Mazda 3 Strut Tower Bar on Mazda 5

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Garry Ganu

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Mazda 5
I don't know if someone already tried it or someone already answered this, but will a strut tower bar for a mazda 3 will fit to a mazda 5? it's hard to find a strut tower bar for my 5... except when i'm going to be in japan.. all of the performance parts for the 5/premacy is on their mazda website... :)
 
Looking forward to seeing an informed answer. I'd think it should, since everything under the hood and in the chassis is pretty much the same.
 
Agreed mazdaspeedster3. Most strut bars are installed for aesthetics. A bigger rear sway bar on front drive car is the biggest bang for the buck in the handling department. I have bar from MS3 that I will be installing as soon as I get a spare hour.
 
Clearly it shows that some of you didn't experienced yet what a strut tower bar can do to your car especially the one with a monocoque chassis like our mazdas..
A strut tower bar/brace is used in conjunction with MacPherson struts on monocoque or unibody chassis to provide extra strength between the strut towers.
With a MacPherson strut suspension system where the spring and shock absorber are combined in the one suspension unit, the entire vertical suspension load is transmitted to the top of the vehicle's strut tower, unlike a double wishbone suspension where the spring and shock absorber may share the load separately. In general terms, a strut tower in a monocoque chassis is a reinforced portion of the inner wheel well and is not necessarily directly connected to the main chassis rails. For this reason there is inherent flex within the strut towers relative to the chassis rails.
A strut bar is designed to reduce this strut tower flex by tying two parallel strut towers together. This transmits the load of each strut tower during cornering via tension and compression of the strut bar which shares the load between both towers and reduces chassis flex.
Just some info... :)
 
As a veteran of SCCA road racing and PRO Rally, both racing and building front-drive unibody cars, the forces in cornering actually occur in both a vertical and front-back direction. The effective way of bracing macpherson strut towers is to tie them backwards to a roll cage with triangulation to the bar across the dash. Obviously, this is not practical for a street car. A bar connecting the two towers does not contribute to improved handling as it is not countering the forces applied in real-world cornering. I am basing this on experience and observations. In racing you use what works, not what pop car culture is trying to sell. A lot of vendors sell what they can. The good ones sell what works.

Just some real-world info...
 
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Clearly it shows that some of you didn't experienced yet what a strut tower bar can do to your car especially the one with a monocoque chassis like our mazdas..
A strut tower bar/brace is used in conjunction with MacPherson struts on monocoque or unibody chassis to provide extra strength between the strut towers.
With a MacPherson strut suspension system where the spring and shock absorber are combined in the one suspension unit, the entire vertical suspension load is transmitted to the top of the vehicle's strut tower, unlike a double wishbone suspension where the spring and shock absorber may share the load separately. In general terms, a strut tower in a monocoque chassis is a reinforced portion of the inner wheel well and is not necessarily directly connected to the main chassis rails. For this reason there is inherent flex within the strut towers relative to the chassis rails.
A strut bar is designed to reduce this strut tower flex by tying two parallel strut towers together. This transmits the load of each strut tower during cornering via tension and compression of the strut bar which shares the load between both towers and reduces chassis flex.
Just some info... :)

Correct me if I am wrong...our 5 strut tower is tied to the firewall thus giving great strength? How can a strut tower aid if the top of the tower is tied to the firewall? Just wondering what I am missing here.
 
Don't get me wrong here... and i'm not in for a debate. i respect everyone's opinion and experience here.. that's a good thing since we learn so much things from this forum..
now back to my question... would some of the suspension performance parts from a mazda 3 would fit in our mazda 5? since the 5 is based from the same platform as the 3... I'm just wondering if some have already tried... :)
 
Zoom5Zoom, great point. Our cars, like most recent front drivers, have the strut towers close to the fire wall and tied in through the structural configuration of the sheet metal. This unifies the front end adding structural rigidity. A large part of the great handling and steering feel that our Mazdas have is from the overall structural rigidity of the unibodies. That is how Mazda can combine nice riding qualities with great handling.
 
Mazda 3 Strut bar are bolt-on on our 5. Installed mine about 2 months ago. I have the Vibrant model.
Mazda5magsRX8022-1.jpg
 
Mazda 3 Strut bar are bolt-on on our 5. Installed mine about 2 months ago. I have the Vibrant model.
Mazda5magsRX8022-1.jpg

I guess the question is "does it really change anything or just look cool". Its just a question... would be seeing if any technical specs can be proven by the supplier? BTW the speed 3 does not have this bar...it only beefs up the tie offs to the firewall.
 
It makes a tinny difference. I got this for pretty cheap so i had to try this.
30$ and still looking brand new ;)
 
Thank you venom design... this answers my question.. :)
But it seems like it is already touching the battery cover... is it?
 
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^ the guy above you bumped a 13YO thread and you're going to ask again if a bar between the strut towers does anything? :ROFLMAO: the sound of silence for 13 years seems to be a pretty clear answer. the name brands mentioned here are also all out of biz...
 
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