S2000 Front and Rear Strut Braces

[gilberts2k]

I am wondering if any any s2000 owners here have front and rear strut brace installed?? Do they work??

[AusS2000]

I am wondering if any any s2000 owners here have front and rear strut brace installed?? Do they work??

Hmmmm, well considering the car doesn't have struts I doubt strut braces are going to do much.

The front strut braces are merely cosmetic. The tops of the shock towers are not a part of the suspension geometry as the car uses double wish bones.

The rear strut brace is not even cosmetic because you can't see it. And if you could see it you'd see there is already one there.

[Matyi]

lol pwnd.

[NVD52K]

ask fly about the 4 point strut he is selling

[.::F[L]Y::.]

you would 'feel' more of a noticeable gain in terms of handling from the whiteline underbody brace. It has had excellent reviews and upgrading the stock front and rear swaybars.

i have had all of the above mentioned. Atm my car is running on coilovers, with cusco front (32mm) and rear (30mm) sways and the car handles really well from my viewpoint. I also had the whiteline brace at one stage and it did make the front end feel alot sharper in turning but due to my ride height it was copping a fair bit of abuse.

As AusS2000 mentioned a strut is kinda pointless, mainly due to that main support beam we have in the engine bay, but i did have a cusco front stut brace and then had a 4 point strut. I think i actually did feel some improvement in handling from the 4 point strut.... but that then again could be a placebo affect

[gilberts2k]

Y::.;1767439']you would 'feel' more of a noticeable gain in terms of handling from the whiteline underbody brace. It has had excellent reviews and upgrading the stock front and rear swaybars.

i have had all of the above mentioned. Atm my car is running on coilovers, with cusco front (32mm) and rear (30mm) sways and the car handles really well from my viewpoint. I also had the whiteline brace at one stage and it did make the front end feel alot sharper in turning but due to my ride height it was copping a fair bit of abuse.

As AusS2000 mentioned a strut is kinda pointless, mainly due to that main support beam we have in the engine bay, but i did have a cusco front stut brace and then had a 4 point strut. I think i actually did feel some improvement in handling from the 4 point strut.... but that then again could be a placebo affect


Thx for your detail information, FLY.

As my budget is limited and i saw front strut bar is being sold at Ebay. I am wondering if any one bought them from Ebay before. I found that the design of it is very similar to Cusco one.

[.::F[L]Y::.]

ebay ones are useless. Strut braces that are welded like the cusco ti and carbing would probably work better than those 2 piece struts. Better off putting that money towards a set of coilovers of whiteline F&R sways.

pm ludecrs as he sells the whiteline stuff for pretty cheap

[gilberts2k]

Y::.;1773874']ebay ones are useless. Strut braces that are welded like the cusco ti and carbing would probably work better than those 2 piece struts. Better off putting that money towards a set of coilovers of whiteline F&R sways.

pm ludecrs as he sells the whiteline stuff for pretty cheap


Thx for your comments, FLY.

As i found that the one on ebay is non adjustable (weld at 2 ends) and like the cusco one and the feedbacks of that ebay seller's strut braces are not bad, that is the reason for why I took that into my consideration.

[STiR]

Hmmmm, well considering the car doesn't have struts I doubt strut braces are going to do much.

The front strut braces are merely cosmetic. The tops of the shock towers are not a part of the suspension geometry as the car uses double wish bones.

The rear strut brace is not even cosmetic because you can't see it. And if you could see it you'd see there is already one there.

Not quite sure what you're getting at? The top of my s2000 struts are bolted to the strut tower. When you fit a strut brace you are trying to increase torsional rigidity in order to reduce front-end chassis flex. Reducing chassis flex between right and left suspension will result in reduced dynamic alignment variation, which results in improved cornering. Strut braces are not only for cars using macpherson strut-type suspension.

[EKVTIR-T]

^ Yeah I too was wondering what Aus2000 was on about.
He seems a little confused...

[vyets]

His not confused his 100% spot on. It's been covered many times on S2ki though some people still argue that there is a difference and they can "feel it"
On the s2000 the suspension is not called "struts" we have fully independent double wishbone suspension.

[EKVTIR-T]

The top of the shocks/springs that bolt to the top of the body in the engine bay are called what?
It carries the load of the suspension does it not?

Although the body and chassis is very stiff alot of owners say they can feel improvement in stiffness and rigidity..

