strut brace 1.9

BIG DAVE

BIG DAVE

Dedicated Member
Scottish Zeds
Joined
Feb 12, 2013
Points
39
Location
motherwell
Model of Z
z3
looking for a cheap strut brace for a facelift 1.9. shaped one not straight as they don't fit i believe' any for sale or a good web site
cheers big dave
 
I recently picked up a strut brace for my 1.9... it is curved but still having trouble making it fit...
 
Some of the strut braces for the 1.9 hit the coil pack, I did a small mod to mine to hang the coil pack underneath the fixings.

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Weichers are your best bet, really good fit, etech ones are hit and miss, and will prove a problem on an M43, and close fitting on an M44.
 
Yes. The coil pack is about 25mm too high in my car. I take it your pile of washers is your mod? Neat idea and easy. I take it that it's recommended to bother to fit the strut brace in the first place..? I could find no conclusive evidence of whether it was worth it or not to fit one or not.
 
196806 said:
Yes. The coil pack is about 25mm too high in my car. I take it your pile of washers is your mod? Neat idea and easy. I take it that it's recommended to bother to fit the strut brace in the first place..? I could find no conclusive evidence of whether it was worth it or not to fit one or not.
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I found the brace stiffened up the front end of the car nicely, I would ideally have liked to use small tubular spacers instead of washers but it worked fine.
If you go down this route the mounting points on the car have captive studs that hold on the coilpack, I cut these off, drilled 2 x 5mm holes in the mounts and used bolts with nylock nuts & spacers to put it back together.
 
No need to modify anything with the weichers strut brace, i believe they also do a steel one for under a 100 squid:

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I fitted a strut brace to black for the track (a 2.8) and I could tell the difference as Brian said it stiffened the front and the steering felt crisper. I am not able to put it any way better but that was what I felt. When I am on track it makes me feel able to be that little closer to what I think the line is rather than allow a little in case, if you get my drift


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Thanks for the help so far. Figured out the pins have a screw slot underneath - are the pins simply painted in and may be screwed out or are they bonded some other way in which case ill have to bash or drill them out? Just asking before I attack the coil mounts...
 

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196806 said:
Thanks for the help so far. Figured out the pins have a screw slot underneath - are the pins simply painted in and may be screwed out or are they bonded some other way in which case ill have to bash or drill them out? Just asking before I attack the coil mounts...
Click to expand...

From what I can remember they are pressed studs, I just cut my old ones off and drilled a new hole :)
 
After examining RealOEM, and in the the interests of keeping my 1997 Z3 as factory fresh as possible, I've decided to not attach the mounting pegs for the coil pack and will now craft my own remounting bracket that utilises the OEM pegs, moving the coil pack downwards about 30 mm to allow me to fit the strut brace I've acquired.

Bonus: I can reverse all back to OEM whenever I want.

I'll post the bracket work once it's done.
 
196806 said:
After examining RealOEM, and in the the interests of keeping my 1997 Z3 as factory fresh as possible, I've decided to not attach the mounting pegs for the coil pack and will now craft my own remounting bracket that utilises the OEM pegs, moving the coil pack downwards about 30 mm to allow me to fit the strut brace I've acquired.

Bonus: I can reverse all back to OEM whenever I want.

I'll post the bracket work once it's done.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan, a nice little S shaped bracket would work well.
 
picked up etech brace no problems fitted straight on perfect fit happy now though don't know if any difference in handling !
big dave
 
Well I'll have my dropped coil pack bracket ready next week so I'll report my experiences then. Shame to hear your strut brace seems to have done *nothing*.
 
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