Well ive cancelled the single arms and ordered the brace,is it worth changing rhe centre x brace for sake of £70 .
Dont track only do 500-600 miles a year in spirited short journeys NC1 2.0. Sport.
Dont want to be in a bone shaker read somewhere pot holes a nightmare in over braced 5’s
mine is fully braced and big potholes can be somewhat backbreaking!
HOWEVER, I think that is mostly because of the very firm Coilover setup rather than the braces!
in fact, i know it is because since bracing the potholes isn’t as bad as b4 I fitted them.
I did things the wrong way, I did coilovers first then antiroll bars, and then braces.
if I were to do it again I would do braces and antiroll bars first. because I get the feeling that if I had done that I probably wouldn’t have gone to coilovers
personally, I would very much like to see what a fully braced but standard suspension setup is like!
because I think a standard car with braces and antiroll bars would actually be(for normal road use) better than a car with coilovers braces and antiroll bars
when you say you changed antiroll bars… you changed them into to what?
antiroll bars change the car tendency to roll but a stiffer suspension also does that. what antiroll bars do change - (well the antiroll bars stiffness relationship between front to back) - is to make the car either oversteer or understeer. that’s why you need adjustable antiroll bars.
the other issue is that as I already mentioned your suspension influence how antiroll bars work. so if you have stock suspension need different antiroll bar (front and back) stiffness relationship compared to when you have much stiffer sport/track suspension.
Stiffer suspension reduces suspension travel thus the car is lowered and closer to the road. this reduces roll moment and generally steering geometry is less affected by suspension travel. With stiffer suspension also you get less pitching during braking but also the issue with potholes. Most aftermarket suspension is designed for the car to go faster on track, and care less for absorbing the potholes found on most UK roads
Thanks will start with the two and see if I get the bracing bug…only last week it had 2 rear standard ARB links MOT failure and i noticed difference with just them.
I put the 30%stiffer 30lighter il motorsport antiroll bars on!
they have reduced steering wander and the car doesn’t get pulled about as much by tram lines etc
as to their interaction with the coil overs, they have allowed me to soften the damping and have a softer ride with no loss of control or extra body roll.
I have my meisters set at 8 clicks from soft on the back and 9 clicks from soft on the front and I’ve found the sweet spot between under and oversteer so that my handling is precise and confident.
Cool. I did briefly looked at those (well bought and when i received them i sent them back because i changed my mind and direction I’m going with the car)
If you have had reasons to buy your adjustable coilover setup, personally I don’t think you have done it the wrong way around.
The reason being if you are going to change the suspension and after you install and do weight balance on the car with preload you don’t really know how handling will be affected - im talking about over /under steering. By using antiroll bar tuning you can change this bias without affecting the suspension or geometry setup. Mind you this is about constant radius cornering not sudden direction changes dynamics.
My only concern about the IL Motorsport antiroll bars is that they were non adjustable, that’s why i returned them
One question, have you ever gone on track with your car?
no never taken it on track.
Ordered the two braces unfortunately out of stock but will let you know the difference when fitted to a bog standard NC1 Sport with old billies and springs.
Imho you will learn more about your car and how it behaves on track rather than public roads.
You also improve your skills whilst having fun safely. I think you would enjoy it. Thoroughly recommend that you pursue this at some point
Hi,
Not sure if this is the right area but it’s relating to the MK3 rear subframe brace.
I have acquired 2 brand new subframe braces as the braces currently on the car are in terrible condition.
Are they easy / difficult to replace?
Cheers
Suggest soaking all attachment nuts/bolts in WD40 at least 24hrs prior to attacking the job. Give it plenty of squirts often in that time.
The bolts on Mazda are made of cheese and may be rusted in position. Be prepared to obtain new nuts/bolts.
Thanks for the tip!
I’m assuming the bolts can be reused… IF I manage to remove all 6?
I am on the hunt for new bolts for the subframe brace as a back up but proving difficult!
Use PlusGas NOT WD40!
Absolutely anything but wd40 unless its their proper releasing fluid. I use a mix of acetone( nail varnish remover) and auto transmission fluid. Works every time.