was looking at some stuff and doing some searching on the org and came across this little beauty. ive noticed since i upgraded to the VQ35 (didnt reall have a choice. stoopid 17yr old) that this car has a lot more wheel hop than my 4th gen. I searched for a correction and many suggestions came up. Ive ordered my ES bushing to help with the problem (should be here today actually). I did some research and found that this to will help the problem.

Im wondering if anyone can give me some inside reviews. is it a good thing to get. does it matter that i have only 1 performance mod? will i not see a big improvement and should wait till i add more?

thanks in advance. i did search like i said and only came across 3 threads covering this part and none of them were a specific review thread unless im the stoopid one and searched wrong (high probability on that one)

B

 

PM Rochester as he has this little gem installed and has some very good comments on the performance value

 

My answer: OMG, yes.

But I think opinions are 50/50 on whether or not to use it all the time as a daily driver mod. By that I mean, some people think the added NVH is unpleasant, which makes it a track-only mod. Others (like me), love the gains more than we dislike the NVH, so it stays on all the time. Well, I'll be removing it come Winter, but otherwise, 24/7.

Nope. Not at all. It's just an engine brace.

Depends what you mean by "improvement". You'll be laying down torque to the drive wheel better because you're not wasting energy lifting the engine. Same as the solid poly torque mount bushings you're about to install. And your shifting will be more precise, because the transmission is moving less, because the engine is moving less.

Here's another way to approach your decision: buy it and try. If you don't like it, sell it on the Org for $20 off your initial cost. It's probably the kind of thing that would get snapped up right away.

 

Here it is, installed on the car:

 

while it looks nice, if you have es mounts i doubt it makes a difference. when my car was on the dyno the motor didnt move 1mm..maybe im wrong..idk

 

I do, and it does.

Seriously, Hotshot? That was kind of useless. Buy one, install it, then assess the experience and say otherwise.

Sorry, man. Don't know how else to say that.

 

seriously. no plan on buying it, my es mounts do what i need them to do

 

ive got the ES mounts in the mail. seriously i think they will be here today.

ill asses the improvement with them and go from there. i really love this car but the wheel hop is nuts. though with 107xxx on the clock im betting the ES bushing are going to make a HUGE improvement.

does this affect the torque steer at all?

B

 

I had wheel hop in the long, long ago. When I started running Eagle F1 tires, it was drastically reduced (except in the winter, with snows.) After getting the ES torque mount bushings, it completely disappeared. Poof! Haven't experienced it even a single time since. Stable Engine = No Wheel Hop. (Good tires help, too.)

As to torque steer... I haven't noticed either mod making torque steer moments any more or less prevalent. So IDK.

 

You also bought the ES subframe bushings, right? And while you're under there, might as well get the FSB frame bushings from ES.

Very much related to that, I have SubFrame Collars (carnal_c30) sitting in a box in my trunk, waiting for an August install.

 

i got the motor mounts, FSB bushing and front control arm bushings

B

 

Control arm inserts, too? Cool. Call B. Catts and order a set of subframe bushings for your project. They're inexpensive.

The plastic subframe collars, on the other hand, those are kind of pricey in that you're paying for the R&D on a custom job. Hope they're worth it. Everyone here seems to love them.

 

****! i almost bought them but was told they would have minimal impact. so i didnt get them.

do you have the rear trailing arm bushings?

B

 

Nope. Not yet. My mechanic and I looked at that last month, and he advised me to pass on that unless the OEM bushings crap out. (They looked pretty bad to me. )

 

lol...ill probably slowly replace everything on mine. im just worried about my whole exhaust situation. i really want to upgrade but i was going to wait till winter. crossing my fingers its just a snapped hanger

B

 

The Torque Link is an AWESOME thing to get. It doesn't matter if you have 1 mod or all of them, you will notice a difference in how the car drives and behaves.

I can't say I've ever had a wheel hop issue but when I owned the car it was stock for all of a month before I did my mods (see sig) and even after that without the TL I didn't have wheel hop.

What I found the TL did:

-Made the car easier to shift and rev-match. When you blip the throttle it seems to hold any given revs for slightly longer than stock making it actually easier to drive if you drive this way. Shift feel is better...hard to explain but you can feel the engagement better.

-Changed the tone of the exhaust. This might sound strange and could be heightened with my headers/3" but it adds some kind of metallic tone that is simply not present without it.

