As most of you are aware, solid front strut bars for EFs are for all intents and purposes, extinct. At least when it comes to buying one new. I heard about Hardrace Suspension's model, Q0397. Had to buy it from Australia since a steel shortage is affecting the market. Bought from Hardrace direct there and it arrived. I could honestly say that it fits worse than the solid eBay ones. Resting on the body of the car, the right-hand side has a 2 cm gap and you would have to tighten the strut retaining nut at a 45 degree angle. I don't know whether or not I received a defect, but have a look at these pictures and see for yourselves:


Hardrace Q0397 resting on body EF ED6



RH side. Nasty gap, about 2 cm


RH side. Nut would never tighten at this angle.


LH side. Only slightly better.


LH side. Gap is there but hard to photograph.

I reached out to Hardrace Australia about this, photos and all, and this was their only response:

"For a fairly old car like the EF/ED Civic, you will need jack the car up from the side jacking point to fit a solid strut brace.
You will need 2 jacks, one on each side."
They post a 30-day return policy on their website, but clearly that doesn't mean anything. Of course my follow-up emails were completely ignored.
I ended up calling the US Hardrace and the only thing I got from them is that "Hardrace Australia is shady and not to do business with them."
I'm at the point of doing a chargeback through my CC provider so that's currently in the works so one way or another I'll have my money back.

I've never heard anything bad about Hardrace before, only good feedback so this came as a surprise to me. Watch out for these guys I guess.

If anyone out there still has a Neuspeed front strut bar, feel free to PM me.

 

Did you try putting the car on jack stands to "hang" the front end in the air? Might be that much flex? Worth a shot anyway.

 

Doesn't seem like 20mm (3/4") gap as you say but it doesn't look like a good fit either.

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I measured the gap a hair over 17mm so it is just about 2 cm.

I put this thing on my workbench and compared it to the one I removed (which doesn't clear my current swap). If they had a slightly better angle and removed the metal that goes around the strut, I would have been able to make this work.

Maybe the one I got was defective, but from my experience with the Australia group it doesn't appear that they're interested in looking into it. Real bummer, this would have looked (and more importantly, WORKED) great under my hood.

Like I said before, send me a PM (anyone) if you still have the old Neuspeed bar, I'll pay



Poorly angled, extra metal causes clearance problems

 

I was going to say grind it to make it fit, but I see the angle of the plate is making hard to even sit it flat. Maybe cut the outer half of the circle off, or just bend it to fit? It sucks having to hack up a new part so I understand not wanting to make it fit by force.

Not sure if they still make them but my ESP front bar fit well, with the exception of bolt holes being slightly off.

 

yeah i agree. it looks like it'd be better than neuspeed if you just hacked and rewelded and re-painted.

too bad.

or just throw it away and call it a loss.

 

The tube is too big, or their bends don't have the right angle to them and it's pushing out the mounts.

Two things you can do.

Get some info from them about the degree of the bends in the tube, verify with a protractor and see if they're correct. If not, you can bend them some more to get them into tolerance, it's as simple as hitting the inside of the bends with a deadblow mallet and applying pressure in some way (I'd stand it up on one end, brace it, smack it a few times and see how much it moves)

Or you can start cutting and welding. The mounts would need to be cut off, then bolt those to the shock towers. Then start grinding and fitting the brace. Tack in place. Remove the whole part, weld it together. Test fit. Paint. Voila, you now have a working strut bar.

 

Unfortunately I had to send it back to Australia today at a cost of $78.50. Otherwise my chargeback would not have been granted by the CC.
So, everyone loses. My return shipping, their cost of shipping. And a chargeback... pretty sure those aren't welcome at businesses.
For the record, Hardrace USA did warn me about buying stuff from them.

I'll have to be patient and continue wait for a Neuspeed bar to come around here or on eBay. Or even a used ESP.

 

No idea why there'd be such a MASSIVE difference in Hardrace USA quality versus Hardrace Australia. If they carry the same brand name, they should be held to the same standards, less (as we see in this case) they damage the brand reputation...

Definitely sounds like you got a defective or bad batch model. As you mentioned with the steel shortage (and what I've personally noticed with the PC hardware/chip shortage), a lot of companies I think are now selling "questionable" inventory they've had in their back rooms for months on end since they've run out of their standard stock procurement. It's not a pretty situation from any direction.

I've installed a LOT of Hardrace products over the years and have literally never had any issue with them whatsoever, but all of that has been purchased from JHPUSA or Hardrace directly in the US. Best of luck finding a strut bar for you that works.

 

ESP these days is a whole other nightmare that I have already dealt with. Several people I've talked to recently waited over 7 months to receive their strut bars. Some back and forth via email that I had with him and he wanted a 30 day hold on PayPal payments made strictly through Friends and Family, or a 3% upcharge to circumvent F&F for buyer protection. All of these propositions were made to me in severely questionable English. I'll take a used 2-point ESP but I have no interest in going through the process of buying one brand new from them either. It's not the ESP of old!

 

So then just curious, how much did you pay if you were willing to ship it back at $80 in the hole.

VVVVVV
Thanks for the reply. Sorry you lost out. I think you could have made it work, but oh well, i understand the frustration.

Neuspeed bar works, its pretty light and skinny, but i certainly feel the affects and just underscores the point of a rigid connection even if its got a small beam cross section, its function is all in the axial direction anyway.

 

About $180. Cheaper at Hardrace US but they said they can't get one until "at least November," which is long after the racing season is over. I couldn't wait that long.

I'm using a Cusco ST for the time being. Fits great, don't like that it's not one piece though.