urblgd

Hey, I'm the proud owner of a 2011 tC and I like to drive it fast (at appropriate times and locations of course)! Towards the end of last year I took part in some Auto-X events and up in Canada the snows melting so the season is going to start up again in April and I was wondering what suspension mods you think would help deal with the under-steer.

From what I've heard so far and my research, I think that getting a rear sway bar would probably help the most for the least money (a limited slip dif would probably help the most but I don't have money for that right now) I was wondering if anyone had feed back on sway-bars that they've tried.

Cheers,
urblgd

feldy

I acutally autox my tc every other weekend. Last year understeer was a big thing for me as well. Rear sway will help. However front camber is the most important. Get -2 degrees of camber up front or more if you can. And pull the most out of the rear. Get stickier tires. All seasons for autox suck. I'm running Trd springs/ and struts. Trd Rear sway and camber bolts up front to get negative camber. Also get some 17s if you can. So much cheaper on tires. I have a two sets of autox only tires for this season. and a set of rims for my daily driving tires. 1st gen tc

Roller_Toaster

iTrader: (1)

A rear sway will give you the best "bang for the buck" as far as helping to reduce understeer. Tires are the next best upgrade! Ultra high performance all seasons are making a STRONG showing lately with car and driver (general gmax, Kumho ecsta 4x[what I run], and many others).

(I'm assuming rear sways for the tc are fairly cheap by now, the hotchkis front and rear set completely livened up the xb2 chassis for me).

feldy

More front sway is not what you need. A lot of FWD drivers disconnect the front sway at events. Alignment is easy and cheap. Can be done first. Then you should get tires. and if still having the issue at events you can go with a rear sway. Do you know what class you are trying to run in? Stock classes have less options so you need to know what class you want to run in before buying anything.

Roller_Toaster

iTrader: (1)

The op asked what would help the most for the least money. A rear sway will be less than a set of tires, plus mounting and balancing.

Disconnecting the front can help quite a bit during autox, probably not a bad idea to try this as well.

urblgd

I'm not overly worried about class, last year I ran in H stock, but I'm concentrating more, for now, in improving my car and driving abilities, as a rookie I'm not terribly competitive in the events anyway, and I'm doing it more for the sensation.

I agree that tires would make the biggest difference (the ones I have right now are awful) however I don't have the money to spend on tires right now.

I think I'm going to start by buying the TRD sway-bars, I'm personally weary of doing too much work myself as I haven't done any modifications before and I like the idea of the dealership doing it for me.

If I'm feeling brave I might disconnect the front sway-bar at events, assuming I figure out how to do so properly.

Blackedout011TC

iTrader: (2)

I have seen quite a few members post alignment specs before they dropped their car. Scion did not do a very good job to put it mildly. You may want to check it. I did better alignments on my 1/8th r/c racer than Scion did on these cars.
Do the front sway bar before you spend money. It's free, just costs time. Another cheap tuning mod is to upgrade the mushy rubber bushings on the rear sway bars. The ones that are on the uder side of the lower arm that go over the threaded end of sway bar.Those stock ones are next too worthless. Good bushings will make the stock rear sway react sooner instead of smushing down the rubber before it starts to work. I have been meaning to find something universals in poly. I have the next week off, I will see what I can find and report back if it works. My S-tech springs do a pretty good job reducing excessive body roll by themselves. I have yet to find the car's limits, the car just sticks like mad under hard fast sweepers. My tires help tons though too.

1stOne

^Speaks the truth.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: Sway bars are tuning tools. Don't buy front and rear if you want the car to stop understeering because it still will.

If your looking for cheap, start with the alignment. Get some Eibach Pro-Alignment bolts, install them and get an alignment. Have the shop dial in some front negative camber...probably start with -2 and start there. From there, tires. The sway should be a last resort if the car still wont do what you want.

Far too many tuners and racers get caught up in the idea that throwing money and parts at their car will actually make them faster. This is more wrong than you know. Start simple and work up from there. I speak from experience as I have the TRD sways now and it handles great on full track but is a handful at autocross. And remember, I have far better tires than your running now and can't find the grip I once had before the bars...

urblgd

How would one go about disconnecting the front sway bar? and once disconnected do you need to move it out of the way or remove it all together? and thanks so much for the imput guys, I would hate to be throwing money at something without any knowledge of the results I'd get

pdool09

iTrader: (2)

I am going to go ahead and just completely remove the front sway bar... Is there any reason not to???

I have the Hotchkis setup front and rear and I think I would be better off with wither the stock front swaybar or nothing at all.

Appreciate the feedback guys - This confirmed what I was thinking