Lower Tie Bar for 2019+ Mazda 3 Non-Turbo & Turbo (AWD Only)

Bracing Explained

When you’re cornering, all of the forces that you feel come from the tires must be counteracted by the suspension and chassis. On the 4th GEN Mazda 3, the front subframe is essentially a large square with no direct load path between the two front tires, leaving it vulnerable to flex with the tire forces.

The CorkSport Lower Tie Bar fixes this issue by tying the left and right control arm mounting points together, strengthening the front subframe to deliver the handling improvements you desire!

Handling Performance:

The primary goal of the CorkSport Lower Tie Bar is to improve the responsiveness and handling of the front suspension. The added chassis stiffness allows the suspension components and tires to do their jobs better.

In our testing, we found a tighter steering feel, reduced bump steer, and more responsive corner turn-in, excellent for spirited back-roads driving, autocross, or track use. On higher power cars, the lower tie bar will also help to eliminate wheel hop and torque steer during launches and/or hard acceleration. There is even a slight improvement in braking feel and performance!

Strength Testing:

Due to the complexity of the undercarriage of the 4th GEN, we had no choice but to add some bends in the CorkSport Lower Tie Bar. While a straight bar would be stronger, the bent bar was necessary in this case to clear factory components.

Despite the bendy design, rest assured, the CS Lower Tie Bar can handle whatever you can throw at it! To validate that the bent design was strong enough to handle the forces of the vehicle, we simulated a sustained 1 g-force corner using FEA software.

We found that the bar is able to withstand the forces generated without breaking a sweat in our “worst-case scenario” simulation. This simulation was run as if the tie bar was taking all the forces directly when in reality, that is just not true. Your tire force is distributed throughout the rest of the suspension, subframe, and chassis, so the bar only experiences a portion of what we tested.

Fitment Driven:

The CorkSport Lower Tie Bar is designed to fit in and around your OEM components perfectly. The specifically bent design was created to cleanly fit in the tight spaces in between the transmission, rear motor mount, and oil filter with no problems, even when factoring in engine movement. It is also a super easy install, with an installation time of just 30mins!

Materials & Manufacturing:

Just like our lower tie bar for the MS3, the bar for the 2019+ Mazda3 is manufactured from 1 inch diameter, 0.120 inch wall steel tubing and 0.190” steel brackets. This design is made for strength and longevity, and with a nice black powdercoat, you can be sure that the CS tie bar will stand the test of time.