Bushing upgrades, geometry options and other component options?

[der_rainman]

I was researching a few bushing and geometry correction options for the BRZ/86. Not a ton out there yet (except Cusco) but a couple of the usual suspects have stuff showing up on their sites.

Whiteline has a few carry over parts from the GH/GR like their rear camber bush:

KCA326



Their Com-C front tophat ( I really like this idea for stock struts or just not wanting to deal with NVH of a pillow ball mount)

KCA335





Cusco has a TON of stuff already prepared and I’m really interested in their rear adjustable arms. I think they are much easier to adjust than the WL eccentric camber bush:

As posted by Rally Sport Direct:



That is a ton of stuff! I have to wonder how long they had access to a BRZ/86 before the caar even hit the public?


SuperPro has a few interesting items too I’ve seen. I’ve used their bushings on my Scoob in the past and found the quality pretty good. Never had noise issues despite them being poly and subjected to foul east coast winters.

It looks like they’ve got a few parts ready, front swaybar, steering rack bush and some bushings:

http://superpro.com.au/find-superpro...ton=Search+Now

But the interesting thing they have is this 46 bushing “Vehicle Master Kit”. 46 bushings!

KIT174K

http://superpro.com.au/find-superpro...e/part/KIT174K


Does anyone have any information on this kit other than what’s on the website? Do any correct or improve geometry?

Any thoughts on running a full poly setup on a car? (I’ve only ran select poly bushings from WL and SuperPro as I had some NVH concerns)

[Mitch]

The front strut mounts on the BRZ are the same as the previous WRX STi. This is just a carryover part. I installed the Whiteline front offset mount and camber bolts this weekend. Everything fit perfectly. Just need to install the rear bolts and get an alignment.

[ultra]

I've got the Whiteline Com-Cs, rear camber bushes and front camber bolts in my storage room right now. I'm hoping that those bits alone will be enough to give me some room to correct or tweak my alignment back into shape when I lower the car (20mm). I got the proper Whiteline front camber bolts for the car as opposed to the OEM crash bolts that a lot of people are using.

I jumped on the Com-Cs for exactly the reason you mentioned - want more camber & caster up front but not at all interested in dealing with the reliability and NVH hassles that can come with pillow ball upper mounts. IMO the vast majority of pillow ball top hats that come with most off the shelf coilovers are junk for a *street driven* car and probably won't last very long.

Having said that, it seems that Matt Andrews has some Vorschlag top hats on his car (off a Subie) which should be as good a quality as anything you'd possibly find.

Cusco arms look like they might be pretty much necessary for anyone going lower than 20mm who wants room to keep their alignment specs comfortably in check. I think Agency Power have some adjustable rear arms coming out as well.

Regarding a full polybushing setup, I'm not aware of any special alignment properties with the Superpro kit. They're probably a great product for eliminating chassis slop but given the likely NVH penalties I'm not convinced that they're worth it given that this car is still so new. Maybe worth it for a competition car on sticky rubber but not so convinces that they'd suit a daily driver. Not like we're breathing life back in to 20 year old Miata chassis here.

[ultra]

Another thing to consider: which of these parts will or won't be warranty-friendly.

I'm afraid that dealers might not take kindly to Cusco arms.

[ultra]

Originally Posted by Mitch

The front strut mounts on the BRZ are the same as the previous WRX STi. This is just a carryover part. I installed the Whiteline front offset mount and camber bolts this weekend. Everything fit perfectly. Just need to install the rear bolts and get an alignment.

Interested to hear what kind of adjustment range you got out of the front camber bolts. Also, did you mean that you're using camber bolts in the rear as well or did you go for the WL camber bushings?

[civicdrivr]

I just noticed that the Cusco rear lateral link part number cross references with the 08+ WRX/STi.

Im just curious if using the lower arms to adjust camber will result in more stress on the axles, since youre effectively shortening the distance between the hub and the differential.

[der_rainman]

Originally Posted by civicdrivr

I just noticed that the Cusco rear lateral link part number cross references with the 08+ WRX/STi.

Im just curious if using the lower arms to adjust camber will result in more stress on the axles, since youre effectively shortening the distance between the hub and the differential.

