What swaybars should I get for a Mazda protege 5 ??

I wasnt trying to flame the kid...and honestly whoever bought the car should be of no issue in this thread. I apologize for bringing that point up OP.

Ok do not buy any off brand ebay strut bars....they will be worse than the stock one you have on there. If you want a good front strut bar that is still on the cheaper side I would recommend the Corksport strut bar, I believe its like $90. Want one that is about the same quality but will not require relocating the CC, go with KMR(search on the forum), I believe it is $159, possibly $100 is you can get the used test piece if its still forsale if I remember correctly. GT Specs is nice, but hard to find.

For rear strut bars, Corksport would probably be your next bet for $90 as well. If you can find it, I believe the GT Spec is a little beefier than the corksport one, but hard to find.

As far as rear sway bars go unless your gonna be tracking your car or rallying the piss out of it it all comes down to how much you want to spend(I could be wrong on pricing):
Progress, 22mm, $170
Racing beat, *not sure of size*, can be found for cheap on here mainly due to the noise it produces.
AWR ,19mm, $145
AWR, 21.5mm,$222.50

If this is for a daily driver, I would probably go with the AWR 19mm because I would be saving money and from what I have heard is if you take corners hard with the 22mm Progress your likely to break the endlink tab. With the RacingBeat you get the associated clunking noise that plague a lot of people.

If you are really wanting to upgrade your handling, you should look into a good strut and lowering spring combination(Tokico blues and Eibach/Tien), or a good quality coilover setup if you want more adjustability(KSport or BC).

Hope this helps you out and if my input is wrong, someone please correct me.
 
Great post, and I agree with every thing on there other than the Front Strut Bar...the hinged bars will NOT be better than the solid one you have, although they look better, they do not function better...the ONLY bars that are an upgrade to the OEM one are the CP Engineering and the AWR...Both which are in the $250 to $300 range...
 
He has tokico blue struts and megan racing springs I believe he shouldn't have to worry bout breaking a tab off. But the breaking of the tab depends on the strut my racing beat sway bar broke one off a cheapo strut...
 
BTW, if you are looking for an AWR 19mm rear sway bar I have one with all mounting brackets and the adjustable endlinks for sale...
 
Alright well I well just get the progress and mabey a new front strut a solid one and yes thy is my lower so that would be good right and mabey some under body braces if I don't think its stiff enough is that a good idea
 
If you already have the tokicos why would you need to get a new one? Under body braces won't do much for stiffining it up or not in my experience anyway. Get the progress it should do good but more thean likely your gona have to get new endlinks cause most people have to cut theirs to get them off unless you have an impact gun
 
I can attest to the underbody braces...they dont do much except for look pretty if your even ender there.

I was thinking about welding my GT Spec front strut bar to make it one piece. I am gonna weld up my trunk cage as well and add a couple bracing pieces to it because I dont like how many separate pieces there are and how it can flex.

Has anyone ever welded up the GT Spec front strut bar and if so would it even make much of a difference?
 
Alright I will just get sways and thanks guys I ordered my hp blues a while ago and just got them I am so ready to lower my car so happy thanks man
 
The only underbody GT Spec piece I recommend is the lower tie bar...it does help with corner n, but the other bars do not do much of anything other than look really good under the car from the rear...the lower tie bar is only about $60...
 
Do you have a pic of said good lookingness I want something shiney on it that the wife won't complain about or notice
 
I recently installed the Racingbeat front and rear sway bars and they are quite an upgrade from stock. In the rear I have the Clunk fix bracket so that I won't have to worry about that.
 
Mine are stock so I guess I got the super clunkiness. I believe its between the endlinks and bushings. About the only thing that can do it
 
How doesn't the 4 point brace or the v brace not do anyhing doesn't stiffen ur frame so there us less. Body role ?
 
You already have the 4 point ladder brace on the car...the one GT Spec sells is nothing more than a lightweight replacement...you have a solid meta one...
 
Alright so best thing is rear sway and front tie and I should be good with my lower is what u guys are saying right ??
 
Ya now that ur done with suspension you can get some bolt ons so itl be able to get out of its own way :D
 

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