This is the same front strut tower brace found on the GS-R from the factory. It's tubular steel with welded steel ends, but is lighter than you'd think and easily installed. This was the first chassis brace I installed and it immediately made a very noticeable difference, even with stock LS suspension and crappy Michelin XGT-H4 tires. At about $40 from A&H Motorsports, or $34 from HParts, it's also much more economical than any aftermarket brace, and probably performs at least as well. For an even better deal, you can probably find one used on Ebay for $5 or $10.
Unlike the GS-R which has welded-in bolts, Integras which don't have this brace standard only have holes in the strut towers and rubber plugs. I used 8mm x 20mm stainless-steel bolts, washers, and 8mm Honda flange nuts to install the brace.
Braces which have more than two mounting points may be worth looking into if you're shopping for a strut tower brace and want extra ridigity. The Neuspeed brace for one has four mounting points on the strut towers, and usually costs about $100. Several companies also make braces which triangulate to the firewall, including Benen and Carbing.
| Honda Part Numbers | |
|---|---|
| Front Strut Tower Brace | 74300-SR3-010 |
| 8mm Flange Nut | 94050-08080 |
This rear strut tower brace from Z.Speed noticeably stiffened the rear of the car, although the effect wasn't quite as dramatic as the front upper bar. It also doesn't hurt cargo capacity much, since most of my cargo isn't that large. When carrying small stuff like groceries, it actually helps keep things in place. If I really need the bar removed, it's a simple task to remove the two bolts on the ends with a small Allen wrench I keep with the spare tire tools. The only drawback then is that the aluminum mounts (the blue things sticking out of the plastic) can't be removed easily.
Installation of this Z.Speed front lower arm bar was similar to the rear bar, except that there was no interference from ABS lines. Its effects were also not very obvious. As you can see, its anodized blue finish has not held up well under the car.
Update: I've removed this bar as I did not notice any performance difference with it on, it was annoying to work around while doing suspension or axle work, and it hung too low and hit a lot of things.
The effects of this Z.Speed rear tie bar were not very noticeable when I initially installed it, although this may have been due to other limiting factors like the crappy 14" OEM tires I had at the time. However, the Integra Type-R has a brace in this position, welded to the lower arm mounts, so maybe there is some benefit after all. Installation was moderately difficult since it involved raising the rear of the car on jackstands, and then jacking up the suspension to keep it in place while removing the necessary bolts. In addition, I had to remove the ABS sensor wire brackets since their normal locations interfere with the bar. Currently, you can see them zip-tied to the ends of the bar.
Update: I've since replaced this bar with one from Comptech which has mounting points for the Type-R swaybar. Also, I've found a big minus for this Z.speed bar: the black bolts they provide to attach it to the suspension mounting points really suck! After several years, they rust to the nuts on the car, making it extremely difficult to remove them. It took me an hour and a half with a breaker bar; this is one of the few times that an air wrench would be really useful.
