Strut Brace on a Vtec Well, I bought this during the tyre changeover sometime in early November. The plan was to get it fitted by a workshop. However, living in the middle of town, all the small guys have moved to the suburbs and with golf, wrok etc. (order of priority is intentional!), never got down to driving over there.
That brace was rattling around the boot so I decided to do it myself, having checked on the net that it was an easy task. I got my tool kit out and kept it in the boot. To cut, a long story short, never got down to it and some lowlife stole the tool kit - i cannot figure out how !
And so I bought another tool kit during this long weekend and after a 10 week delay, anyway, a timeslot appeared between church and lunch at the club, so I grabbed the opportunity. I fitted the item in ..................10 mins. It is a case of undoing the 3 bolts on each side of the turret, fitting the brace and tighting the bolts then adjusting the stiffness of the brace
Lets cut to the chase - driving it
Test One - Quick trip around the neighbourhood - As we were due to go to the club 15 min later - potholes - cars is much more settled almost Optra like in attacking bumps and potholes - does not shudder like it used to. Steering felt smoother like the time I switched to the NCT's
Test Two- High speed 270 degree turn at traffic light - turn-in was very eager - comment from the General (my wife) - you are the only person I know who accelerates in a corner!
Test Three - Inner Ring road - after the gym took it upto around 100 - a subtle improvement in stability, more confidence in high speed curves - could not push it further due to traffic
Test Four -Spiral ramps in the office multistorey car park - these have small mini humps - normally, I shoot up, windows down, you can feel the steering fight against friction and the vtec forces and hear the tyre scrub. Today, the fight is reduced and the wheel seemed to be well in control
Conclusion - Has made the car more confident at speed and complex situations. Steering is more eager - The contrast is subtle during normal speed driving but at extremes the value of this comes out. Don't tell you wife about this, it can be bought and fitted in a jiffy and she will never know. |