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pics of TRD strut brace for 09.

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:03 am
by vibedrivermatt
Hello I bought a TRD strut brace for 09/10 and put it on my car today. I've been wanting to get this thing for a while and finally got it. I figured I should post some pics of it in case anyone else is interested in it. Here they are!view from bottom you can see how the parts are joined together it has an aluminum TRD emblem. looks nice. comes with protective plastic covering.among the various stuff that gets removed so you can fit a torque wrench it there. its the wiper motor and linkage assembly!what it looks like after done. kinda disappointed it had to get partially covered by all the plastic cowling pieces but oh well. Still looks good.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:07 am
by dgekiere
thats purrrrdy have you driven with it yet

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:09 am
by ou.grizzly
With all the handling modifications, have you noticed a difference?

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (ou.grizzly)

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:57 am
by vibenvy
Wow! That looks nice! Did you have the factory strut brace thingy or no?If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for the TRD one and where did you get it from?I like the looks of this one more than the factory one.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 9:35 am
by BlueCrush
Wow! That looks great! Nice addition to the engine bay.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (J_TO_ENVY)

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:53 am
by vibedrivermatt
Quote, originally posted by J_TO_ENVY »Wow! That looks nice! Did you have the factory strut brace thingy or no?If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for the TRD one and where did you get it from?I like the looks of this one more than the factory one.There was no factory strut brace in there before I put this in. Im unaware of a factory strut brace if there is one available but my guess is that in isn't one. This cost $176 or about $188 after tax and shipping. It seemed kinda pricey for what what it is which is why I held off on buying it for so long.After getting it though I wasn't disappointed with the quality. Seems like its pretty high quality.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:16 pm
by hskater26
nice looks good

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (ou.grizzly)

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:14 pm
by vibedrivermatt
Quote, originally posted by ou.grizzly »With all the handling modifications, have you noticed a difference? you know there has been. The only other thing I have installed is the TRD rear sway bar though. I can honestly say there's a difference. Just feels more solid. To me its quite apparent that the front of the car is stiffer.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 1:01 am
by vibenvy
Quote, originally posted by vibedrivermatt »There was no factory strut brace in there before I put this in. Im unaware of a factory strut brace if there is one available but my guess is that in isn't one. This cost $174 or about $184 with tax and shipping. It seemed kinda pricey for what what it is which is why I held off on buying it for so long.After getting it though I wasn't disappointed with the quality. Seems like its pretty high quality.Oh okay. It must be a GT thing than? Here's what I'm referring to:The factory bar is kind of goofy looking. The TRD one would definitely add some more color and a sportier look to the engine bay. You got me considering getting one now !How hard was it to remove all the things you had to remove to install it? Could you possibly do a how-to for everything you had to remove?On a bit of a side note, the rear sway bar you also have installed will not work on an '09-'10 GT correct?Thanks in advance.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:05 am
by vibedrivermatt
ohhh look at that! there is a factory strut brace. Yup your right, the TRD rear sway bar wont fit the GT. Sure I can do a how-to on it. If anything maybe some helpful info could be shared and I have a lot more pictures. Just give me a few days. Its pretty simple to do.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:32 am
by vibenvy
It must be a GT thing than. Well that certainlys sucks about the rear sway bar . Oh well, less $ to spend I guess I am definitely considering getting the strut brace to "dress up" the engine bay a bit though.A how-to would be great! Thanks a ton!

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:12 am
by TONY TAT2
I kind of have mixed emotions on a strut brace. Since your tien in the strut towers will it eventually cause undue stress on other body components.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:43 pm
by bull77
wow looks really good under the hood Quote, originally posted by vibedrivermatt »among the various stuff that gets removed so you can fit a torque wrench it there. its the wiper motor and linkage assembly!i guess its not a straight bolt on like the older gen vibes. I can't see in the pics where theres an issue gettign a wrench in.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (bull77)

Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 2:43 am
by vibenvy
Quote, originally posted by TONY TAT2 »I kind of have mixed emotions on a strut brace. Since your tien in the strut towers will it eventually cause undue stress on other body components.People use strut tower braces all the time with no ill effects. They don't put that much stress on anything else.Quote, originally posted by bull77 »i guess its not a straight bolt on like the older gen vibes. I can't see in the pics where theres an issue gettign a wrench in. Even a wrench is a tight fit. It might not look like it, but it is. I was going to remove the factory "strut tower brace" when I installed my K&N intake so I had more room to move around and such, I could barely get a wrench in there to loosen the bolts. I got the bolts loosened, but wasn't able to actually remove it because I guess you need to remove all the stuff that Matt removed .

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (J_TO_ENVY)

Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 5:53 am
by vibedrivermatt
yeah right J-to envy. I also removed all that stuff because I wanted to torque the nuts to spec and didn't even try to get them with an open ended wrench. From what you said looks like to get them out you have to remove all that stuff anyways.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:09 am
by vibenvy
Awesome! Can't wait for the how-to. Now I just need to decide when to order the strut tower brace .

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:46 am
by vibenvy
Yeah, I had discussed the factory one with some friends and that's what we were talking about was that it seemed like it compresses and such. So, do you think the factory one actually performs better than the solid TRD one would?

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:12 pm
by vibedrivermatt
Well good question really. The oem strut bar may be better from an engineering standpoint meant to get long life out of a car because the OEM strut bar is flexible and could be easier on the car over a long period of time. This sorta brings into question what Tony Tat2 was saying about the strut brace causing undue stress on body parts of the car, which I'll be honest wasn't one of my considerations when buying the strut brace.from a performance standpoint though its accepted that you get better performance from a stiffer chassis, which is what the TRD strut brace is meant to do, so I guess its up to the owner really whats most important.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:19 am
by vibenvy
Yeah, I think for now anyway, I am going to stick with the factory one. If I have to take it to the dealer for any reason I don't want them giving me a hard time about it. If it was easier to put on and take off I would get it and switch it out if I had to take it to the dealer, but it obviously takes a little more work so that would be a PITA.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (J_TO_ENVY)

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:25 pm
by vibedrivermatt
Yeah I just warn people about the warranty coverage thing in the how-to because our 09/10 cars are still so new. That would be lame if somebody ended up having warranty troubles without expecting it.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09. (vibedrivermatt)

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:14 am
by vibenvy
Yeah. The warranty is what's stopping me from getting it. If it were simple to install and un-install like most cars, I would go ahead and get it and just remove it if I had to take it to the dealer, but since it's more complicated I think I'll just stick with the factory one for now. Maybe two years from now when my warranty's up I'll get one .

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09.

Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 6:32 pm
by vibenvy
I replaced the OEM front strut brace on my 2009 Vibe GT with a TRD front strut brace today. The installation was alot easier than I thought it would be. It's tedious because of all the parts and bolts that have to be removed, but it's definitely not a hard installation. I didn't encounter any issues and the entire installation went really smoothly and only took about an hour from start to finish, including doing some cleaning under the cowl pieces before re-installing them. I also decided to removed the TRD badge as I'm not a fan of badges, logos, etc.

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The TRD front strut brace not only looks much better than the goofy looking OEM one, but it weighs about half as much and since it's one piece as opposed to the three piece OEM one, it should provide much more ridgidity and thus better handling.

Re: pics of TRD strut brace for 09.

Posted: Sat May 18, 2013 6:51 pm
by vibenvy
I drove the Vibe today and could immediately tell a difference in the handling. It feels much more "solid" and the body roll is greatly reduced when turning or going through a curve. Definitely a huge improvement in ridgidity over the OEM damper-style strut brace.