Lust4Lexus

Hey Guys,

So it has been about 2 months with the 430. I really enjoy this car. It handles surprisingly well, for a luxo barge, or should I say has decent grip, because the handling we all know could definitely be improved upon. My now beater car is a nissan maxima, (hardly comparable I know) but I did a suspension overhaul via mild drop with H&R and tockico illuminas along with a front tower brace, after which this 12 year old grocery getter handled about 85% as good as the IS 250 loaner I had recently, which to my limited experience was pretty impressive.

I by no means am I crazy driver, but I do like to have fun once in a while and punch it. Now, with the LS having a nice amount of zip, I would like to clean up the handling a little bit. I will NOT be swapping out any suspension parts on this car. However, I would entertain the idea of putting a front tower brace on the car to stiffen it up a little bit.

On my max, I put a strut brace on that cost me about 50 dollars I believe, so it was really nothing to expensive so I figured " why not". Now with the LS, the cheapest and ONLY one I have found is this one. http://www.l-tunedparts.com/product/?id=275 It is pretty expensive for a part like this. I would consider it if it was a worthwhile upgrade as a stand alone piece, but if not, I can spend my money on better things.

As well, I don't need the dealer complaining about it or weaseling me out of warranty because of it. Any advice? Why so expensive? Is this the same as a strut tower brace? Or is it something similar, but designed differently to be more effective? Any cheaper options?

snakehead

iTrader: (1)

I am with you , I have been looking into this as well , I have a 2004 LS430 w/ sport suspension and i feel it needs some chassis bracing , These parts are very expensive , I wonder if it will be worth the money?

Lust4Lexus

Yeah exactly, With the Maxima, it cost about 700 dollars total to upgrade the suspension., and this was with quality parts! Literally pocket change in the grand scheme of things and the cost to benefit ratio was off the charts. EASILY the best money spent on the car. After rims and lower profile tires, the car handles waaaay better than anyone expected it had a right to. but 450 simply for a piece that may or may not even translate into added performance is scary.

I really don't want to change the personality of the car, just want to improve what's already there. If i want to take corners, I'll take out the Maxima. I'm surprised that there isn't any more information about strut braces for the LS. Do you think that maybe they skipped this part because they wanted a little flex? who knows, I'm probably talking out of my ...

steveski

Unfortunately not enough people want to make the LS handle like it should. When you try to find upgrades you are really limited. I have Tom's strut tower brace on my UCF20 (under the hood) and the difference it makes is substantial. This particular part you reference bolts to the undercarriage. While I do not have this for my UCF20 (discontinued) I would buy it if it were available. Tom's is first class.

I can't believe it would void any warranty as it is only to stiffen the assemblies. My STB was very expensive as it (and this part) is made in Japan and must be imported.

Have you considered using poly bushings on your sway bars? Energy makes replacements that come with grease ports to eliminate squeaking. This is a very inexpensive upgrade (less than $50) and also a noticeable difference.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

Do you have any information on this for the LS430?

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

in that same site, look for the LS430 oem sport sway bar for rear along with upgraded bushings. Those are in the $100 territory

jman-LS430

Based on the above, and your title post "front tower brace?" it appears that what you are looking for is

https://statustool.central.sun.com/app

and not the lower brace that you referenced and describe.

Hey, it is $22 bucks cheaper

memasterac

As far as I know Tom's is the only available STB (front) for LS and my GS350. It is way too expensive for a piece of metal, it's too bad not enough demand to bring more competition to the table. In my opinion, $250 should top the best STB.

Lust4Lexus

Yeah, I wasn't too sure about the part when I looked at it, it did look kinda odd! :-) The link you posted does not seem to work for me.

steveski

I don't but will try to find it for you if somebody else doesn't chime in. All you need is the O.D. of the OEM front sway bar. This will give you the size of the poly bushing to buy from Energy. They sell universal poly bushings at autoparts stores (Auto Zone) designed to fit any application. This is what I did for my UCF20 both front and rear. I did have to slightly modify the bracket to fit in the OEM location. This was very easy to do with a pair of pliers.

Steve

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

gotcha! thanks for the info