Thinking of getting a larger cooler and i no i will have to chop my bar possibly remove it, just wundering your thoughts on this? I was possibly thinking of choping the mid section out and leaving the mounts so front corner crashes (if ever) wont be as bad only down fall is if something goes right in the middle like a lampost :/

The whole point of the crash bar is it forms part of a "square" from the cars chassis. If you're going to cut the whole midsection out then it's pointless leaving just the mounts, they do nothing on their own.

Luke had his cut so he only had the top and bottom and said he noticed no difference in the stiffness of the front end.

Adam

You won't notice the stiffness except in a crash. It doesn't help handling or anything else, so unless you're going to test-crash two cars into the same object, it's all guesswork. I've put mine back on, it's not going to make any difference to performance driving on the road and I'd rather have it there in a crash just in case.

Having only recently just cut mine to fit my intercooler I have to say there is minimum cutting required to make the cooler fit. You need to trim both the top and bottom lips off the crash bar to allow the cooler pipework enough room to clear.

When looking at the crash bar side on it looks like this the image I've attached. The back section is hollow and you remove the top and bottom lip at the one end down to the red line on the drawing.

I'm tempted myself once I go big mouth to remove the crash bar and drill some large holes in the centre section to allow more air flow to the cooler.

Depends on your cooler. I bought a stock crash bar, and it fits perfectly with my Forge FMIC and pipe kit.

That's true I'm running the THS Seat Sport copy intercooler, oh and I forgot to say you only need to cut off the last 6 inch or so of the lip

Edited 11 August, 201213 yr by Southy

The ends aren't important, Skoda cut them off anyhow for Xenon equipped cars.

havnt read the other replys so may have been mentiond but it could be used against you legally if you happen to knock someone over or crash into somone els. At the end of the day they are designed that way to protect you.... and a "slight cut" could seriously weaken it anyway.... gu'night.

I cut a section off the front of mine. The back is already open, still plenty strong.

havnt read the other replys so may have been mentiond but it could be used against you legally if you happen to knock someone over or crash into somone els. At the end of the day they are designed that way to protect you.... and a "slight cut" could seriously weaken it anyway.... gu'night.

You could apply the same to the fact it's got a large front mount that wasn't there when the vehicle was type approved and crash tested.

I cut a section off the front of mine. The back is already open, still plenty strong.

Mine has been done the same as this one

Did mine at weekend same as above ^^^^

But my cooler sits infront instead of behind (its a single pass with both pipes at bottom)

Still feels strong ;-)

On another note i went through 4x grinding wheels just cutting this section out!!! :-\

Thinking of getting a larger cooler and i no i will have to chop my bar possibly remove it, just wundering your thoughts on this? I was possibly thinking of choping the mid section out and leaving the mounts so front corner crashes (if ever) wont be as bad only down fall is if something goes right in the middle like a lampost :/

I cut a section off the front of mine. The back is already open, still plenty strong.

Pic shows why you have to big mouth the bumper, cut the bumper bar or fit a slimmer, longer intercooler under the bumper bar.

If it were easy to fit two intercoolers... One above the bar, one below, would improve cooling capacity... It's very NOT though.

I cut a section off the front of mine. The back is already open, still plenty strong.

Neat Job! looks OEM!

there are ways to cut holes in structures like that without weakening them

when i did steelworking many years ago, they used to cut holes in front and back of box section then weld plates int between front and back to make like a tube through

there were all sorts of equations to work out the strength, and it depended which way the section was going to be stressed

Tbf if u get a front end smash hard enough to bend the crash bar then the car is more likely than not a write off.. cutting a chunk out of the crash bar will maybe slightly weaken it but does it matter?

With the 2.5" of added fmic i dont think there will be a diffence to the level of write off it is..

I wouldnt personally take it completely off but.. chopping a bit out to mount a cooler shouldnt be a problem..

Also in regards to bigmouth bumper cutouts.. if u got a single pass cooler with pipes at the bottom its not essential that air has to see all the cooler.. heat rises so if the cool air hits the bottom half it cools the air passing through to the turbo.. and the hot air rises to the upper part of the cooler.. stealth look and more efficient cooling + cheaper by miles = WIN ;-)

I've seen a few accident damaged cars with FMICs.

Do it properly like Tech1e has done and whilst the crashbar is weaker, the FMIC acts as a second line of defence and can reduce damage to the lock carrier.

Do it badly (hack a big section out leaving just a few flats between the rails) and the lock carrier can be pushed into the belts.

there are ways to cut holes in structures like that without weakening them

when i did steelworking many years ago, they used to cut holes in front and back of box section then weld plates int between front and back to make like a tube through

there were all sorts of equations to work out the strength, and it depended which way the section was going to be stressed

This was my initial idea to carry out on the crash bar once I decide to go big mouth next year, only issue is that it's a hollow section with square cut out's in the back of the crash bar as per the front side of Tech1e's picture above.