K10 strut brace idea.

[ollyc98]

In a moment of crazy-bad boredom I bought an alloy corsa b strut brace with the hope it may fit the k10 as they are roughly the same size. Cost £40.
Got it through this morning and after taking some measurements everything seems to be as it should be. I'll try it on this weekend and get back to you.

This could be the end of ridiculously expensive figaro braces.

 

[curtis]

Goatboy fitted a nova strut to his, think it needed cutting down slightly, but fitted fine apart from that!

 

[ollyc98]

If it doesnt fit I'll modify or make up some new bits for the end. It looks like it goes up high enough. If all else fails I'll re-ebay it lol.

 

[Speedle]

aye the nova and corsa braces do fit just require the mounting holes re-drilled to fit few peeps did this many years ago

 

[ollyc98]

Cool, it was actually only £30 and that was delivered.

 

[whipit]

what about a nova rear strut brace?

 

[joesouthgate]

Have u fitted this yet olly?

 

[ollyc98]

Haven't had a chance yet lol. Will try after I finish work (at 9).
I'll write a guide if any work needs doing to fit it.

 

[Turtle]

I have seen a site that tested the front of a micra and found that a front strut brace makes no difference.

And from when I had one on my car, I would think not as well.

 

[robbluek10]

well if it dont work it still looks good lol

 

[whipit]

Turtle

Yeah i've seen that as well and completely beleve that a strut brace makes no difference on a standard car. However i did find long after i fitted the stiffer suspension that the strut brace made a huuuuuge difference in high speed cornering of the car, on a track of course.

I mean above 70 on a corner.

 

[richj]

.

 

[whipit]

IMO the engine itself works to increase front lateral rigidity.

Nice wording! lol

 

[ollyc98]

Not quite then, will have to make up some shiney new mounts:

 

[alchemyst]

the end bits bend em were the cut out is and then redrill to fit!
as for strutbraces not making a difference to the frontal rigidity of a micra i think youll find they will!
admitedly i dont own a k10 but ive got a k11 and when i took the front panel of the whole front end rocked from side to side very little lateral rigidty in it at all plus i have a strut brace on my pug and that made a huge differnce to cornering especially turn in at any speed.
also id like to see how the test was done to prove it doesnt make a difference
did they measure they distance between the shocker mounts whilst the vehicle was stationary and then on the move whilst under heavy cornering?
plus i think you would need to test turn in on at various set speeds with and then without the brace to see a difference?

 

[frank]

alchemyst

they said the turrets moved 1/2 a mill under hard cornering.
if your top mounts are moving enough to affect handling, it would chip the paint off the bonnet and wings ??
strutbraces are cosmetic only imo, unless you,re doing rally jumps

 

[ollyc98]

The reason i need new mounts is cos the old ones are too high and far back. It's only to look pretty anyway lol.

 

[alchemyst]

alchemyst

they said the turrets moved 1/2 a mill under hard cornering.
if your top mounts are moving enough to affect handling, it would chip the paint off the bonnet and wings ??
strutbraces are cosmetic only imo, unless you,re doing rally jumps

i recon i could get them to move that just leaning agaisnt the car!
suspension turet movement does not = paint chipping thats a useless point :glare:
plus most cars have about a 4-5 mill gap round the wings/bonnet shut line and you can put a bloody great big dent in a panel or bend it several inches without the paint cracking. :doh:
i will admit that the main reason most people fit strut braces is to look pretty when they show their mates but thats not what theyre designed for!
plus when your talking about suspension geometry it only needs to change by a small amount to throw things out.
dont believe me how bout your tracking a 1mm difference can have a big difference to how the car handles
and the reason poly bushes make cars feel taut and better is because they dont move around anywhere near as much as the worn ones. :grinning:
also strut braces are fitted to alot of high performance cars as standard and also to a lot of race cars and they will not add stuff just to look pretty its all extra weight at the end of the day.

 

[frank]

alchemyst

a strutbrace holds the topmounts apart, so "if" it had an effect, without one, the loaded corner would have a bit more negative camber, which begs the question, why do whiteline sell negative camber bolts ?
i agree soft rubber wishbone mounts will affect handling as will tracking, but 1mm of lean on the top of a 1m suspension leg equates to about a twentieth of a degree of camber change, i dont know how you can say that will have a "huge" effect on handling fwn
if you took a humpback bridge at 90, and the f/suspension bottomed out, the turrets would move bigtime, and a brace would be very effective, but thats damage limitation not handling

 

[ollyc98]

if you took a humpback bridge at 90, and the f/suspension bottomed out, the turrets would move bigtime, and a brace would be very effective, but thats damage limitation not handling

I think if you did that a micra would just fold in half lol.

 

[Alienfish360]

They have a very useful purpose, on the right cars in the right situation.

They're more useful on cars that have struts that are not vertical, but are angled slightly. And designed in rallying to stop the struts from buckling due to the abuse and the angle of the struts.

Road cars don't get that abuse.

If you want to improve handling on a road, a strut brace is not what you need, but anti-roll bars, shocks, springs, bushes, etc.

Comparing rally cars to a K10, K11 or 90% of other standard road cars is useless.

Strut Braces, protect the struts from damage under stress. They were never designed to improve handling.

 

[ollyc98]

My micra gets as much abuse as the power limits. However this strut brace wouldnt be effective anyway due the the crappy mounts, I managed to bend it by hand.

 

[alchemyst]

ha ha quality kit!
by the way strut braces were desugn for circuit use not rallying, and most serious rallycars (wrc etc) will have the rollcage connected to the suspension mounting points to keep the geometry right and to absorb impacts from the jumps disapating it through the entire cage/shell.
"but 1mm of lean on the top of a 1m suspension leg equates to about a twentieth of a degree of camber change"
most struts are under 50cm so by your reconing it would be ten percent thats quite alot!
and its not about the deviation in negative camber induced by the top mount movement but getting the suspension to do the work not the shell flexing!! :glance:
anyway im not gonna try to convince you theyre good dont fit one dont want one thats fine by me :laugh:
oh yeah the lower brace would have a more noticable impact on weak front like the micra i will be fiting one of these fairly soon. fwn