I say "relatively" is because you would think you can just use a rachet to take off 6 nuts, put on the strut bar, then put the nuts back on right? It's slightly more complicated unfortunately...
1. the OEM bolts stick out a decent bit, so first thing I noticed was if you just have one of those socket sets, the 12mm sockets won't be deep enough to turn the nuts. I then used an adapter to use my impact gun's deep sockets and turns out, because of the weather shroud above, rachet+deep socket+ adapter = can't fit under the shroud.... So I busted out my other set of deep sockets that didn't require me to use an adapter...
2. The strut bar itself doesn't fit as is. As the instructions say that come along with the packaging, you need to loosen up/remove the bolts on the bar itself to adjust it to allow both sides to sit on the strut towers, then put the bolts back in. The bolts are removed by hex keys, so hopefully you're like me and have a hex key socket set since your small L allen key sets may not break loose those bolts.
But yeah if you didn't have to do trial and error like me you can get this installed in 5 minutes.
Now for effects after installing:
There's a noticeable difference in chassis stiffness that even changes steering feel, which was the most surprising part. I wasn't expecting the steering to be impacted by chassis stiffness, I just thought it would be steering rack's bushings, but nope, I literally feel more road now with the stiffened chassis and for some reason the steering feels stiffer, heavier, and more responsive. The car tilts more if I run over something with the right wheel so I can physically see the increased chassis stiffness. I have aftermarket seats too so I can feel the increase stiffness with my whole body as well.
From some quick search, it seems like front struts don't change THAT much for most cars' suspensions except if the front suspension is a McPherson strut system, which the STI does use. Apparently it keeps the struts at a consistent spacing from each other, an issue that isn't present in other suspension types but can exist with these platforms and having the strut bar can fix that, giving you more stability and predictability when cornering hard.
With the increased steering wheel and slightly less body roll I've literally been gunning corners to the limit till I feel understeer/oversteer which isn't something I did before, since on the stock system, you don't feel it until it's pretty damn serious so driving to near limits feel very dangerous and non-confidence-inspiring.
I was pretty skeptical of its effects going in especially since it's a two-piece set built for more comfort than performance compared to the one-piece strut towers like the Cusco ones, but it really has a decent effect. Maybe not life-changing like tires, coils, or even sway bars, but it's still pretty noticeable. The fact that it's a two-piece also means that by its design, you don't feel too much of it when going straight because the pillow ball joint still allows for some flexibility, but it really stiffens the car up doing hard cornering as the bar itself holds the chassis's slack.
Definitely recommend if you're like me and on a path to make this car feel as raw as possible without going overboard and hating the drive.
