Lower Control Arm Chassis Brace?

Redline

Redline

I done fucked up for the last time.
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Hey CS,

Just ordered this for my Genpu, and am really excited to receive it, based on the reviews and testimonials of those who run them:
upload_2017-1-27_14-13-1.png

Some of us also noticed that Tanabe offers something similar that includes a ladder-type frame and connects rearward as well, seen here, though it only appears to be offered for Genwons:
upload_2017-1-27_14-14-14.png

I'm just curious, did you guys investigate a similar design and find that it didn't really add a great amount of additional strength that would justify the cost? @Maisonvi and @SharksInSpace and me were chatting about it, and I was curious about your insight, since I know you guys do a lot of in-house and track testing.

I'm sure my lower-tie brace will address the lion's share of flexing, especially regarding toe, but I just thought I'd ask the pros, you know?

Thanks!
 
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I will say the Tanabe is great all but if you dont have a fujimoto drain valve, your oil will hit the cross bar. I added this right before I did my last oil drain before adding the valve and I made a mess.

Also, if you have under route turbo piping, it gets very tight. Just an FYI for anyone looking to run either of these with an under route.
 
Maisonvi said:
I will say the Tanabe is great all but if you dont have a fujimoto drain valve, your oil will hit the cross bar. I added this right before I did my last oil drain before adding the valve and I made a mess.

Also, if you have under route turbo piping, it gets very tight. Just an FYI for anyone looking to run either of these with an under route.
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Like this one?
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My only concern is that it fails and my oil drains out unexpectedly, which could be catastrophic. Could you just put a funnel up there at oil change time instead? (I'm having a hard time envisioning clearance without the bar in place.)
 
Redline said:
Like this one?
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My only concern is that it fails and my oil drains out unexpectedly, which could be catastrophic. Could you just put a funnel up there at oil change time instead? (I'm having a hard time envisioning clearance without the bar in place.)
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Tons of people run the valve with no issues Ive ever heard of. Ive had it for a while with no issues at all. Makes oil changes awesome too. And with the CS brace its not a problem anyway
 
Maisonvi said:
Tons of people run the valve with no issues Ive ever heard of. Ive had it for a while with no issues at all. Makes oil changes awesome too. And with the CS brace its not a problem anyway
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You run one of these as a safety stop-gap?
upload_2017-1-28_20-31-38.png
Also, think this/CS brace combo would interfere with the FMIC under piping routing, or were you referring only to the Tanabe?
 
@CorkSport - Derrick , @Barett@CorkSport

Heads up, if you have a Pu, you may have fitment issues on this. There's a bracket on the driver's side that doesn't let the bar be fully seated downward on the bolt and flush against the control arm, per the instructions. This may be just a 2010 thing, or it may be a Genpu thing.

I fully seated both sides all the way down, torqued to spec, but after tightening, I was surprised to see all sorts of mounting flange distortion on the driver's side bracket. I'm calling CS on tomorrow to get fixed up, but wanted to put out this PSA for my fellow Pu owners (or at least 2010 owners). I removed the bar to see what up, and here's what I found:
upload_2017-2-5_17-50-10.png

Here you can clearly see the issue. The bolt should be 1/4" or so higher (in other words, it should sit higher in the slot, because the whole bracket should be slid down more), but if you slide the bracket all the way down (like the directions say to), you have the clearance issue with the bracket below. This bracket is only on the driver's side.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until I had already loosening the bolt a ton, so the bracket slid all the way down anyways. The mangling of the mounting bracket that you can see in the first picture was the result after I tightened everything. I had a feeling something was off when I was trying to torque this down. I eventually got it to 103lb/ft, but it seemed more difficult than it should have been. I thought it was my imagination. Turns out, this was because I was oblivious that the bracket was bending during this process.
upload_2017-2-5_17-39-41.png

Passenger's side. As you can see, there's no bracket at all, so there is no clearance issue at all with fully seating the brace:
upload_2017-2-5_17-45-4.png

The fix on the driver's side will probably mean cutting off enough of the bottom of the brace on the driver's bolt receiving slot/mounting tab for it to fully seat for cars like mine with that mysterious brace (2010). If other Pu owners can tell us if it's just a 2010 thing, or an all Genpu thing, I'm sure it'll help CS.

