Sway Bar Brace, Worth it?
 

Hi

Has anyone fitted a pair of sway bar braces in isolation and noticed any difference?

The rear sway bar mounts seem to only be supported from the top and could in theory flex if they are stressed in a direction other than down, is there any inherent issue that needs to be addressed by these after market companies?

The blue Superpro (2nd and last image) brace looks like it might flex itself and not provide much support but i'm no engineer, and thoughts?

Does anyone have any experience of Superpro, Cusco, Summit braces?

Structural engineer here. Without having done any analysis, based on a cursory glance I'd say those swaybar braces are doing very little if anything...

Not an engineer, but I agree they don't look to be able to resist anything. They have a long arm which multiplies the torque they need to resist, which is being resisted solely by the weld at the "cup".
I would say an angular brace from the lower mounting bolt of the sway bar mount to the subframe bolt would be more beneficial, but obviously it would interfere with the additional cross brace they have there.

It’s a beautifully expensive way of adding weight combined with pretty colours, and the added benefit of zero functional gain.

That's my thing with all these braces, I know a cool dude did a thread recently with the braces he likes but I don't think I've seen a single scientific test of the common braces for this car. If I'm gonna spend hundreds of dollars and add weight I'd like to know for sure if they will make a performance difference, and which do it the most.

I see what you are saying Plumbus, I am very open to the idea but like to get feedback first, or in the case of grimmspeed specific data. I'm not really an 'anti brace' person, and would like to think I understand why manufacturers don't do these things from the factory, be it cost or NVH issues. However some braces to my untrained eye might add value and support well and others I struggle with, like these sway bar braces.

I have in the past had the grimmspeed front brace and it did what they said it did exactly, but it actually had such an effect on the steering feel in specific situations that it was strange so I sold it on.

What are you trying to do? A brace should solve a problem. I would not waste a ton of money adding braces, but research and maybe add ones that people think helped do something. But that is likely butt dyno so be skeptical. Testing would be nice but the small change in chassis stiffening would be difficult to show except at the extreme. The weight is minimal unless you add every brace. Try them ,if they do nothing sell at 75% cost and call it a day.

If your sway bar isn't bound, there shouldn't be a lot of force there. If performance is the goal, make sure your bars move freely.

Now if you think it looks cool, then go for it...

you have my attention :bellyroll:

I think the only braces that actually make some "feeling difference" to the steering wheel are the front strut bars + crossmember brace, front end become a little more direct, for the rear there are other things I would change first, like the whiteline insterts.
Anyway, if I could go back, I would save as much bucks as I can for better coilovers before getting into these kind of mods ;)

Another way of considering the issue is by asking (thought experiment) why the sway bar mount points are so flimsy in any direction except vertical. The answer is because they don't need to be any stronger.

Why are they bracing in a direction the subframe is already extremely rigid.

AND the sway bar already floats axially. Instagram likes?

I think I am just going to head off the issue and remove the sway bar.

Look at how flimsy those mounts are. Can't actually be doing anything.

I think it looks cool OP, but like everyone is saying I don’t think it will do anything.

A friend of mine installed these on his 2011 STi with his bigger rear sway bar and I thought it was pretty cool/maybe needed back then. Fast forward nine years and I haven’t heard of the Subaru sway brackets snapping, especially on the brz.

But if you like them, I say get them. They are cheap enough and if you ever get bored you can duck underneath the car, look at the braces, and go woah that’s not stock.

It’s only money. People have spent more for less.

My theory is products like this get carried over from one chassis to another through the manufactures desire to sell anything and the consumers knowledge of another chassis. For example. A previous owner of an E36 would think that a sway bar brace is needed on a twin because the E36 rear sway bar mount are prone to bending/tearing.

Also, manufacturers will look at a product that sold well on one chassis, and make it for another not because it solves a problem, but because it sells.

I believe strut tower bars also fall into this territory. A completely useless item on one chassis (the twins already have a triangulated brace to the firewall), helpful one an another (like the disturbingly weak strut towers on an E36).

I wonder which car started seat rail braces? :lol:

Even Grimmspeeds own data only shows about 5/32 reduction in deflection across the front end though I would be curious what the reduction is cross-corner. I have driven a stock FRS with one compared to my BRZ when it was mostly stock and couldn't tell much of a difference.

Even then, I bet you felt the difference in the spring rates, not the strut bar.