this is to all you guys with the sub-frame connectors.. ive read plenty of threads with you guys raving about how these have improved your handeling, driver comfort, and help get rid of some annoying rattles in your car. now, what i would like to ask you guys, is if you can give and accurate , detailed comparison of the car, before you had them, and after.. can you describe how the car feels, and why it feels better to dirve over bumps? like, is there less vibration in the cabin? do you feel the car shake and move underneath and around you still? did it quiet your ride down? what about the rattles and squeaks inside? how many of them disappeared after your install? all of them? most? a few? none really? on a scale of 1 -10, how much did these inprove your daily driving experience. i dont race motor-cross, the handeling isnt what gonna sell me on these.. i basicaly have a car that has gotten banged around for a while on a read bad dropped set up. i recently swapped that out for a much more comfortable suspension, but even though it rides alot better, it seems like it still rides real hard just from the noises it makes inside from going over the bumps.. i want to make the car as quiet, and comfortable inside as i can.. so.. please act like a salesman, and convince me why i should get them, or not bother-- thanks in advance

 

anyone?? anyone???

 

are the noises casused by interior squeeks and rattles ? if yes, than you should pull all the plastic panels(A-pillars etc...) and stuff some foam or whatever you can find behind them, i did that to my car and it rides silently now. I still have ocassional rattle insde the passenger side airbag , but i can live with that , the worst ones were a-pillars at the point where they meet with dashboard.

SFC will make the car stiff as a rock , you need some unibody flexing when going over bumps, my car with sprints and AGX jumped over bumps instead of absorbing them, pushing down on the driver side fender made the passenger move down as well , thats how stiff it was , and having FSTB made it even stiffer

so in cliff notes, woark on the interior squeeks one by one , and your car will ride quiet
I don't have SFC so i cant give any advice ,

but you need some body flexing in order to ride smoothly

Nick.

 

It sounds to me like you're trying to justify a completely unrelated mod to cover up noises caused from old age and other mods.
the SFCs aren't a band-aid for a rattly interior. they strengthen the chassis so that it flops around less when you hit bumps.. One of the benefits from the stronger chassis is less rattles and vibrations.

But the car was pretty silent from the factory. you NOW have rattles inside your car. there are loose bits flopping around inside the car and banging into each other- thus the noise.
No matter what you do to the outside of the car, those loose bits are still inside the car and will still rattle around- albeit somewhat less.

With the SFCs, the ride quality dramatically improves on the car, but that is no substitute for fixing all the loose crap bouncing around in your dash.

Cliff's Notes: Fix the interior problems. don't try to cover it up by adding something to the exterior.

 

Wrong. The STRONGER the chassis, the SMOOTHER the ride. you want the suspension to take all of the movement, as it is designed for it. the suspension has a spring to absorb the energy from the bump, and a shock/strut to slowly dissipate that energy into heat..

The chassis flexes like a spring, but has no damping to eliminate the vibrations. think about a honda with a $69 ebay "coilover kit" and blown factory shocks.. See how bad it bounces? that's the same thing that your frame is doing.

The SFCs will reduce (not eliminate, but reduce) the chassis flex so that you don't feel it shaking around. It also keeps the impact force in the suspension, where the car is designed to absorb impact energy and dissipate it in a smooth fashion.

 

Yes, what he said. Both of his posts actually.

 

what is your solution for eliminating the constant sqeaks and groans from the leather on all the seats shifting positions when the my car flex's? i cant eliminate every noise by shoving foam in-between everything. some things are going to touch no matter what. my problem goes more in-depth than i wanted to get into. if u think im looking for a lazy solution, your wrong, but then again, if it worked, then why not do it? i have noises that stem from a number of different things. the leather rubbing against each other on the rear seats, and against the interior panels on the car. the plastic ski hole cover rubbing inside the rear seat. the front seats rubbing against the console, the seat belt buckles, the metal brackets inside the front seats. the cause of all of this isnt normal wear and tear. the car has less than 90,000 miles.
the problem originates from the old struts that were in the car. they were entirely too tight. as you said about the sfc, and how they make the suspension absorb the energy from going over a bump, rather than transfer it to the sub-frame. what happened to my car was the same idea, but reversed. the execessively tight struts that were in the car, rather than absorbing the energy as it should have, transfereed the stress to the rest of the car. from the few years of the car being trashed around with those struts, it has effected other things, including how easily the car is now subject to flex. so much, that where the sheetmetal from the rear deck lid turns down to go behind the back seat, split. its a double peice of sheet metal, welded together, and bent to almost a 90 degree angle. it looks as if someone took a set of shears and cut it up to the bend.

since you made me try to explain myself, if you have first hand experience with the scf, please post. if not, i would rather hear from someone who has, instead of reading a lecture implying that im lazy.

is this NOT what im looking for?

 

anyone else?

 

just deal with every noise one by one , and remember, You are driving an 95 Maxima , not Lexus

Nick.

 

just until the 2006 IS300 comes out..

 

I'm gonna high jack this thread for a second...So, I have a FSTB and a rear sway bar, coming soon are Illuminas with Vogtland springs. I'm mostly just a daily driver with a small obsession for handling so would it be wise to get sub frame connectors as well or are they more performance oriented and will harshen up my daily drive a bit too much?

 

the sfc are said to improve the ride quality of the car and improve handling at the same time without having to make your car ride like sh-t. everyone that has them raves about them. they say it is by far the best suspension mod they ever did, and that driving over a bumpy road is like nite and day in terms of ride quality. also, the trend seems to be that once people have the sfc's installed they take off the rear sway bar..

 

Well I didn't remove my rear sway bar after installing the SFCs. They kindof do two different things, stiffen the chassis vs stiffen the rear suspension. I raced road course though so I wanted all the stiffness I could get.