Well,last year I had the brace installed on my 98 a-4.
Initially,I thought I screwed up my rear or my trans,because it was making a Gawd awful noise at @ 70 mph under load. Not a whine so much, although there was some whine sound transferred. It was more of a clanging type noise..........
There was also a vibration at idle,in drive with the brake applied.

I hated it!!!!
We spent tons of time trying to figure out what was wrong,when Sean ,in a last ditch effort to troubleshoot it,fabbed up eight "horseshoe" washers to slip under the rear cradle to create distance between the upper rear cabin area and the rods of the brace.

Guess what!,...............it worked!!!!

Well,after that I knew the brace was staying,but I have been driving around almost a year now with those washers back there.........and some pretty spirited driving as well!!...

Well,this weekend we installed a 3:42 rear end in my car( props to Cajundude and Mike Mercury for their writeups!)
While there, I wanted to ditch these washers and get her back on solid ground.

So a mod was necessary to keep the brace, and here is what I decided on.


I just wanted to share this with other members whom may have suffered from this without knowing what was going on.It can be a real PITA....trust me!

This will fix ya right up though!

 

You should show this to DTE! I have their brace on my 6 speed, and I love it!

 

When I called and spoke with them,they stated that all the cars they tested were 99% fine,but a few of them ( because of manufacturing variances with gm,dte or both) would have this problem........

It really would NOT be a big deal for them to correct it.......just lower those blocks a little on the bracket!maybe have to bevel the back side a bit to clear the trans case at worst

Maybe I should send him a link............

OH,btw,DTE sent me a replacement upper bracket free of charge,but it looked virtually identical.
That was when I decided it was time to chop!