This weekend I was at a performance driving day with the NWAlfa club and I found out my OEM front strut tower brace was shifting during hard maneuvering.

there were three specific instances where this happened.

1)The first time I heard it was on the lateral acceleration circle. It actually happened twice. The first time I spun out the car came to rest and as the weight shifted back I heard a metalic "pop."

I asked the instructor if he heard it too and he wasn't sure. I did the exercise and spun out again to see if I could get it to make the noise again. I heard the metallic "pop" again and so did my instructor. After than session I pulled over and looked under the car and looked at the shocks, control arms, and sway bars. Nothing was broken or loose.

2)The next time I heard it was at the emergency braking course. When I did my panic stop I heard the same pop as the car transferred weight forward.

3)The third time was during a sharp right hand turn on the autocross course.

At that point I pulled back to the pits and took another look. I found that I had some rubbed clean spots on the strut tower brace where the 4 bolts were holding it down. I tried re torquing them to 20 ftlbs. The right side held the torque but the left side kept turning!

After a few turns I took a look and I was actually galling the sheet metal bracket on the brace! I pulled the bar off and quit for the day. I'll try and put it back on and torque it down this weekend and go for a test drive.

Has anyone else seen this? Any thoughts?

 

what brand do you have?

 

It's the OEM strut tower brace.

 

is it lose?

 

One side was correctly torqued down. The other side wouldn't torque down as the nut started digging in to the sheet metal flange on the brace.

So the answer is yes and my question is has anyone else seen this.

 

Same thing happened to mine, the studs aren't very strong. I upgraded to the autoexe bar. SOLID!

https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...7&postcount=87

 

Umm.. never heard of this before.

I think Auto x is really rough on the car especially the suspension.

 

Damn that is one stiff looking bar! Definitely no flex or backlash there.

I'm thinking just put a larger washer underneath the nut to distribute the force over a larger area so it won't chew up the flange as much.

 

shaun: never heard of that happening before. Let us know if the washer solves the issue

 

I probably won't know until the next track day in March. I'll keep people posted though.

 

Update: I found out the real reason. It's not the strut tower brace but the rear springs are binding!

More info. here.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-wheels-tires-brakes-suspension-55/rear-aftermarket-springs-too-compressed-clunking-140015/

 

that really sucks about the springs. (I remember seeing the thread recently) Any idea what your'e replacing them with?

 

There is a guy on the forum swapping out his Racingbeat springs for Coilovers. I'm going to pick them up from him. Only 7K miles or so. This time I'm going with a more well known and tried brand.

Choice #2 if something goes awry is Eibach.