For the record, this isn't to put CS on blast, and I'm sure they'll take care of me when I call them tomorrow. The bar *seems* to be okay in it's not-full-seated position, but I need a permanent solution. I just wanted to PSA to my Pu buddies considering this bar.
 
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SharksInSpace said:
That's interesting...definitely not an issue on my genjuan.
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Yeah, their directions were made with a 2009, and you can clearly see in the pic that the driver's side bracket isn't there:
upload_2017-2-5_17-55-47.png
 
I just checked that as well; seems like most of their directions use a genpu so I was surprised to see that this one used a 2009.
 
Called CS, explained the issue and found that 12's and 13's apparently have no bracket on the driver's side (they were test-fitted too). I have no idea about 11's.

CS is looking into this and potentially going to get a local 2010 on the lift in-person to see the issue. It's entirely possible that the bracket isn't on all 2010's (similar to the fact that the VVT TSB applies to some 2010s, but not others - during the production run of that model year, a re-engineered VVT was implemented in the middle of it; my personal VIN is beyond the change-point, so I'm good on that).

Anyways, Barrett (the engineer) is going to look into my situation and they'll be calling me back soon, hopefully today but they sounded swamped when I was on the phone with them.

More to come...
 
Thanks for the info Red! Didn't know the 10's had brackets. I drive a 12 so this was all new to me when I was reading about your install.
 
Redline said:
Called CS, explained the issue and found that 12's and 13's apparently have no bracket on the driver's side (they were test-fitted too). I have no idea about 11's.

CS is looking into this and potentially going to get a local 2010 on the lift in-person to see the issue. It's entirely possible that the bracket isn't on all 2010's (similar to the fact that the VVT TSB applies to some 2010s, but not others - during the production run of that model year, a re-engineered VVT was implemented in the middle of it; my personal VIN is beyond the change-point, so I'm good on that).

Anyways, Barrett (the engineer) is going to look into my situation and they'll be calling me back soon, hopefully today but they sounded swamped when I was on the phone with them.

More to come...
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When was you car built?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Confirmed that the 2011 (at least mine with a build date of 10/10) also has the vestigial driver side bracket.
DriverSideBracket.jpg

If Corksport needs any more cars to help do a trial fit I'd be happy to stop by with mine. Seems like you could just cut about 1/4" off the legs on the brace though to clear the bracket.
 
nekret said:
Confirmed that the 2011 (at least mine with a build date of 10/10) also has the vestigial driver side bracket.
View attachment 5481

If Corksport needs any more cars to help do a trial fit I'd be happy to stop by with mine. Seems like you could just cut about 1/4" off the legs on the brace though to clear the bracket.
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Perfect! Perhaps if/when @CorkSport - Derrick and @Barett@CorkSport see it in person, it'll be an easy fix. I estimated ~1/4" too, but they'll be able to measure exactly on your car.

That's an EXCELLENT picture of the bracket, BTW; much better than mine (which I tried to take while squeezed under the car with the splash shield on).
 
Redline said:
Perfect! Perhaps if/when @CorkSport - Derrick and @Barett@CorkSport see it in person, it'll be an easy fix. I estimated ~1/4" too, but they'll be able to measure exactly on your car.

That's an EXCELLENT picture of the bracket, BTW; much better than mine (which I tried to take while squeezed under the car with the splash shield on).
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Haha I reached in front of the wheel while it was on the ground with the splash shield in tact as well... took me a few tries though!
 
Well Shit! We tried to cover our bases testing on both GEN1 and GEN2 but it looks like a detail slipped through the cracks.
Nekret if we could schedule a time for you to bring your car by for inspection that would be great. We may be able to design an elegant solution for the affected cars. Please send me an email to barett@corksport.com
Thanks
 
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