Strut bar fitment issues

[McDub]

I ordered an upper strut from ecs a month ago.
When i tried to fit it, well, it didn't fit.

It fouls the metal lip at the back of the engine bay where the VIN is displayed.

I told ecs and showed them this pic, and they kindly took my word for it and sent me out another one. they said it was probably bent wrong, and that they'd get the new one checked on a workers car before sending.



The new one arrived today.
And yep, you guessed it, it doesn't fit. It's the exct same.

Now surely they would have picked up on it if there were problems with the whole batch. So i guess that leaves it down to the problem being either me or my car...

You would think maybe it's a LHD vs RHD issue, but they didn't thinkk so, and i have checked pics of american engine bays and both drives have the VIN display offset to the right side of the car (or our drivers side)

So before i email them back real confused, can someone maybe shed some light on this?

i swear am i putting on backwards or something!

[alex g]

does it sit behind the strut tops??so its shape follows that of the raintray.

otherwise a little bending can sort it

[McDub]

nah thought of that but it doesn't. plus then the sticker would be on the wrong way.
It really looks like they've mirrored it the wrong way.
they've managed to make it stick out just where the DIN plate is... (or raintray...)

guess i'll just email them again... headache!

[McDub]

they just got back to me. they looked into the RHD vs LHD thing more, and discovered that the wiper system is different, and so perhaps so is the lip...
so now to get the item price of 99.95 refuned, i need to destroy both of them, and take a photo for them...
even though it really cost me probably 130 after taxes and postage... ah well.

[Manaz]

they just got back to me. they looked into the RHD vs LHD thing more, and discovered that the wiper system is different, and so perhaps so is the lip...
so now to get the item price of 99.95 refuned, i need to destroy both of them, and take a photo for them...
even though it really cost me probably 130 after taxes and postage... ah well.

They're not interested in restocking them at all?

[McDub]

cost price would prob be less than cost to ship em back. Plus i wouldnlt want to go out of my way to ship something if i'm gonna lose money on it anyway. I've had the worst luck with this order. The man in the sky is laughing at me :p

I think i'll try and bend it to make it fit, and if that doesn't work, its destruction time

[Speed]

That is good news!

Still yet to check out my car, been busy with the house renovations.
If you have a spare Strut bar, I'd be keen to take it off you hands and try and mod it to fit.

Cheers,
S