I am sick of this damn hotchkis front sway bar. It is driving me insane. when i had it installed i had it on hard. Then the steering wnet nuts and was loose and all the creaking noises. So i take it to toyota and pay 78 bucks, they tell me it wasnt put on right, but i just noticed today, the only thing they did was put the bar on the SOFT setting. That's all they frickin did. I must admit, it did feel a lot better after, but not 100% back to what it was. NOW, the car has been getttin worse and worse again. The wheel has no damn resistance, and when i was u-turnin the other day, i heard creaking, so i kept turnin the wheel back and forth to hear it, and i heard something just pop, a loud pop. Probably the bar. WHAT DO I DO? EVERYWHERE i go even the damn dealer just jip me and don't address the damn problme. I seriously hate all these auto shops, they're all out to take ur money (at least the ones i've encountered)

 

Call Faster Scions in Conoga Park 818.887.4425 and ask for Josh.

 

You have coil overs or springs..? if so, what kind..?

 

I have TRD springs. Also, when my shop put my bars on, they probably followed the manual that hotchkis gave. DIdnt people say that the instructions were wrong? Like the brackets were reversed. What else in that manual is wrong that i need to tell them? I might end up having them reinstalled, this stupid mod is costing me a lot of money, i really do feel sick about it

 

ah shiz happens man. I have the hotckis front and rear with 0 probs but I did the install myself. The creaking noises ae probably because the bushings were not greased. They have zirc fittings on them to grease them with a grease gun. No biggie. Just take your wheel off and you can get to them from memory. Anyways you probably need to have it looked at on a lift. Put the car in the air or on jack stands and look to see if the bar is physically hitting anything when someone turns the wheel back and forth... just keep your body parts out far and away from it all or you could get hurt bad..

 

well, i'm pretty much a n00b when it comes down to mechanics. I'm gonna try the Faster Scions place in Canoga Park. Not sure if they might rip me off tho, they wanted 600 to install the sway bars originally. Do you have ur sway bars installed with the right brackets tho? Cuz the shop might have read straight from the manual and i think peopel said that it was the other way around.

 

Just ask for Josh when you call next week, he works on the Team ScionTific cars and he's a tC owner himself.

 

Yeah the brackets were packaged wrong, the slotted ones are supposed to go in the rear.
600 on the swaybar install! thats insane!

 

are the hotchkis sways still having the rubbing issue with the trd shocks and struts?

 

All this bad talk about the hotchkis sways is making me think about just getting a rear sway bar or is the front essential?

 

rear does much more than the front. i personally won't be getting a front sway since i already have a rear one.

 

The first version said to put the wrong brackets in the wrong place... only thing is it wont go that way...

I have the hotchkiss installed it myself... nothing wrong with it...

 

so wait, the bars just won't go on if the wrong brackets are put on? Because, i feel like the bar must be movin around, maybe left and right. Also, i've noticed now when i turn into dips and stuff, i hear the creaking/pop near the back right of the car. sometimes it feels liek it's from above, liek the whole frame is creaking. It's so weird. I still haven't had time to get this looked at. Now that i hear that noise in the back, i'm starting to think somethign is wrong with the rear? Should i have the whole install redone?

 

Is your car lowered? if so on what?

did you ever get your car aligned... if its lowered?

 

Ok, so I was wondering. There are a lot of companies which make rear swaybars for the FWD Scion tC, including TRD. However, there are only two which make it for the front. Is there a reason for that? Are there not any genuine realized gains from a front swaybar on a FWD vehicle? Because I know the front and rear sway bars made huge differences on my RWD cars....

 

hmm... yeah... you only really need a rear one.
stock front's good enough.

 

Rear one is fine, but the Hotchkis rear is ALOT stiffer so you really need the front with it. I had just the rear on for a week and if felt like my car was gonna snap in half. After I put the front on (I did it myself) it was awsome. My car creeks now, but its from the body stress on the roof cause it's so much stiffer now.
The reason no many companies do both I think is because It's such a pain to install the front, so they just make a less stiff rear.
No problems with my TRD springs, but I'm switching to the hotchkis springs soon.

 

Well, FWD is notorious for understeer. The problem with upgrading sways to a higher stiffness and making the rear so stiff that you need a sway bar up front is that you get even more understeer than normal. But that's just my $0.02.

 

Yeah, thats why TRD only has a rear sway bar. The stock front sway bar was good enough for the TRD rear.
But Hotchkis is a lot more thicker and has a higher stiffness so the stock front sway bar is no good anymore. Thats why they have both.
If you do the install right you wont have to worry about anything like popping noises or things like that, but make sure the slotted bearing goes in the rear and you follow the instructions very closeley, take your time.
Plus, you will have much better handling.

 

Understeer with a front sway? wow... um no... my car oversteer.

ANd yes I have hotchkis front and rear. Im probally one of the people on here thats had it the longest, and im one of the people that auto x with it.