Strut Braces
 

I think I'm after a front strut brace for my MY00 classic turbo- my friend has had one fitted on his Mr2 turbo and having driven it it seems so precise in steering feel.

Couple of questions:

Will I notice the difference? I think I've neraly convinced myself anyway:)

Is there anything I should avoid or be aiming for?

I've seen a couple of non adjustable strut braces for sale on fleebay. Do I need an adjustable or non?

Anyone got one they don't want? :D

Anybody?

I got front and rear on my 93wrx and it does feel quite precise (along with rear droplinks and Whiteline steering rack bush).
Both mine are non adjustable

I've owned an MR2 MKII NA, you'll NEVER ever get the same steering feel in the Impreza. Adding a front strut brace only adds additional understeer, if you don't follow up with supporting mods. #1 get the Whiteline steering rack bushings - massive difference. Follow up with the antilift kit and solid droplinks. If this isn't enough, get the bump steer mod.

Last but not least, get the suspension alignment correct. zero toe front and rear, or play with toe out :)

Well my mate and myself both had classics and both drove each others cars before and after fitting, the results: his car definatly felt better, mine felt no different :)

hi m8 i have just read a post about if you fit a strut brace you will add to u/steer not true because you brace both struts and give lateral support you keep the struts from moving with the inner wings giving you more precise feed back my job is setting up suspensions race rally track cars the more you stiffen the bodyshell the better thats why we fit a rollcage to beef up the flexing bodyshell and for passenger protection your handling will only be as good bodyshell flex management then the suspension can do its job correctly (FACT 50% of suspension is done in tyre sidewall flex before susp/takes place) check out my post in projects building a track car geo

There’s a school of thought that says front strut braces are unnecessary on Imprezas as the struts are so close to the transverse bulkhead. The place they can make a difference is on the rear, especially the 5 door models with that large unbraced cavity. Of course, fitting one rather removes the reason for buying a 5 door in the first place.
It would be interesting to measure just how much the struts move in use. I don’t know if anyone’s tried it though.

John

Well I fitted 2 last night to my bugey, tien front & back and it feels alot better than before! I also have the H-brace, rear ARB, solid droplinks and the interior Do-luck floor brace all feels good. next mods are the front ARB, droplinks and bushes.
S!

have a look at these bargain price dont know how they manage to sell a pair cheaper than a single but who cares lol

STI Replica Front & Rear Strut Brace Impreza 92-00 Flat4online.co.uk Subaru Impreza Mitsubishi Evolution EVO Walbro Fuel Pumps Injectors Intercoolers

good luck

ceri

p.s.
actually came on to start a do i need strut braces thread......

p.p.s.thanks cusco kid

No, you won't. If you do its in your head trying to justify the £ you've just spent ;)

Tony.

Agree with Tony.

I removed the stock Sti V3 off my hillclimber and noticed no difference.

There is FAR more 'unstability' to be tolerated if you have the stock rubber suspension points. The side loads on the suspension will move all the parts off the static alignment settings, and a good alignment will be taking this into account as much as possible.(tricky to assimulate)

however:

If you replace all the rubber in the chassis with poly bushes then things change. I feel a lower strut brace in the front will tie the front alignment much better. A rear subframe lock kit will do the rear for you (Whiteline). Next part to yield to the cornering pressures are the piston rods in the struts, they will bend! Most good coil-overs have much larger diameter piston rods, some 40 and even 50mm diameter. The stock ones are about 25mm?

The only good top brace I've seen is the design on the EVO cars where it is triangulated to the stiffened bulkhead from the top mounts.
All Impreza designs use bolts that simply provide a pivot at the tops!

A better design is a one piece welded thick wall cross strut and good stiffening gussets...probably weighs a ton too!

My 2 pen'eth anyway.