Calling suspension gurus! I recently installed a set of Tanabe DF210s on my manual xA, so I decided to test them out on a nice windy road . Wow. The car can take the turns in much better now and is ready for its next turn much quicker. No more rocking back and forth. However, I still really want to try to take some of the oversteer out, and it feels like the back end wont give over any when pushed to the limit (I dunno its wacky). Am I making sense? What is the next step in tuning this suspension?

 

theres nothing to really adjust in the rear. I suppose some camber shims would help.

 

Thats pretty much what I figured. The torsion beam rear is pretty straight forward. What benefit if any could be seen from an upgraded shock set? There must be something to make it a little more nimble.

 

the difference in tire pressure in the front and rear tires is an easy way to dial up over or understeer on either end. i forget how it is supposed to be set to promote oversteer. if i remember correctly, this info can be found at tirerack.com. look it up.

 

The following may be more information than you are looking for and it was developed to help tune race vehicles, however, the principles remain the same!

Guide To High Performance Handling

Adjustments / Decrease Understeer / Decrease Oversteer
Front Tire Pressure / Higher / Lower
Rear Tire Pressure / Lower / Higher
Front Tire Section / Larger / Smaller
Rear Tire Section / Smaller / Larger
Front Wheel Camber / More Negative / More Positive
Rear Wheel Camber / More Positive / More Negative
Front Wheel Toe / Toward Toe-Out / Toward Toe-In
Rear Wheel Toe / Toward Toe-In / Toward Toe-Out
Front Wheel Caster / More Positive / More Negative
Front Springs / Soften / Stiffen
Rear Springs / Stiffen / Soften
Front Anti-sway Bar / Soften (Thinner) / Stiffen (Thicken)
Rear Anti-sway Bar / Stiffen (Thicker) / Soften (Thinner)
Weight Distribution / More Rearward / More Forward

 

Get a rear sway bar, that will help bring the end around much nicer. I had a 22mm rear on my Civic and stock front and handling was awesome. I'm waiting until some company comes out with a readily available big rear for the Scions. I know Whiteline has one but they are probably expensive and hard to come by.

 

Roger, dude that is great info. This is stuff I have always wondered about and you have clearly laid it out here. Thanks and mad props! :D

 

Yeah it looks like the rear syay bar is they way to go. I think Hotchkis makes one... How hard is a rear swaybar install?

 

Don't get the Hotchkis. The Hotchkis is only sold in a front and rear kit and adding a big front is only going to cancel out the effect of adding the rear. And the Hotchkis rear is only 13mm, that is spaghetti noodle sized. Whiteline makes a 22mm, I would get that if you could. I'm holding out until more companies make stuff for the xA.

 

The Hotchkis rear bar is added to the stock bar, an additional 13mm is a very large change in roll rate.

More is not always better, balance is the key.

ken

 

I agree with ken on that. I'm not sure a huge rear sway would be great for our small cars, but then again..I really want to wait for some R&D to go into a real sway bar designed for our car as black stated. I feel this way about alot of available mods right now.