best strut brace

[rosscoe]

Alright guys

am lookin for a quality strut brace..its to fit a tourer wi anS50b32 motor....any suggestions would be tops...

and is there any real advantages in fitting one to the rear

cheers
Tam

[bodger]

ive got an eibach one on mine, seems sturdy enough, rear ones do absolutely nothing

[rosscoe]

A did wonder bout the rear ones

[Jhonno]

if you had true rear coilovers a rear one would work..

[harry_p]

... a bit.

due to the way the arm pivots on the bushes there arent going to be the sideways loads on the damper through the towers.

leave the ront end intact but remove the damper and the wheel will flop about all over the place with no controll. remove the rear damper and it'll still move in exactly the same arc as with the damper attached. on a macphereson strut front end the strut itself is a geometry defining part, remove it and the entire setup fails. it's these loads that try and pull the towers appart under hard cornering, which a strutbrace is designed to reduce, to prevent flex, stabilise geometry and to spread loads. these forces are also the reason that bigger engined / sporty / load lugging e30s used different front shocks with a thicker, stronger strut.

at the rear, a brace may help a little with a really stiff setup by acting as a load spreader and help prevent fatigue in that area, but there's not a lot of twisting going on there anyway as the rear shelf / seatback, high rear 1/4s and high rear pannel make a nice deep, fairly rigid box on their own, compared to the outrigger typre frontend with a big hole for the engine to sit in, and big holes for the radiator, lights etc.

[tomson]

is there any real advantages in fitting one to the rear

Depends, if the turd is ripe on the back end it will definately flex so a strut brace will work. Been there done that!

Look for cracks in the paint work on the rear panel to wing joints and the tailgate/boot lid shuts. If the car has rusty inner rear arch's for example then flexing in this area will occur and cause cracking in the paint.......

HTH

[Jhonno]

I should have defined my answer a little better, but one of the main jobs as you say would be supporting the strut top with the extra load now going through it

[Daf318is]

"rear ones do absolutely nothing"

Not true -they make your boot a bit less usable!



Try and avoid a strut braces with hinges in. Anything designed to make stuff stiffer can't be as good as it could be if it has a hinge in it

[big_jof]

Sparco ones fit well but thats on a standard M20.

Logic dictates that ones with hinges in are less stiff but then again The Standard Scooby STI one is hinged so who knows!

[harry_p]

the hings shouldnt make a huge difference, as long as its designed properly. the brace will be quite long, and you'll probably be able to flex it by hand. their main purpose is to prevent the strut tops pulling apart, not prevent up and down movement. as long as the hinge is perpendicular to the expected movement, and done up tight with no play then it'll work fine.

the strongest one would be a straight, solid piece of bar welded between the struts, shame it's not possible with an engine in place

the strongest that will fit is most likely to be one of the twin tube braces, where there are 2 seperate tubes welded to the base plates, which meet and run parallel over the engine and are welded to each other. logic would suggest they'll be more resistant to twist as well as lateral loads.

[handpaper]

Sparco single tube steel, the cheapest and best. It's listed as an M3 part, but will fit all E30s (apart from the iX).
If the S52 motor isn't significantly taller than an M20 it will fit fine.

[Jhonno]

There are 2 versions.. One a 325i part the other an M3 one.. The M3 one is loads cheaper iirc

[caneswell]

Yeah the cheap steel Sparco one is what I went for. It actually looks like it might provide some additional stiffness. The alloy and multi piece ones are only going to be less stiff and are more expensive. Seemed a no brainer to me.

Rear one will do feck all, there aren't the same forces pulling the strut tops apart even with coilovers. All lateral forces are taken by the trailing arm pick-ups

[juniorGT]

Sparco single tube steel, the cheapest and best. It's listed as an M3 part, but will fit all E30s (apart from the iX).
If the S52 motor isn't significantly taller than an M20 it will fit fine.

who sells the steel sparco item? demontweeks?

[rosscoe]

Sparco single tube steel, the cheapest and best. It's listed as an M3 part, but will fit all E30s (apart from the iX).
If the S52 motor isn't significantly taller than an M20 it will fit fine.

who sells the steel sparco item? demontweeks?

Aye they do m8,the M3 steel one sells for £52.81 suppose that'll be plus the good old VAT.......but even better Motorsport world sell it for £48.78 inc vat!!!!

I'm gonna order one right now!

[Jhonno]

anyone know the difference between the m3 one for £48 and the all e30 one for £78?

I need one to fit round a 4 pot wiring cover..

[Daf318is]

I think Bob_S has used an M3 one with his M50 and I'm pretty certain that he has a 4 pot wiring cover. Certainly looks like my 4 pot wiring cover anyway...

[rix313]

I had the single tube sparco one on mine, it didn't fit quite right, when some muppet was working on it they thought, hey, lets bend it It clashed with the top of the inlet manifold.

So got to get a new one.

[rosscoe]

I had the single tube sparco one on mine, it didn't fit quite right, when some muppet was working on it they thought, hey, lets bend it It clashed with the top of the inlet manifold.

So got to get a new one.

WAT A FANNY!!!!!!!!!!

[BadDave]

Can anyone confirm that the steel M3 brace fits a standard E30?

[jbh]

Can anyone confirm that the steel M3 brace fits a standard E30?

that will be the one im using on my sport dave

[BadDave]

Cheers James

[E30BeemerLad]

M3 Steel single tube Sparco fits standard E30 with M20 & M40 and also I know it fits when an M50/52 is in, not sure about M42.

This is what looks like a sparco single tube fitted on Buster's S50B32

[jbh]

its the twin tube sparco one I'm after

[BadDave]

Thanks Lee

That means I can go order the M3 one and know it'll fit without any tweeking