Alexisonfire

so my next mod will most likey be sway bars, i was looking into the hotchkis and was wondering if i need both the front and the back im reading a lot of things that says you really only need the rear to improve handling but since the tc is a front wheel drive car wont the handling imrpove drastically if i put on front and rear and not just rear? This may be a stupid question but i dont know a lot about this stuff im trying to learn though

matt

With the TRD, you only need the rear. The hotchkis is much stiffer and will require both front and rear. I opted for the hotchkis and I love it.

Shift_N_Red

Ditto...


People that have the TRD say its plenty.. but I ot the hotchkis and have never looked back.. nor regretted it.

RichTc

I have the hotchkis as well and am very happy with them.

As said before, if it is sold in a set, you need to install both (as they were made to work together). I think just using the back would create some bad understeer.

I did remember someone saying that Ptuning's track car ran a progress sway bar in the back with no sway in the front.

MillerRS1

I'm also in this dilemma haha I'm between TRD and Hotchkis but I'll probably end up with TRD since everything else I have is scion brand

silverstreaktc

i have just the rear and i spun out due to oversteer a few times. you just gotta know your car and the limits it has with the mods.

MillerRS1

Ight I didn't know if the tC was like bad or something thx

FF!!!Monster

iTrader: (1)

i read a tech column in an import tuner, where a guy was asking this same question. the guy that answers all the tech question said that both front and rear sway bars on an FF vehicle would be too aggressive for a daily driver... but i can't speak from personal experience because i don't have either. but the other guys that replied here are obviously proof that it's not too aggressive... so i guess it all comes down to personal preference.

Sciontistical_One

iTrader: (2)

The TRD rear sway is designed as a replacement for the stock rear sway, but it is designed to compliment the stock front sway and give the car more neutral handling (less understeer compared to stock).

The Hotchkis (front and rear) set is designed to work with each other to dramatically improve overall handling of the car... and it's designed as a set... the rear Hotchkis bar is not meant to be used with the stock front and may be overkill in comparision to the stock front, causing oversteer... (as seen in silverstreaktc's post)

I've had each one of these setups at various points in time and the improvements are awesome when set up correctly. In conjunction with other mods like coilovers and stickier tires, the tC can handle like it's on rails...

engifineer

It is about ratio when you are talking about front/rear or both.

Increasing front stiffness in relation to rear promotes more understeer. Increasing rear stiffness in relation to front promotes more oversteer. And both bars work to reduce body roll.

You use the ratio of stiffness between the two bars to tune the oversteer/understeer characteristic of the vehicle.

A hotchkis rear bar is super stiff to further reduce body roll. However, if you ran that with a stock front the car would be very prone to oversteer, hence them selling a stiffer front bar to go with it.

The optimal setup on this car (especially with an open diff) would be very little stiffness in the front bar and stiffer in the rear. But, in order to get rid of more body roll, stiffer bars are used. This helps in some areas, but the issue is that a stiffer rear bar (like the hotchkis bar) requires a stiffer front to keep the handling balance in check. The stiffer front will degrade front wheel traction on corner exit since it is in effect pulling up on the inside tire.. which on an open diff means that one is going to spin. So you cant exit the corners as hard.

If you go over on yoursciontc.com I have a fairly large writeup on all of this stickied in the suspension section.

I run a trd rear bar now and it does a good job. I have a set of Hotchkis bars I am going to try out next autox season. They will help in some areas, but I know I am going to suffer in corner exit. Depending on the net gain or loss in performance pans out overall on the course, I will either stay with the hotchkis bars or go back to the trd bar and stock front.

Also, keep in mind that many drivers will jump to saying a car "snap" oversteers when in fact it is actually not loose at all. I can take a bone stock tc and make it wag its tail all day long if not driven correctly. Run the car up to 50mph in 2nd gear, get it in a turn and lift the throttle quickly... it will want to come around So most "snap" oversteer is driver, not car. Cars dont oversteer.. drivers do! You just set the car up to fit the way you drive so you get what you want out of it. I would run a car much looser on the autox course than I would on the street for example.

Sciontistical_One

iTrader: (2)

^^^ very well said...

TheLowDown

"Cars dont oversteer.. drivers do!" If you align your car with positive toe in the rear and front along with negative camber while leaving the front sway bars stock with stiff bars in the back (not that I’m for stiffening the front. sounds like a really unresponsive scion tc with a horrible rough riding problem to me) you will end up with a car that’s hard to control if you don’t give it enough caster to stabilize it.(stock Tc’s do not come with a lot of caster, 4 I think.)