mx5cartalk.com

Hi All,

Just after some advice on strut braces for an 89 mx5.
Is there much benefit in getting the front strut brace put on or does the car need more underbody bracing first.

Car's completley stock at the moment and may eventually get a rear roll over bar.

Which brace would you recommend as first to buy or best bang for buck?

Regards
Ian

Time to open the can of worms ...

Those who have them usually say they're good.

Those who don't have them usually say they don't do anything.

I have one, pick which group i'm from.

I have both.

I istalled the lower one first. It made a significant difference. Then i installed the top brace.......couldn't tell tyhe slightest difference. I've left it in for bling.

Having said that. A friend installed the same Whiteline uppet tower brace first.
He thought it made a reasonable difference. Then insatlled the lower tower brace, which increased tyhe difference again.

make of that whatever you like. I have also no reason to doubt my friends jugement either.
But it seems according to this, that when you install the lower brace, the top one becomes obsolete.

There is also different upper tower braces on the market. Maybe that 3 point makes a bigger difference again.

Consider the can of worms...... officially opened

smiles wrote:Which brace would you recommend as first to buy or best bang for buck?

defenetly get the lower front brace first. Without a doubt this will be best bang for your $. Then the rear one as it will help reduce the 100km/h shimmy.
then start thinking about the top one for the front.



in my humble opinion.

My model has a factory lower brace the same as the one Stan's talking about (i think) but i still notice an improvment with a strut brace.

I'm pretty convinced most cars can benefit with additional bracing, can't see why a light convertible would be any different.

Thanks for the info guys, I can appreciate alot of this has already been asked before and I did do a quick search first but found nothing in those 5 minutes!

Anywhere you'd recommend where I can get underbody braces and how many brace points are there? Are they simple bolt on mods or will I need to do some welding?!

Cheers
Ian

MX5 Mania will have all 3 braces you seek. press on the banner on the top of the page. There will be no welding required
you need to get some bolts into the front subframe with a coathanger & sticky tape.

Mania will also be able to install them for you.


Yes Okibi. the lower front brace im talking about comes standard from around 1993 onwards

I'm sure the Cobalt Strud Brace would make a decent amount of difference
bolts on at 3 points

That Cobalt brace is steel and so damn heavy I couldn't even lift it up.

It's a Japanese car, buy Japanese goods for it (Nazi JDM owner here! lol).

I have a Carbing front brace made of aluminium. I can pick it up with my little pinky. And it's also got a Master Cylinder Brace stopper which stops your firewall from flexing when you mash your brake pedal. It's built in and gives better brake feel. It also clears my Mania CAI without any rubbing at all.

And the cobolt one doesn't have a bar between the two strut towers ..

Funny thing is Mx5s don't have struts or strut towers...

Ohh, don't they? Damn that double unequal length a-arm suspension design. Racing pedigree be damned!

What we need is a picture of the underside of an 89 NA and and 03 NB to show punters exactly what Mazda did. You see, the underside of these cars are virtually identical. Some minor things changed but the biggest difference is that Mazda gradually added more and more underbody bracing to stiffen the chassis and derive more mechanical. Each model had extra bracing to the point where the late NBs are literally like a ladder underneath.

The most important ones are in my opinion:
1. The front lower bar that ties the rear of the lower control arm mounts on the subframe together which was introduced for the 1.8 NAs I believe.
2. Virtually the same bar for the rear which was also introduced late in the NA run or maybe the first NBs - I can't recall. It stiffens the rear subframe by tieing together the rear LCAs.
3. The bar that sits forward of the diff on the 1.8 NAs and NBs. Again, more stiffness and reduction in deflection when accelarating helps get power down.

I believe the front upper brace between the shock mounts is there to stop upper chassis deflection in extreme conditions, ie racing with slicks where the corner loads are much higher. I've taken mine off and I didn't notice a thing in the race car so who knows what it does.

I'd go to mania and get their stuff. Paying JDM prices for bent mild steel or aluminium is insane. Call Mania.

I think you'd notice the effect of a strut brace more on the road than on the track.

There's one off camber corner near my house where i can definitely feel the car sitting flatter.

Most race tracks might be too smooth to have these sort of corners.

Thanks Guys,

I called Mania but unfortunately they're closed till the 9th. If someone does have underbody pics of the old an new as a comparison that would be good to see.

Under the NC