where are those headlights of his?" then i read how it feel..sucks...

you know ho wmuch it will cost to get it welded back on?

and im just wondering how much did it cost to get that thing in the first place.

[cocoabrova]

Ouch...That's some strong-ass wiring you got there:thumbsup:So what are your plans for the lights now?? I know of a blue AND a silver Impreza with nice FB's and big fogs:devil:Maybe just get that FB and only have two mounted externally:dunno:

[Ben]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


thats no good!!!!

[Toms-Celica]

4wheeldrift: just get a custom bar made up man! Should not be too much! If you cant really afford it, I got some ideas...

[Toms-Celica]

Forgot to mention, do you have ICQ, MSN?

[4wheeldrift]

Originally posted by lammer
you know ho wmuch it will cost to get it welded back on?

and im just wondering how much did it cost to get that thing in the first place. I'm not too sure how much it might cost to get the bar repaired. Its custom bent out of Chromoly steel, which is quite a bit more expensive than regular steel, and more difficult to weld. The bar originally was about $160 USD as I recall.


Originally posted by cocoabrova
Ouch...That's some strong-ass wiring you got there:thumbsup:So what are your plans for the lights now?? I know of a blue AND a silver Impreza with nice FB's and big fogs:devil:Maybe just get that FB and only have two mounted externally:dunno: I'm not too sure what I'm going to do yet. When I got the bar originally I found the lights were too big for the bar itself, they had to be shimmed to move them up and forward so they would work, and I think the weight and positioning had an impact on this. I might try and get the bar fixed and find something like the Hella Black Magics that use a smaller, lighter reflector and see if its less of a problem. not totally sure, since the bar would come off the car before I sold it when I got my STi anyways, and I don't think it will fit the new model.


Originally posted by Toms-Celica
4wheeldrift: just get a custom bar made up man! Should not be too much! If you cant really afford it, I got some ideas... That was already a custom bar I ordered from the states a couple years back. The design is basically sound, I just think that using the bigger Rallye 1000 lights instead of the smaller 4000s might have contributed. Not to sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I'm going to decide fast since the navex rally season starts in a month or so.

[RiceCake]

Ouch Warren, your car just doesn't look the same without those fogs.