I've recently fitted a strut brace and now have a rattle at tick over and low revs. I'm pretty certain it's not the brace touching anything and believe it's the joints where the brace attaches to the strut brackets. This may be a very stupid question, but are the bolts at these joints supposed to be tightened once the brace has been fitted, if so what torque setting is to be used.

I'm beginning to wish I'd had it fitted by the dealer now!

The only thing I regret was doing this at the dealer. It's a five min job and no reason it can't be done at home. The sales person claimed oh, it may affect your warranty. Ok...it's a strut brace...

At any rate, technically no. I've never tightened any braces there other than the obvious of where it connects to the strut tower. I've seen quite a bit of clearance there as well and don't think it would be touching anything either unless you didn't tighten the tower bolts enough.

If it's doing it under low revs, can you pop the hood and rev it yourself to pinpoint it?

Done that, it never seems to do it with the hood up, and there's no evidence of it touching the hood either.

I've had someone sit in the car whilst I wobbled the brace at the joints, and they say it's the noise we hear when driving etc. How much play should there be in the joints?

I'll check mine when I get home. There may be some longitudinal movement (front to back of car) but should be minimal if any latitudinal.

Ok. The short of it is there's zero play at all. So, that being the case, perhaps you could tighten those a bit if they do seem loose. How much? I'm of the school of though that for certain things, 'til it's tight is good. By no means should you use that train of thought.

If the bar/bolts are rattling it suggests that the bolts have only been done up finger tight. As they're locknuts, this means there's lots of slack. Tighten until they're just snug and remember that the bar and fittings are alloy so will not appreciate being monstered.

Cheers, rattle now gone.