ALL* the Cusco bracing - A Review

[therealstoly]

Originally Posted by ZDan

LOVE the plaid trunk carpet But that gloss light blue sub has gots to go

Nothing divides a group of people into two teams faster than my trunk lol. Love it to the left and hate it to the right...

The rear STB reminded me of an old luggage handle after I installed it and for some reason that just kind of stuck with me. The rubber mat wasn't going to work with the STB and/or the sub without some serious plastic surgery and I gave it to a friend of mine. Searched out carpet kits to go over the OEM felt and didn't find anything I liked so decided to make my own. Went to the fabric store and saw this outdoor rated plaid and that luggage handle thought came back. Huh... I'm gonna do a Burberry trunk. When it came time to install the OEMAudio+ sub, I did a test fit, and the fitment was perfect. The satin black colour was... not a great colour as an accessory to the Burberry trunk. Tiffany Blue. My trunk needs a Tiffany Blue sub as an accessory. And there is the "logic" behind my trunk.

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

I'm a sucker for plaid, so that's pretty cool.

Cusco at least used to make front lower control arm braces that did not have the cross bar. Haven't seen this one. Neat...

...I need to have a closer look at the rear side braces though...- Andrew

Thanks! Cusco still offers the front LCA brace without the cross bar. Version 2 (with) isn't as common, especially online, as Version 1 (without).

And you really do need the rear side braces in your life.

[Ernest72]

This post cost me $180 for those rear side member braces. Installed yesterday, pretty easy. Drove today with all season tires. Car feels good, I have the whiteline inserts already. Need to wait to the spring with my summers to really push the car. Plus it was like 34 degrees on my local mountain twisties, with some ice patches. So could not really push the car as I do in the summer. No NVH, but my tires have some miles and are getting louder.

[Spocknasty]

After chatting with Stoly I was inspired to pick up the Cusco Power Brace Rear Side 965 492 RS as I'm running out of cheap mods to do and he recommended it.

• I can mildly feel the rear of the car is more connected as if the frame of the car feels more like one solid piece.
• The car feels ever so slightly more planted in turns.

I wouldn't say my experience is as glowing as his which could be because I have subframe bushings to reduce slop in the rear whereas he does not. I noticed with the subframe bushings what he summed up with results of his bracing. As he did the Rear Member brace which ties together two subframe parts this may potentially have been more impactful? I did not plan on doing the RMB as replacing the bolts while doing the subframe bushings was a total nightmare to line everything up on this 100k car that has been through several accidents and I don't want to deal with that.

Should you spend the $180 on them? Hard for me to say. Likely worth it paired with the RMB - but I'd do the crossmember bushings first as that was a clear upgrade.

[Cephas]

That sort of illustrates my main line of internal debate at the moment: Braces, or bushings/inserts? It seems that they address similar issues with similar results in many cases. My theory (until one of you tells me I'm wrong, at least) is that the braces will induce less NVH since they keep the original bushings, but add weight. While bushings/inserts will make the car a bit more buzzy/rattly, but stay lighter.

Does that seem like a reasonable pro/con statement?

I've only done Whiteline diff inserts at the moment (an impulse by that I'm very pleased with), but would like to plan my next moves more intentionally.

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Bushing/inserts are also much cheaper than braces. I've done plenty of bushings and inserts and don't mind the added NVH. I find it pretty mild.

[ZDan]

Additional bracing is only going to augment chassis stiffness so much. It's not like the original designers did not know how to design in a reasonable amount of stiffness for a minimal amount of material/cost/weight. I would guess that most of these add-on stiffeners are not terribly efficient in terms of %age increase in stiffness vs. added weight and $$$.

Strategically replaced bushings or added bushing stiffeners, on the other hand, can easily and cheaply result in greater overall stiffness. So far I've only added the poly Whiteline rear subframe bushing stiffeners, after noting some rear wiggliness in left/right transitions at the track. Seems to have made a difference, more stability in quick transitions. But that's a subjective impression... Worst case though is next to no improvement, but very little $$$ spent and roughly zero weight added

Originally Posted by Cephas

That sort of illustrates my main line of internal debate at the moment: Braces, or bushings/inserts? It seems that they address similar issues with similar results in many cases. My theory (until one of you tells me I'm wrong, at least) is that the braces will induce less NVH since they keep the original bushings, but add weight. While bushings/inserts will make the car a bit more buzzy/rattly, but stay lighter.

Does that seem like a reasonable pro/con statement?

I've only done Whiteline diff inserts at the moment (an impulse by that I'm very pleased with), but would like to plan my next moves more intentionally.

[Ohio Enthusiast]

I would imagine that there can be two sources of "non-stiffness" in a car - relative movement between different parts and actual movement of a part (i.e. flexing/bending).
Bushings and inserts can help improve the first case, and braces can help with both cases (by tying two or more parts together and by stiffening parts).
I'm not sure if the second case is really that relevant to a modern car built for stiffness such as the Twins, but I may be wrong.

BTW, I stumbled in the past on subframe bushings that were made out of aluminum and provided an interference crush fit when mounted and the bolts tightened ("squeezing" the aluminum to the exact shape of the gap between the sub frame and the chassis). I can't find it now (only hit aluminum bushings for BMW platforms), but I would imagine these would be the most extreme bushing/insert, with OEM rubber bushings on the opposite side of the spectrum, and aftermarket poly/delrin bushings being somewhere in the middle.

