Hmmm, this is interesting.

bebahru ... you said you used 4 washers to give it the required clearance right? If I am not mistaken doesnt the brace have coned shaped ends at the mounting points that actually fit INTO the frame? (in the indents of the frame at those points) If so, how did you get a washer to fit flush there? is it possible you have mounted the brace on upside down with the flat ends towards the frame instead of the cone shaped ends towards the frame? Not trying to sound stupid, just cant figure out how a washer would fit flush.

Any other thoughts?

 

Zot,

That was my thought, too -- mounted upside down, although it's hard to believe.

 

Mounting upside down would not effect clearance, and I do not think the bolts would grab in that case since there is 2x as much space between the top of the brace and the frame.

However, I did realize that you CAN install the brace incorrectly! When you install the brace, you have to remove the existing screws holding the metal brackets on. I realized that if you REMOVED those brackets and then installed the brace, the brace would be touching (or very close to) the oil pan!

So, bebahru, it seems to me that this is the most likely case; when installing the brace (any xbrace) you have to leave those metal brackets on the car. I don't know if they do anything (surely they do, and are important!), but they definately provide the clearance needed to avoid rubbing against the oil pan.

If you can post a picture of your existing install, we can immediately tell you if this is the case or not.

 

I'm responding from my office computer, thus the sig is a bit different ..

the cones were mounted correctly - top side up -- the top of the cone is flattened and allowed correct placement against the washer (one spacing washer per cone).

Again, the point of the original post was to gather data for me and to alert anyone with my car's tollerences of the problem --- unless one listened carefully while going over a speedbump at about 5MPH it would be easy to miss the sound of the brace and the oil pan hitting each other.

bebahru
PS: metal brackets were left in place -- we only removed the original OEM bolts.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by speedyclip
[B]Again, the point of the original post was to gather data for me and to alert anyone with my car's tollerences of the problem --- unless one listened carefully while going over a speedbump at about 5MPH it would be easy to miss the sound of the brace and the oil pan hitting each other.

PS:

 

I will attempt the photos requested -- but it may take a bit ...

 

These cars are produced very precisely and your engine sitting that much lower has to be something missing like a motor mount part or something. Is there some way to measure a clearance on the top of the engine and the hood or something to see if the engine is actually lower. Check the transmission mounts also. Do you have a buddy in the area where you can just go from car to car measuring to see what is different? I would track down the difference and evaluate it carefully. Good luck.

 

Only explanation I can think of is the bolts are not bottomed out. This is rusulting in chasis flexture and henceforth the rubbing. The bolts should be flush to below the surface of the X-Brace when torqued....are your protruding at all?

Utah

 

the bolts are torqued all the way in .. always have been .. there are very few S2000's in this area -- thus as yet no one to compare with ... Honda did fail to lube the shifter on this one, so it's possible lthey forgot other things .. but the car drives like a dream

thanks for the ideas

with the spacer washers it works fine