Strut Bar

[DeadFaerie]

anyone know a cheap strut bar manufacturer

[Protephile]

I guess that all depends on your idea of cheap. Mazdastuff has the front strut tower bar for $115.00. I think that's a pretty good price.

[DiS]

or you can search ebay for MSP or MP3 strut bar....I bought MSP strut bar of ebay for like 30 bucks.....didnt know that it didnt come with brackets, so had to go to dealer and buy brackets for another 40 bucks or something. So total came out to around 70 bucks....not bad at all

but if you really wanna get a really good strut bar, get a 3-point strut bar.....corksport.com sells them i think

[DeadFaerie]

alright kool, easy installations? they look pretty painless, but then everything has its qwerks

[DiS]

alright kool, easy installations? they look pretty painless, but then everything has its qwerks

yea its pretty easy to install. Make sure you will have the brackets for the strut bar that go on to inner bolts on top of each strut. Also if you have cruise control, you will have to relocate the cruise control actuator, which is absolutely easy when you have these strut bar brackets.

[DeadFaerie]

sweet, what are some obvious benefits from having a strut bar?

[DiS]

sweet, what are some obvious benefits from having a strut bar?

there's one benefit.....it will make your turning stiffer. As you are taking a hard turn you wont have as much of a body roll with a strut bar as comparing to not having one.

[nsprotege]

Ractive - if you're looking for cheap. I have one and it's pretty good

[Tom03es]

there's one benefit.....it will make your turning stiffer. As you are taking a hard turn you wont have as much of a body roll with a strut bar as comparing to not having one.

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I would clear this up.

Strut bars do nothing for body roll. Body roll is solely a function of springs/struts/swaybars and to some degree traction generated by the tires. A strut bar will however reduce chassis flex. A flexing chassis is like having a spring with an unknown spring constant, which makes it nearly impossible to tune, and it makes the suspension less effective.

And idealy the best strut bar is a solid, one piece one. A 3 piece bar, which litter ebay, have those 2 points to act as pivots. Sure it might not be much flex, but when compared to a solid bar it is. Now you just have to decide if the cost of the solid bar is worth it for the increased price- most people would say no and I would have to agree with them. If you really want to stiffen your chassis, bolt/weld in a roll cage.

--Tom

[DiS]

yea pretty much thats what I meant.....the chassis flex, sorry didnt state clearly what I meant.

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I would clear this up.

Strut bars do nothing for body roll. Body roll is solely a function of springs/struts/swaybars and to some degree traction generated by the tires. A strut bar will however reduce chassis flex. A flexing chassis is like having a spring with an unknown spring constant, which makes it nearly impossible to tune, and it makes the suspension less effective.

And idealy the best strut bar is a solid, one piece one. A 3 piece bar, which litter ebay, have those 2 points to act as pivots. Sure it might not be much flex, but when compared to a solid bar it is. Now you just have to decide if the cost of the solid bar is worth it for the increased price- most people would say no and I would have to agree with them. If you really want to stiffen your chassis, bolt/weld in a roll cage.

yea dude thats what I meant, the chassis flex. Bummer, I didnt state clearly, heh. Thanks for clearing it up for others.

--Tom

[chaosProtege]

how about this one? http://www.nopionline.com/nopistore/dsp_parts.cfm?vpcid=472&vcatid=0010&vcatyear=2003&vmodelid=120&vmakeid=220&vL1id=0&&vtitle=MAZDA%20Protege%202003

[GNO]

chaosProtege - that is one of the cheap designs that Tom03es mentioned.

I managed to bend the stock strut tower brace on my P5 and picked one up from eBay for $21.99 after shipping.
Here's a similar listing from the same seller:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/99-01-Protege-Front-Upper-Strut-Bar-00_W0QQitemZ7991083296QQcategoryZ33591QQssPageName ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Even though it says 99-01 it worked fine on my 02 P5