Rear Strut Brace

[CaptainSlow]

that connects the seat belt towers...worth it?

[garrykiller]

CaptainSlow said:

...worth it?

L'Oréal?

[skinny]

not for the sort of money they go for, imo (tho i've never tried one). you'll get more improvement from a decent cabin brace bar (the stock ones are quite floppy) and a roll bar, and they make the car look better too

[B3njamin]

I took the one that came fitted to my 1.8 '5 off for a few weeks and did notice that it didn't feel quite as sharp as it did before but it wasn't a huge difference. The massive difference came when I fitted a proper 4 point bolt-down roll bar, the car feels so much more rigid now and I'm very happy with the difference. Were I looking again I'd ignore the cabin braces and look straight for a roll bar that bolts down to the floor.

[Munter]

skinny said:

not for the sort of money they go for, imo (tho i've never tried one). you'll get more improvement from a decent cabin brace bar (the stock ones are quite floppy) and a roll bar, and they make the car look better too

How much do they go for?

To be honest if someone turned up at my front door and waved a small denomination note at me I'd probably hand it over.

[skinny]

Munter said:

How much do they go for?

To be honest if someone turned up at my front door and waved a small denomination note at me I'd probably hand it over.

they are normally cusco or something and tend to come with added JDM tax - so typically around £100

[Richyvrlimited]

skinny said:

not for the sort of money they go for, imo (tho i've never tried one). you'll get more improvement from a decent cabin brace bar (the stock ones are quite floppy) and a roll bar, and they make the car look better too

Isn't the OP talking about a cabin brace bar? (between the seatbelt mounting points).

I'd quite like a rear shock tower brace, but agrees, they're way too expensive for what they are.

[CaptainSlow]

Richyvrlimited said:

Isn't the OP talking about a cabin brace bar? (between the seatbelt mounting points).

I'd quite like a rear shock tower brace, but agrees, they're way too expensive for what they are.

Yeah I am.

[skinny]

oops sorry totally mis-read it!!

yes it's worth it, but when i changed from my OEM one to my cusco harness bar, it made a fair bit of difference. then again, mine is too old to have the captive nuts of the later cars so this may have affected things

[CaptainSlow]

Wehn you say OEM, do all models come with them standard? Mine doesnt have one.

[Munter]

CaptainSlow said:

Wehn you say OEM, do all models come with them standard? Mine doesnt have one.

Only some models I think. Standard fit on the 1.8 iS but I'm sure it wasn't on the early 1.6. Possibly came in with the 1.8 in 94?

[skinny]

yeah i think that's right, they came on the post '94 1.8's, but i'm not sure if the late 1.6's got them or not.

certainly the early ones didn't, and if yours came without, you may need to trim the plastic seatbelt tower covers, and work out a way to get a nut underneath where the brace bar bolts on to.

[NDNDNDND]

I bought a cabin brace bar off TR Lane. To be fair, it was a bit expensive for what it was (£30-40) but it does make a very good camera mount! They can be bought cheaper second hand - check out For Sale on Nutz.

I can't comment on added stiffness as I ran with an OEM brace before and have a cross-braced five-point roll bar, which does make the car a lot stiffer. As far as I know, the cabin brace was introduced as some kind of side-impact strengthener, to stop the cabin collapsing if the car gets T-boned.

As for mounting, the TRLane bar mounts to the seat-belt mounts - so no cutting away plastic (I don't think) and no trying to find a way to screw a nut inside the rear wing!

Hope that helps,

ND

[CaptainSlow]

Ok so finally bought one off ebay. Not looking forward to fitting it, what are the chances that a 1993 Eunos S Special has the captive nuts already there?

[MX-5 Lazza]

The 94 1.6 Roadster I fitted one do didn't have captive nuts...

If you remove the plastic trim and the seat-belt reel you can get inside the towers easily enough. The slots in the towers won't be quite big enough for the bolts though so you'll have to open them up a bit...

[garrykiller]

my 93 s special doesnt. so you should be ok.

[CaptainSlow]

OK all fitted, no captive nuts so removed seat belt assemblies and easy to get access to bolts in. I made a bit of a mess of trimming the trim though.

Makes quite a difference, oddly, the dash seems to vibrate a lot less now.

[J5]

I've seen the brace bar on the seatbelt towers used as a harness bar...is this suitable for harnesses?