[Spocknasty]

Originally Posted by ZDan

Strategically replaced bushings or added bushing stiffeners, on the other hand, can easily and cheaply result in greater overall stiffness. So far I've only added the poly Whiteline rear subframe bushing stiffeners, after noting some rear wiggliness in left/right transitions at the track. Seems to have made a difference, more stability in quick transitions. But that's a subjective impression... Worst case though is next to no improvement, but very little $$$ spent and roughly zero weight added

Would you say you experience an increase in whine / hum from the rear after installing the subframe bushings?

I'd choose the bushings over the subframe brace as even with the brace you've still got rubber bushings all around that can flex and the brace is only connecting two points.

I've got a short commute and with the car going up in miles I might be moving on to a new car soon, so I may experiment with different braces and bushings to give feedback to the forum. NVH be damned.

[therealstoly]

Originally Posted by Cephas

That sort of illustrates my main line of internal debate at the moment: Braces, or bushings/inserts? It seems that they address similar issues with similar results in many cases. My theory (until one of you tells me I'm wrong, at least) is that the braces will induce less NVH since they keep the original bushings, but add weight. While bushings/inserts will make the car a bit more buzzy/rattly, but stay lighter.

Does that seem like a reasonable pro/con statement?

I've only done Whiteline diff inserts at the moment (an impulse by that I'm very pleased with), but would like to plan my next moves more intentionally.

Starting to look like there are two paths leading to the same/similar destination...

Originally Posted by Ohio Enthusiast

Bushing/inserts are also much cheaper than braces. I've done plenty of bushings and inserts and don't mind the added NVH. I find it pretty mild.

And I would add that bushings are something that need to be replaced at some point anyway and might be a better investment.

I don't have any bushing upgrades, however, based on what everyone that does has said about the before/after differences, it seems reasonable to theorize that both braces and bushings deliver similar results for similar areas of the chassis.

There was a thread I can't seem to find again whereby someone was making an inquiry about sway bar lateral braces and one of the replies raised a question I'd not thought of and that was how many braces are originally R&D'd for one platform and then tweaked to fit different platforms without going through R&D again? Doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to see this as a real possibility and could very well contribute to some of the negativity bracing often gets, both in reputation and results.

It never occurred to me to weigh the braces as I got them, however, they are all very light on their own. The bulkiest brace is the front member brace and it can't weigh more than five pounds, if that. Bushings would, of course, be lighter, but at 6lbs/gallon for fuel, I probably didn't add more than two or three gallons worth of weight total for a much stiffer chassis. There will always be those that view adding lightness as an elevated artform, and I respect that, but for most of us I wouldn't think the weight of the braces has much validity factoring into the pros/cons.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Ohio Enthusiast

Bushing/inserts are also much cheaper than braces. I've done plenty of bushings and inserts and don't mind the added NVH. I find it pretty mild.

Cheaper, but usually much more labor.

There are many solid subframe bushing options for this car(didn't quote your other post mentioning this). I am running the SPL setup.

Originally Posted by therealstoly

I don't have any bushing upgrades, however, based on what everyone that does has said about the before/after differences, it seems reasonable to theorize that both braces and bushings deliver similar results for similar areas of the chassis.

I haven't seen anyone say that.

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

Cheaper, but usually much more labor

Bushing replacements, yes. Bushing inserts are much easier to install, pretty much on par with braces - remove bolts, put insert/brace, put bolts back.
For the more intensive bushing replacements, I can see a benefit of doing equivalent bracing or parts swap instead (would be more expensive to purchase, but simpler to install DIY and cheaper to install in a shop).

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Ohio Enthusiast

Bushing replacements, yes. Bushing inserts are much easier to install, pretty much on par with braces - remove bolts, put insert/brace, put bolts back.
For the more intensive bushing replacements, I can see a benefit of doing equivalent bracing or parts swap instead (would be more expensive to purchase, but simpler to install DIY and cheaper to install in a shop).

I haven't tried any inserts I just went with the actual bushing on most parts.

Yeah I would far above recommend a diff brace over replacing the rear diff bushings. That is one of the few braces I would actually recommend though the NVH from it is brutal. Worse then my solid subframe bushings.

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by Spocknasty

Would you say you experience an increase in whine / hum from the rear after installing the subframe bushings?.

Have not noticed any. Could be more road noise but currently still driving around with rear seatback and trunk base/carpet removed from track season (done to get down to my minimum weight!). Even as it is now I don't find it *too* noisy on the highway. But I dailied an S2k for 10+ years with a 100 mile round-trip commute for a lot of that. So this is kind of a luxury car in terms of road/wind noise on the highway for me..

[Thefalls]

I have done the WL subframe inserts and they are the only upgrade so far and they do induce more noise in the cabin while driving. Exhaust is also stock, so there is no drowning of the noise the inserts generate.

No added harshness or vibration.

There must be a reason why STI added only upper ones on the BRZ STI.

A good combo maybe STI upper (front ones only) and member brace to minimise all noise may have almost the same effects?

One thing though, the rear definitely feels so much better with the inserts, at the cost of some understeer, very much planted and more grip on tap.