DamonB

I had an altercation with a railroad crossing months back. It was a crossing I was familiar with that had been repaved. I hit it a little too fast and the front of the car bottomed out with the pinch bolts of my Tripoint front sway bar hitting the sides of the rails themselves. It didn't feel bad from inside the car at all and it's not uncommon for me to scrape the bolt heads (I always have several extra bolts since I end up using them as skip plates) at times on rough pavement. As you can see, this time destroyed lots of stuff.

Bent both sway bar mounts back a couple inches, bent one of the solid aluminum blade arms, ruptured both drop links , bent the Tripoint mount braces terribly, tore both steering rack boots when the brace mounting bolts peirced them. Basically the only thing not damaged was the torsion bar itself. I have sinced fixed it all, but I was still floored by the damage. From inside the car it just felt like a scrape.

First the shot of the driver side. You can see the mount is bent so far back the radiator is no longer supported and the Tripoint brace twisted into a pretzel which destoyed the rack boot. The other side was basically the same.

kundo

Yeah same thing happened to me sort of. I was drunk so I let my cousin drive me to get some food at like 2am and hes haulin *** down the street when he hits a dip he didn't see at around 100mph and it didn't sound that bad but when I checked he broke the plastics that go around the fuel lines under the car and the bent one of the sway bar mounts and i don't know what else.

DamonB

Here are the aluminum blade arms from the Tripoint

Tim Benton

iTrader: (1)

aw, you just wanted to buy the M2 sway bar mounts anyway. Hope you don't have to wait 6 months to get them. What are you really going with?

Tim

GoRacer

iTrader: (2)

Replace the mounts with Mazdaspeed ones. You can buy them from Mazdatrix. I have yet to crush them like a sodapop can as I did the OEM ones.

rockshox

iTrader: (3)

are the widefoot mounts still available? i would recommend those they are the best i have seen.

SleepR1

Yikes! Good thing nothing else was damaged!

DamonB

Mazda Competition has their own upgraded mounts that are basically made from square steel tubing, those are what I now use. I feel the sway bar needs to stay at its stock height. All this happened months ago and I immediately repaired it, but I just got around to putting pics up.

sk8world

iTrader: (5)

I noticed Mine were bent and cracked the other day too. Trying to decide which ones to go with?? Is there much of a price differance between the ones available??

rynberg

Wow, those are some pics!

When I first bought my car, I had to replace both my sway bar mounts as well as the previous owner must have done something similar to your incident.....

Before I owned this car, I used to think it was ridiculous that Lamborghinis were available with an option to electronically raise the front end to clear speed bumps and such....

ronarndt

Sooner or later the stock mounts get broken or bent, unless you drive like your grandmother. A reasonable compromise between the Widefoot and the stock are the mounts from Mazdatrix. They are way thicker metal but are not as pricey as the Widefoot.
Ron A.

DamonB

And here's all the carnage. Bent solid bearings, broken drop links, bent sway bar braces, bent sway bar mounts. I also had to replace the steering rack boots which were ripped by the mounting bolts on the bent braces.

M104-AMG

iTrader: (8)

Did you go with the reinforced mazdatrix swaybar mounts or the widefoots ?

:-) neil

GARCO MOTORWORKS

I reinforced the mounts on my car as well keeping the height the same . Time well spent and no money .

DamonB

As of two weeks ago I built custom mounts for my car. Basically the top and bottom plates are 3/16" laser cut steel plate with 1.5" steel tubing joining them. The stock radiator mounts were cut off and modified to weld to the new mounts.

I wanted mounts of stock height but also realized how big a difference raising them just a little would make because of the large arms on the Tripoint bar. My new mounts are 1/4" shorter than stock and the mounting plate for the bar allows me to bolt the solid bearings on directly without using the braces.

r0gu3

Mine are in the same condition. Been thinking about Rotary Extreme's sway bar mounts.

GARCO MOTORWORKS

DamonB your discription sounds very good . I too like to made parts heavy duty .Good Skill

Fatman0203

Thats nothing Damon, you should search my name and sway bar mounts, I snapped one after an auto-x. The stock ones are just to flimsy with all those holes in them. I bought the mazdatrix replacements, they were REALLY dam strong.

M104-AMG

iTrader: (8)

DamonB, can you post a picture. I'd like to do the same. Also, are you running the smallest diameter torque bar from Tri-Point ?

Thanks,
:-) neil

DamonB

Pic of custom mounts described above:

darkside7

iTrader: (12)

its a good thing i replaced mine with the late M2 sway bar and sway bar mount.

Chadwick

iTrader: (12)

Looks nicely made, but now the frame is your weak point. Keep an eye on it for cracking.

DamonB

Thanks. I inspected the frame closely before installing the new mounts. I had one very tiny crack near one of the bolt holes. I pulled them recently to check the frame again and so far everything looks good.

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

I'd like to ask a question, but I fear Damon won't respond for another 10 months

Dave

DamonB

Then you better get it in while the gettin' is good