dc11r

i still dont understand why you jumped into all this talk about sway bars, when the topic header says x-brace, which is a strut bar. this thread is supposed to be about strut bars. not sway bars.

strut bars != sway bars

the xbrace is a type of brace. rear strut bars are types of braces. a sway bar is NOT a type of brace. why are you mentioning sway bars at all?

thats also why i thought RSB = rear strut bar when you mentioned it in this post. and btw, rear sway bars does not add chassis rigidity.

i "jumped" onto your experience because you boasted about it, while failing to prove a point.

evwoo

Well Tim, maybe you should know better about the X-Brace since I think thats who you are and aren't you the one who installed the X-Brace on my car as well as on Adrian's?

Maybe you should drive my car and feel the difference of stiffness front and back as it travels over bumps. As for the rear sway bars, I was asking for suggestions if I was to install one if it would make the rear stiffer, since I mentioned one of the side effects of a rear sway bar maybe increasing noise,vibration and squeeking.

I was trying to find a solution to balanced out the stiffness first and then getting rid of some of the understeering from the side effects of the X-Brace. Your car with the X-Brace has coilovers and maybe able to adjust for the spring rates shock action vs mine cannot.

As for the cusco chassis brace 2 is under the car not connected to the front struts like a front strut bar. Are you not happy I have positive experience with the X-Brace but I have negative related to overstiffness in the back for my taste vs the front?

Jesus! I thought this is an open forum for us to share our thoughts and experiences and we all are entitle to ours. That doesn't mean someone else may not be perfectly happy with theirs.

Chill out!

dc11r

who the hell is tim?

but as to your problem with "balancing" your ride handling characteristic, adding a rear sway bar will cause more oversteer, as thicker sway bars will keep the rear end more flat (less body roll). some people describe stiffer sways as "loosening the grip" in that area, meaning if you add a rear sway, you are lessening the grip of the rear, hence why the rear end would whip out more.

the best way i can tell you from my own experiences, is to adjust your suspension settings accordingly. buy adjustable shocks.

the xbrace stiffens the chassis, allowing your suspension to do the work they were designed to do better.

all these concepts are basic.

evwoo

well, I guess maybe next is STI adjustable strut. Does any body know the range of spring rates for them? How much stiffer at the extreme and at the softest settings how much less than stock( for a 05 STI) Can I do this without having to change ride height? I don't want to lower the ride at all or very little. I like to be able to soften the suspension up for everyday driving and setup different for other occasions. Anyone out there with 05 STI with STI adjustable struts?

WRX-pilot

I notice the difference in the rear of the car, not in the center of the car. If I wanted a text book testimonial instead of my own I would have given it to everyone.

What have I experienced? Well the very first thing I noticed is that driving over slight bumps and large ones to is that the "rear" as I call it seems to be a lot harder. Although this isn't something tied into the shocks or springs of the car the feeling is much like having a stiffer setup in the rear.
The next thing I am noticing is the rear tires don't squeal as easily as they used too. I can turn harder but I don't feel or hear the rear starting to reach its limits. It seems so far the differences are being felt in the rear of the car.

I have never heard anyone say "Wow my cabin rigidity has significantly increased!"

Besides, who said they felt that there trunk was stiffer?

Now I am not going to pretend that I am a suspension expert nor do I plan on knowing any more than you do about suspensions. I do however have experiences with tissue boxes. Your analogy does make sense but if you are trying to say I/we don't know what we are talking about then that is a bit rude. When you cap off the side of the tissue there is still flex in the middle, but at the ends flex will be at a minimum towards the end of the tissue box. Am I making sense? Cut off the closed end of the tissue box. Take the smaller part you have now cut off (see attached picture) and try to make it twist they way it was twisting with the rest of the box, minimal amounts of twisting/flex occurs. This is what I am feeling, the back end has been capped and while the center of the cabin can still flex the rear does feel stiffer (maybe I should be using the word rigid?).

dc11r

mind you, i too am not a suspension expert nor super engineer. its just a compilation of things ive learned from experts in the field.

the tissue box is VERY rough in terms of an analogy. but it does give you a general view of what the brace is doing. dont forget either, that the tissue box represents the cabin, and not the whole car. and that a whole car isnt a rectangle... there are many issues in play, those which i cant explain.

glue a popsicle stick going horizontally across one of the "caps" (ends), and it does nothing, even when both caps are closed. but put 2 popsicle sticks at the end, in the shape of an "X", and it'll work better. it actually does something.

if you look at that xbrace website, whatever it is, they provide a graph i think. i saw it in person why my friend got his Xbrace installed. it showed that during the stress test that they did, the largest improvement in rigidity was between the A and B pillars.

evwoo

My thinking is the X-Brace strengthen the area behind the seat and between the rear shock towers. Now the suspension can perform with better mechanical advantage. This should be good if the rear suspension was designed for that. The engineers at Subaru designed the suspension based on the stock structure. If I can readjust the compression and rebound of the shocks will lessen the hardness. I think the shocks are too stiff and is acting like a rod instead of a damper. Before, the body was flexing and absorbing some of the impact.

WRX-pilot

The analogy works fine in this example. You're saying the Xbrace helps the center of the cabin. I am saying it helps toward the rear which you say is unrealistic and unaccurate but by saying the rear of the tissue box is the rear of the cabin is pretty much the same thing. The rear of the cabin is where the rear of the car is, the rear suspension is where the rear seats are (which is basically the end of the cabin).

My point is when I said the rear feels stiffer you disagreed, but then you give an analogy that still makes sense with what I said. This is all I am saying.