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Byron Howell photo
France, Paris
1 Level
745 Review
49 Karma

Review on Autobahn88 Support 1988 1999 Mazda Carbon by Byron Howell

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Not perfect, but it works.

Reading through various OEM options not available in America for my 17-3 year old I found that in the Russian market you can choose hood stays. I tried to see if I could order them somehow, of course, but the only option was to spend over $200 to order them and fund Communism. Being a resourceful American capitalist, I knew there must be another way, and that was Chinese labor producing goods at prices well below those of the competition. Climb into the Autobahn88 hood struts. They are not OEM and don't look like the factory but they work fine. It took 20 minutes to install and the results are good. The struts hold the hood higher than the stock bracket and have enough strength for the hood to raise on its own after a certain point. They clean everything except the rubber pads covering the fender edges, which only lift the corner on the lower stanchion mount. The top mounts have foam padding to protect the underside of the hood. The lower brackets slightly bend the edge of the part of the wing to which they are attached, which can lead to possible corrosion in the future. There are no installation instructions, but there are enough images to figure out if you have the basic ability to compare similar things and know which hand is left and which is right in the elimination process. The kit included everything I needed except for 10mm and 12mm sockets and a ratchet to use them. The kit includes lubricant and a cotton swab for application. I would like the cowl brackets to be secured with both cowl screws, but this is not mandatory. For the lower mounts, the ball joint can fall off and clean the rubber trim, but this is not necessary. The bottom brackets could actually have some slack to keep from bending the edge of the wing. The instructions should really be more detailed, my compatriots eat bags of dissolving detergent and could hold hands more if they were told what not to do and what not to do. Overall, this is a solid option that costs less than other options and does what it's supposed to do. Note. The brackets pictured are not the same as those included in the kit.

Pros
  • A dream come true
Cons
  • Secret