after doing tons of research I was looking forward to the improved handling Ive been reading here.

so after I had it installed toight, I dont know if I need to get used to it, but it feels all floaty in the front and super tight in the back. I dont really like it. The steering wheel is super sensitive. I do notice that I can make tighter turns, but not sure if its worth the change in handling.

maybe its just that I need to get used to it?

no front swaybar ot front strut bar. Will I need to get these too?

It does kind of feel closer to what the car was when it was stock.
Because when I got my new wheels which are stickier and wider, the car felt slower and I noticed some understeering more. So I was hoping the rear sway would improve the handling. It kind of did but its a lot more sensitive in turning now.

also will I need to realign the tires now?

 

thats what the sway bar was suppose to do...

 

hrmm.. is the floaty front thing due to be not have a strut bar? is this supposed to be a good thing? sorry for all the questions this is new to me, im not used to having the tc drive like this. its wierd, its like a dramatic difference in handling, I still have not decided which one I liked better.

should I get the front strut bar too? will it make much of a difference or tighten up both front and back evenly while still maintaining the tight handling?

would I need to realign the wheels?

thanks for reading.

 

Are you talking about the front strut tower bar or the front sway bar? The tower bar supposedly doesn't do much for our car b/c the towers are connected through the firewall and the overall movement is within a few millimeters. The front sway bar however will stiffen/tighten up the front end just like it did the rear. Hotchis actually warns people against only upgrading one of the bars from what I hear b/c it throws the car's suspension out of wack. I'd personally would see if you can get your hands on their front sway bar and install it, it's a REAL PITA to do yourself so just suck it up and fork over the dough to a shop so they can do it for you and save yourself the head ache. Not sure on the alignment...I dont have sways

 

the "floaty" feeling may be b/c u don't have a front sway. Personally I like the feeling of just the rear sway.

But it sounds like u like a smooth ride, a front sway and front strut will make your ride more bumpy and turning more aggressive.

 

i dont think theres a front sway bar that will go with trd coz they only sell the rear, hotchkis and progress makes fron and rear but its a set and using the front ones from any of those with trd will creat a massive oversteer which is very dangerous. dont know about floaty feeling never experienced that, but yea its adviced to do alignment whenever you change/remove wheels. Struts wouldnt help you much with your problem if not at all. you wouldnt feel much with sway unless in hard cornering, which setting did you use?

And with bigger and heavier wheels, you would feel your car to be a litle slower and harder to brake, thats normal.. what specs does your wheel have?

 

^so your saying he's needs to get a complete set from one of those two? That's pretty crappy if that's the case, I thought you were able to use the front from another but kinda makes sense to keep them together since they are designed together.

 

no never mix and match those sway bars coz progress and hotchkis is stiffer and thicker than trd,the trd sways are designed just right to improve handling without changing the front. TRD is a good combination with stock front swaybar

 

if trd only sells the rear sway and not a front sway for the tc, wouldnt you think its alright to just use the rear sway?

maybe I should just set the rear sway to the light setting.

I dont intend on mix and matching anything however. there are a whole bunch of posts here that say if you go trd rear sway thats fine, but now people in this post is recommending a full sway set?

is the trd rear sway only not advised? then why would trd only make rear sways for the tc and not front sways? im confused im getting a lot of mixed responses. I know that if you go hotckis you need both because they are a dramatic increase in stiffness, while the trds are supposed to be a much lighter grade of stiffness.

tires are nitto neo gens and the ri ms are 18 x 8

in regards to smooth rides, my ride is already bumpy, smoothness would be nice but with the tc, if I had to choose smoothness or handling, Id pick handling. I dont really need a smooth ride. Id prefer a nimble, stuck to the ground ride, feels more stable, rather than a car tilting and bouncing all over the place everytime I u-turn or change lanes.

 

Yes trd is perfect for stock front sways, any swaybar stiffer than trd rear swaybar would need a stiffer front to match with it. People who suggest a set of front and rear are those who want to reduce more body roll and are those who track,autox or performance oriented. With daily driving you should be good with trd, a stiffer swaybar takes away more independence to your suspension causing a bumpier ride on uneven surface. Try putting it to street setting maybe you'll like it better, but race setting worked perfect to me.

You upgraded to a bigger wheel/low profile tire, a thicker sidewall on will help you with comfort. Did you get any lowering springs?

 

trd springs

ill try the lighter street setting later. how much does alignment cost normally and whats a good place to get it done?

 

Ace83, the tC does not have a "stock front sway" you might be reffering to the roll bar, which is NOT the same thing, i've heard a lot of mixed reviews too, but as far as i know, and as you were sayign RnB180, having just the rear TRD sway shouldnt "throw off" your suspension entirely. That floaty feeling is because the rear is tighter than the front, its exactly how its supposed to feel, now however, i've heard a lot of mixed reviews about the hotchkis front sway, i kinda want to do the whole set rather than just the rear, but thats because i wasnt the performance, but i've heard that the front sway for some reason is a lot of trouble, like it moves and isnt consistent and needs periodic maintanence, like greasing to the bushings etc. (correct me if im wrong) but thats the only thing thats holding me back from the front sway in addition to the rear

 

....if it doesnt have a front sway then what the hell is the bar that the hotchis front sway replacing? both look almost the same except for size difference.

 

[quote="RnB180"]trd springs

You don't need an alignment if you only did your rear sway. If you did your springs at the same time, you need to get an alignment after about a week or so. Are you riding on stock struts? If you are, that might also be why the ride feels a bit sloppy...

 

are you kidding me? you know nothing about the tC's suspension

the tC DOES have sway bars from the factory (front and rear)

roll bar? NO tC comes with a roll bar. if you want to see what a roll bar is, look in my profile

the TRD rear sway bar is perfectly fine when matched with the OEM front sway bar. If you want it to be less stiff in the rear, put it on the outside hole.

 

fine whatever, statement retracted...

 

and for the record i wasnt talkign about a roll cage either

 

actually no, those are known as "anti-roll bars"

 

dude your wrong move on.

what sin my car isnt a roll cage. its a roll bar. a roll bar and cage are different. like i said, NO tC's come with a roll bar

sway bars are STANDARD on the tC and practically every other car on the market today.

please understand what your talking about before you give advise to others

 

ok, see here's the deal, we're talking about the same thing, i just reffer to the "sway bars' as anti roll bars, i guess i didnt realize theyre the same thing, so yes, we do have "sway bars' i am wrong, but i always acknowledged the fact that we have "anti roll bars' whch apparently are the same things...semantics...WHATEVER, for some reason i always reffered to sway bars as the aftermaket products, but theyre the same thing, so like i said, i retract that first statement, i apologize Ace83, you were right, i just never reffered to the anti roll bars as sway bars, but i now know, through the constructive criticism that BrEaK_AwaY so kindly presented, they are the same thing