-Puts more power too the ground. (This could start some BS) but it really does seem to improve throttle response and behavior in power delivery, it physically feels stronger in the low end.

-Increases NVH. This is slight and all I really notice is a slight vibration in my seat at times. Now I am used too it. The link is on all the time.

All in all, a great mod if you really like to drive your car. Doesn't add power, just makes it nice to drive with.

I say go for it !

 

http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...on-review.html




DO IT

 

for those who have it, does this "vibration" only happen when stopped or what?

 

Mostly at idle for me. Its not real noticeable at cruising speeds. The car is slightly louder all of the time though.

 

Agreed. The change in overall acoustics is rather unique, like a hollow, metallic tone. It's not bad, just unusual. And I think it's something only the driver would notice.

Sometimes at idle, the rear-view mirror shakes with the vibration. Other than that, the seat-of-your-pants feel for vibration is totally fine.

The NVH introduced by this thing is small potatoes compared to what it's like when you install the ES bushings in the engine torque mounts.

And like MaximusTi said, the engine seems to hold revs between gears just enough more to make rev matching a breeze. I don't understand this myself, but it's true, and a very welcome change.

 

Yeah, I agree with the engine noise change, that was what surprised me the most. Also, you definitely notice a difference even with ES bushings already installed, its bigger than I expected.

My custom torque link, zero engine movement, especially when combined with the ES bushings:

 

^^^
You get extra credit for resourcefulness.

 

I never noticed any great vibration or engine noise difference when installing the torque link. If there was any it was so slight I got used to it right away. It definitely improved the wheel hop I was getting on my car and made the shifts smoother.

However adding ES motor mounts dramatically improved the feel during shifting, hard launches, redlining the motor, etc etc. (The mounts did add a lot of cabin vibration from the motor however)

To me the motor mounts were the more dramatic improvement. That being said I would never take the torque link off and sell it I'm more than happy with both mods.

 

did you have your link tightened all the way down? if it wasnt tightened down much that would explain why you didnt get vibrations

 

also, anything used as a torque brace in that location will help alleviate the thumping you get from that mount if you have it, which a lot of people seem to have.

 

All the bolts are torqued to the specs listed in the installation + a little bit more. I believe I turned the coupler or whatever 3 turns then locked it in.

When I took out the bottom 2 motor mounts to replace them I let the jack down off the transmission because I couldn't fit the cross member back in place for re installation with the jack in the way. The motor did not move at all so I would assume that the torque link is engaged (I know the top 2 mounts held the motor up as well).

 

the torque link wouldnt really affect that. I have no idea how tight 3 turns is, cause I dont have one, but if you try tightening it down all the way to full tightness i bet it will vibrate more

 

I have ES and the Collars inserts and the collars do leave a good feel on the car and the ES mounts will make the car tremble, a bit but its feels nice. Now im my case i have a busted bolt on the motor mount the on the C member, front, so im planning on getting this to compensate, ( im not hijacking the thread ) but anyone could tell if it will help me ?

Anything to hold VQ down sounds good to me

 

ummm, get the bolts fixed first

 

I only tightened mine so that it was very solid against the brackets, then locked it down. If you keep twisting the bar, you can actually watch the engine nudge back to the firewall (or to the front, depending on which way you're turning the bar.)

Personally, I felt more comfortable bracing the engine close to its normal sitting position.

 

The thing is the bolt wont get out, it stripped and i cant get it out, i just
gave up on it, the engine jolts alot when i put it in reverse, and a little if
i dont rev-sync the shift, im interested in correcting that little jolt.

Will it help ?

 

thats understandable, and most people dont have it locked down i dont think and it was designed so that there were different comfort levels, but if you tighten it down more you will notice a difference

if you cant fix the bolts, take the car to someone that can. Thats super sketchy to drive with bolts missing from the engine mounts and crossmember

 

definite on getting that bolt fixed. other thing is that this piece made a huge difference to me. it actually highlighted the weakness of my motor mounts, as to the fact that i could eel the motor rotating. as ive got a million projects i just figured iddo the mounts this monnnth while im on leave. an oppurtunity came to get the nwp brace. and i have to say ive been more than pleased with it just like every other nwp product ive rabbed.

it introduced minimal vibration, and ive got it torqued down. i ride with it daily and theres no bs'ing now, the car GETS.