Is a civic and integra double wishbone independent..... ;)

[Chi]

http://www.team-integra.net/sections/articles/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=525

DOUBLE WISHBONE

All right, now onto the Double Wishbone suspension type. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to explain all of the parts of this type of suspension and how it works, so I'm just going to do a quick overview so you understand basically what is going on. With this type of suspension, the upright supporting the wheel is attached to the frame of the car with a pair of links in the shape of a wishbone. These links are connected to the frame by bearings called suspension pivots (which are either metal or rubber, or now-a-days polyurethane). These links (arms) are not always parallel, and are usually of unequal lengths. The Double Wishbone suspension is a type of Double A-arm suspension. Double A-arm suspension systems have been around for about 50 years now. Early versions had equal length arms, but this caused the wheels of the car to lean outboard in turns (increased positive camber). When unequal length arms were developed the positive camber change problem was solved, and in fact was changed to a huge advantage because it made the wheels develop increased negative camber during vertical suspension movement. Double Wishbone suspension also use the "coil-over-oil" design, much like the MacPherson Strut, which often leads to people calling the shock absorbers on their cars "struts" even when their cars don't use a strut type suspension.

I've included pictures of each suspension type to try and make what I'm saying a little clearer. Especially with the Double Wishbone suspension, the pics can probably give you a better idea of how the suspension works than I can with words. Of course, the best way to figure it all out is to get under a car with a Double Wishbone suspension type and look at it to try and figure out how everything works. Don't feel bad if it doesn't make sense though, there are plenty of mechanics out there that don't understand how a Double Wishbone suspension works, it's a very complicated system. Today, engineers use computers to help them design the systems because there are too many variables to deal with to do it by hand without taking an extremely long time.

[AusS2000]

An S2000 has double wishbone suspension. A wishbone at the top and bottom attached to the chassis in two places each and to the hub in one place each. These lock the geometry of the suspension.

A car with struts uses the strut to lock the geometry of the top part of the suspension. And as the strut towers are usually sheet metal they can flex under force. Hence a strut brace.

BTW the point where the coilovers attach to the body of an S2000 is referred to as the shock tower.

[EKVTIR-T]

Are you saying the shock tower where the suspension bolts to takes no load at all?

[vyets]

Thank you Chi.

Here's a thread which a guy drew up a diagram for you all to understand. I could not quote it because the thread is now locked, and I'm not going to copy and paste and pretend I wrote it.

http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=489142&st=75

Basically put it this way... If the strut bars work on the s2000 like they work on other cars, why would there be arguments of how they don't work. And it's not like its a one off thing its been questioned for ages. If it defiantly works people would be questioning it.

[G-Stick]

Thank you Chi.

Here's a thread which a guy drew up a diagram for you all to understand. I could not quote it because the thread is now locked, and I'm not going to copy and paste and pretend I wrote it.

http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=489142&st=75

Basically put it this way... If the strut bars work on the s2000 like they work on other cars, why would there be arguments of how they don't work. And it's not like its a one off thing its been questioned for ages. If it defiantly works people would be questioning it.


LOL, tru dat

[STiR]

You guys miss the whole point of a strut brace. By fitting a strut brace you will reduce the chassis flex (which has nothing to do with whether or not you have macpherson struts or a wish-bone suspension set up), and this effectively means your left and right shock-towers are 'communicating' better. There is a reason nissan fitted a strut brace on the GTR. Any reduction in chassis-flex will result in improved suspension performance. Weld in a roll cage and you will understand.

[gilberts2k]

I have finally ordered the front and rear strut braces from Ebay and am waiting for the arrival. :)

[ludecrs]

Hope they turn up....


Unlike Aus Post losing the BNIB Whiteline F&R Sways I posted to Perth last month.


****ING ****S.

[AusS2000]

How the hell do you lose bloody great heavy sway bars?

[ludecrs]

Don't ****ing ask me!

Did I mention they weren't insured and I have decided to give a refund.......

I didn't insure them, because I thought the same thing.....

****s.

[AusS2000]

(I have a feeling he's a tad sensitive about it)

[ludecrs]

Its basically costing me $800 for sway bars I don't even get to use...

[Ferrari]

Sucks dude, but atleast you did the right thing.

[Ferrari]

Atleast you didnt waste money on front and rear strut braces.