That's a good point. A friend of mine had adjustable rear lateral links on his WRX (GD) and he had to be careful about adjusting things because if he went too far and axle popped out of the diff! he said they were perfect for easy toe adjustment and a bit of camber but he still used camber bolts to adjust his rear camber.

I would also be interested to see if Cusco has a maximum length that they recommend that you can extend/retract the arm before things are bad for the CV joint.


I also see your point about running full poly at this stage as its a brand new car. Ok, guess it depends on how much slop there is in the stock bushings. How much voiding or which are fluid filled, etc. If SuperPro have geometry correction, then that would be something to consider. Or perhaps some inserts here and there for ease of install with a bit of benefit. I've had some poly that had very little effect on NVH and then some that were very noticeable. Guess it all depends on the placement, durometer and design as to how much harshness i can put up with.

I think the Com-C's are kind of a no brainer upgrade combined with a camber bolt for fine tuning. How much caster are people getting with the Com-C's? Any numbers out there yet?

Warranty? yeah, always a concern with a new car and any mods really. Ok, swapping a tophat should not affect the motor warranty. And a CAI shouldn't affect the suspension warranty. But bumper to bumper? Not sure. On the one hand, this car was created with a huge aftermarket in mind so they had to know that people would be modding them out of the box. Guess time will tell when stuff goes wrong and we see how Subaru/Toyota react to warranty claims. I'll be keeping all my stock parts, just in case.

[lookout]

When my BRZ finally arrives, one of the first things will be to replace the stock rubber bushings with SuperPro bushings. The difference in feel between these and, even new, rubber bushings is big. The way these bushings seem to make the steering come more alive is quite astounding IMO.
Having tried various brands of polyurethane bushings in my previous Impreza and Golf, I found most PU to add too much noise and make the car feel harsh. The SuperPro bushings seem to be quite different. I found no real change in noise or harshness, just more 'feel'.

The second mod will be adjustable swaybars to allow me to fine-tune the handling balance to my personal taste. Don't know which brand though....

My local dealer, 90 Kms away, doesn't mind these modifications and will honour normal warranty. Or, at least he did with my Impreza.

[Arnie_1]

One thing I've learned about the Australian poly manufacturers (superpro and whiteline) is that they are designed very differently from the typical US brand like Energy. Apparently in Oz, poly is used as a standard wear replacement part in most shops. They don't use rubber bushings. So the Australian manufacturers over the years have come up with very different engineering and formulation techniques to make them daily drivable while still providing the precision one expects from poly.

I've personally used Energy, Whiteline and SuperPro and found the WL/SP stuff worlds more compliant but still precise compared to Energy. Basically Energy bushes gave me a "BANG" over square edged bumps while the WL/SP gave me a dull "THUD". I don't know what duro the Ozzies use but it seemed much more compliant to the rock hard Energy stuff.

[der_rainman]

Can't sleep. so let's look for more parts! Arnie - yeah, i share your experience. Maybe for a full race car something like the Energy would be good but for a dual purpose car, i want something more compliant. though, come to think of it, the Cusco pillowball would be potentially very harsh too. I'll maybe wait to see what people have to say about those before pulling the trigger.

lookout - that's good to know that your dealer doesn't have warranty issues. I've had mixed response from dealers regarding modifications. I think I can get away with bushings but they might frown upon the cusco arms!

A bit off-topic, but, I was cruising the SuperPro website and found this. Its a full alloy lower control arm they make for VW Golf. It has extra caster and anti-lift already built into the arm. All they need is roll center correction. God, I'd love for them to make something like this for the BRZ/86! Does Subaru even have an alloy arm option? From STi maybe?

http://superpro.com.au/supaloy-vag-vw-alloy-arm

[Eau Rouge]

For the control arm bushings, has anyone measured the difference in resistance to rotation between the OEM rubber and aftermarket poly ones like those from SuperPro? I'm curious as this would have to be combined with spring and damper rates to get a more complete understanding of the overall change from stock. I suspect that there is some difference as the marketing hype would suggest but I would like to see it quantified to confirm whether it is negligible, significant or somewhere in between.

Thanks!