Eric F

'better' is a relative term. What you want out of struts is the right compression and rebound dampening for a particular spring rate and vehicle weight for a given application. MazdaSpeed adjustables aren't necessarily better than Tokico blues, the adjustablity hopefully allows for adjustment close to the ideal dampening with different spring rates, vehicle weights, or driving conditions. If your car's weight, spring rates, and driving application were known, and you could get struts that were valved specifically for that application, adjustable struts couldn't do any better. Quality of manufacturing materials can make a difference, but for a strut bar, that isn't likely to make much of a difference. The strut tower bar is a relatively simple device for a simple application compared to struts. I preferred to spend more on the the struts than the strut tower bar. The 3rd gen Protege already has a stiff unibody. I had mine up on four jackstands, one of which I had mistakenly adjusted one notch lower than the rest, and the subframe didn't even touch the lower jackstand. That's pretty good for a unibody car, cause I've done it before with others, and they weren't that stiff. Personally, I think the Cork Sport bar is more than adequate, but everone is entitled to their own opinion. My point is to remember it is only your opinion. When you post or give advice, remember to state it is your opinion and give whatever evidence you have to support it. If you don't have any evidence, you might want to try and do some research before giving an opinion.

jowettw

hey i was pretty set on getting the corksport bar as well - but i was told thru one of their email replies (yes, they replied - about a month later ) that they were sold out.

so i bit the bullet and spent $300 (canadian) for the MP3 bar for my '99 1.8L WITH cruise control (thanks to TheMAN's FAQ - helped a lot!!! ). unfortunately one of the brackets is on back order for an unknown amount of time - so i have the bar sitting next to my computer right now.

i like to toss my car around corners in the city so i'm hoping this will hold me over until i can find a canadian store that sells the racing beat springs.

sorry to be so long-winded - is the corksport bar out of stock or were they full of sh*t in the email? and if so, can i borrow somebody's gun to shoot myself in the foot please?!

jowettw

yeah i cut and pasted the list of parts in your FAQ for the MP3 strut bar, printed it out and headed down to the dealer! thanks again!

btw: are there any instructions floating around for the bar install? or is it pretty straight forward?

thanks!

gujustud

wow this post grew since last time I posted.. lol

theMAN: I've got the same car as "jowettw" and as he said he spent $300cdn on his strut bar...($300 way too much for me!!! rather get my Eibach springs!) I guess another reason I want one is because of looks, and I don't really like the look of the mp3 strut bar.

I actually bought a Ractive one for $50cdn, but it didn't fit (because of cruise control).

My dad recently moved his shop closer to home (1 hour drive, is now a 1 minute drive.. seriously!)... he has a CNC Machine shop, and has 7' HAAS bed.

Anyhoo, I work there part time now, and I've already started on making a 100% customer strut bar, to fit EXACTLY around all the cruise control brackets and so forth. Its actually starting to look VERY kewl (the brackets anyhow).

I haven't started on the actual bar itself, but was wondering your peep's options would be???

I want to carve into it the protege, mazda symbol, and my dad's company logo, with the words "custom" on it (my dad's work website www.sscadcam.com)...

Anyways so I was thinking of either using a pipe that is more in the shape of a oval, OR just using about 2" x 1/2" aluminum for the bar...

any Ideas???

gujustud

If I get some time later on today, I'll post the picture of the brackets so far...

mazdaspeedwest

i think i may be the only 1st genner here who has all 5 of the Rod Millen Motorsport products for the Protege (now discontinued) ok, minus 1, the exhaust died a few years back.

1 of them bieng a front strut bar. Its a solid one peice design with thick and strong mounting plates. The only bummer is the adjustability for tuning, but i can overlook that for now. It's been on my car for about 10 years and still sits perfectly flat when off the car. The bar looks identical to OEM GTX bars. (atleast i think they are OEM bars, as i have seen many a GTX with the identical bar) the quality is great and the performance is perfect. I only paid $90 for it 10 years ago.

Save your cash and get the good stuff, you'll be much happier in the end.

If your making a custom bar, please do your research!!!!! It's not just a peice of metal bolted to your strut towers.

gujustud

Since i'm still in the designing phase, what can you recommend. I can pretty much make anything, so your input would be appreciated... the main thing I'm not sure about is what I should make the bar out of, and how I should have it connected to the brackets.

mazdaspeedwest

well, that depends on the materials you have access too. i guess maybe 16guage metal for the bar and 14guage for the mounting plates. Aircraft alluminum would sure be nice. I'm not too up on my metals, so maybe someone else can comment on the type of material. i think mine is just steel. If you don't plan on racing the car (much) then go ahead and make it one peice. Go to a shop and take a close look at all the bars they have to get an idea of how things are made and go together. If you make an adjustable bar, then make sure to have the threaded ends extremely strong, as that will be the weakest point. I'd guess make the ends solid for about 4 to 5", so the threaded adjustment bolt has as much strength as possible. Like maybe a 1/2 to 3/4" thick bolt threaded in about 3" on a 1.5" bar.

make the mounting plates first, mount them and then start measurements on the bar.

My biggest complaint with the adjustable bars are the mounting plates. they just don't seem to have any beef to em. Thats where creative engineering comes into play. You'll notice on my bar, the mounting plates are not just flat plates, they dome over the whole top strut tower area = nice and strong.

jowettw

k, the local mazda dealer finally got the boost vacuum sensor bracket in stock and i installed the MP3 strut tower bar onto my '99 1.8L Protege.

BUT i have a few extra pieces left

they are the "mounting guides for the cruise control bracket mounts" described in theMAN's FAQ. i can't figure out how they go onto the bracket?!

also, the rubber bushings for the cruise control bracket are really really squished by the bolts that are holding them onto the tower brace, is that normal? will they eventually crack? or does it have to do with the extra pieces i have left over?

thanks!

jowettw

oh yeah, i LOVE the bar ... seems to be more noticeable than the H&R's that i got

it's amazing what a difference the bar makes !

... but it's probably psychological

gujustud

I'm using aluminum for the brackets. I've only just started on them. I'm just finishing up putting up the gallery on my website, but in the mean time you can look at the brackets in the manufacturing stage (hehe)

http://members.home.net/asolanki/storage/mycar.html (see pictures of custom strut bar)

gujustud

Thanks!

Yeah it does look a little beefy, but up close its not. I've counter sunk those holes where the bolts fit, so it should fit pretty good, and tightly. (keep in mind the picture I posted above I've only layed the bracket ontop of the bolts, I didn't actually bolt it down)

As I mentioned I've only started, once I'm actually done that mounting plate will look completely different, I'm gonna round all the corners, and get it anodized as well, so it'll look sharp.

Yeah the bar is the only think that I can't think off... time to research now... any help would be appreciated.. =)

http://members.home.net/asolanki/storage/mycar.html (updated the image gallery a bit)