Installed rear sway bar

5537 Views 33 Replies 13 Participants Last post by imasaf, Sep 15, 2004

oldster

Discussion Starter · Aug 30, 2004

First...I was going to take pictures, then I decided to use the pictures in the instructions (they had arrows pointing to the important spots), but my camera won't focus on them. If I can get it to work, I'll post the pictures later.

I would rate the difficulty on this job at a 1 or 2 on a scale of 10. It took almost as long to jack up the car as it did to do the work. If you are a beginner, this would be a good "1st job". The biggest danger is making sure your car is jacked up properly and not going to fall on you and crush you. The biggest problem was getting the old bar out and the new one in. I didn't have much space to wiggle the bars around. A lift would make this job too easy.

All you do is take the nuts off the ends of the old bar, (its 14mm) take the nuts off the clamps that hold the bushings (pictures are clear in the instructions), remove the old bar, put the new bushings on the new bar with some lubricant, and replace it where the old bar was, then put the nuts back on the ends of the bar. I took the car to Toyota and had them torque the nuts to the correct spec. (they charged me $5) but, if you have or can borrow a torque wrench, you can do it yourself.

I put the sway bar at the "race" setting. There are 2 holes at each end of the bar and the outside holes are rated "street" and the inside "race". I took the car to my favorite twisties and was very pleased. The body roll was gone and the ride stiffened up only slightly. If you want to get rid of the body roll, I highly recommend doing this.

1 - 20 of 34 Posts

TCrazy

· #2 · Aug 30, 2004

interesting, i wonder how the other setting feels. Good to know it takes the roll away! Thanks for posting this up, good info and good read. - t

Ivben Blown

· #3 · Aug 30, 2004

2

Oldster, Congrats on the new bar and thanks for the info.

I got a question that's been asked before but have never seen the PRECISE answer:

Anyone know the diameter of the TRD swaybar?

It's been said that the tC with an automatic has a larger diameter swaybar than the manual trans (21mm vs 18mm) to compensate for the additional weight, makes me wonder if the manual trans equipped tC would benefit more from the TRD bar.

Also, I haven't seen any information that says that the TRD bar ships with new bushings which leads me to believe that it can't be much larger than 21mm or the folks with the 18mm stock bar are in for a tight fit.

??

Edit: Just re-read your post and it does say "new" bushings...need to clean my glasses.

Would still like to know bar diameter.

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Alpman

· #4 · Aug 31, 2004

Good to know about the sway bar. How bout the strut bar, any plans on adding that? Does anyone have both that can comment? (Damon, chime in if you please)

zoltiz

· #5 · Aug 31, 2004

Originally posted by Alpman@Aug 30 2004, 10:34 PM
Good to know about the sway bar. How bout the strut bar, any plans on adding that? Does anyone have both that can comment? (Damon, chime in if you please)

I've got both and springs. Did all 3 things in one evening - felt like I drove off in a different car

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oldster

Discussion Starter · #6 · Aug 31, 2004

Ivben blown
I've looked all over for the bar diameter, but can't find it. I can tell you it is much bigger than stock. I'm not much good at guessing, but I'd say almost twice as large. It comes with bushings and I'd guess that the material is a stiffer rubber, which is typically the case when you get competetion sway bars. The stiffer material flexes less helping to stop the roll. At this time, there is a sway bar on sale at ebay and they have a nice picture of the bushings, if your interested. Just go to ebay and do a search on scion tc sway bar.

oldster

Discussion Starter · #7 · Aug 31, 2004

This is a picture from the instruction sheet. Its not to good, but if you have no idea what this job is about, it might help. All bolts are 14mm and easy to access.

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Ivben Blown

· #8 · Aug 31, 2004

Originally posted by oldster@Aug 31 2004, 08:11 AM
At this time, there is a sway bar on sale at ebay and they have a nice picture of the bushings, if your interested. Just go to ebay and do a search on scion tc sway bar.

Thanks for the info Oldster, I found the ebay listing.

I went ahead and ordered one from McGeorge based on all of the glowing owner reviews. When I get it I'll post the diameter in case anyone else was interested.

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zoltiz

· #9 · Aug 31, 2004

Originally posted by Ivben Blown+Aug 31 2004, 11:53 AM-->QUOTE (Ivben Blown @ Aug 31 2004, 11:53 AM)

<!--QuoteBegin-oldster

Click to expand...

@Aug 31 2004, 08:11 AM
At this time, there is a sway bar on sale at ebay and they have a nice picture of the bushings, if your interested. Just go to ebay and do a search on scion tc sway bar.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Oldster, I found the ebay listing.

I went ahead and ordered one from McGeorge based on all of the glowing owner reviews. When I get it I'll post the diameter in case anyone else was interested. [/b]

Both diameters - stock and TRD, and let us know what your transmission is - cause I heard some numbnut saying that auto tC has thicker rear sway than 5-speed - BS IMHO.

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Ivben Blown

· #10 · Sep 1, 2004

Originally posted by zoltiz@Aug 31 2004, 12:24 PM
Both diameters - stock and TRD, and let us know what your transmission is - cause I heard some numbnut saying that auto tC has thicker rear sway than 5-speed - BS IMHO.

Like I mentioned above, I read it also.... HERE
It wasn't disputed then, so I figured it was probably accurate. Either way I'll check it out myself and post it here. BTW, mine is an auto.

Update: I just took a pair of digital calipers to my stock sway bar and it measured 20.2mm (.796"). So far he was right about that, now we just need the 5spd bar diameter....

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oldster

Discussion Starter · #11 · Sep 1, 2004

I tried to measure the stock and TRD bar, but its hard to be accurate. Anyway, the TRD is not twice as big as I stated above. I guess I got over excited. I would say the stock was about 3/4 inch and TRD was 7/8 inch. They probably measure in mm, so I won't know how close I got... Bottom line, the TRD works.

FrostbytetC

· #12 · Sep 1, 2004

Cool man. Glad the install went well. yet another thing I'm going to be purchasing someday. Great informative post also.

Ivben Blown

· #13 · Sep 1, 2004

Originally posted by oldster@Aug 31 2004, 07:12 PM
... I would say the stock was about 3/4 inch and TRD was 7/8 inch. They probably measure in mm, so I won't know how close I got... Bottom line, the TRD works.

Comming from a full sized truck, to me the stock tC's handling is a blast. The springs really improved it even more, now I can't wait to see what the sway bar will do. A whole lot of improvement for fairly low $$$

Thx for the bar dimensions.

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zoltiz

· #14 · Sep 1, 2004

3

Originally posted by Ivben Blown+Aug 31 2004, 04:51 PM-->QUOTE (Ivben Blown @ Aug 31 2004, 04:51 PM)

<!--QuoteBegin-zoltiz

Click to expand...

@Aug 31 2004, 12:24 PM
Both diameters - stock and TRD, and let us know what your transmission is - cause I heard some numbnut saying that auto tC has thicker rear sway than 5-speed - BS IMHO.

Click to expand...

Like I mentioned above, I read it also.... HERE
It wasn't disputed then, so I figured it was probably accurate. Either way I'll check it out myself and post it here. BTW, mine is an auto.

Update: I just took a pair of digital calipers to my stock sway bar and it measured 20.2mm (.796"). So far he was right about that, now we just need the 5spd bar diameter....

[/b]

I'll measure the stock 5-speed swaybar lunchtime today - it's sitting in my closet

Don't have electronic calipers, but I do have a ruler and a piece of paper. Roll the paper around the bar, measure the length, divide by 3.14159265

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zoltiz

· #15 · Sep 2, 2004

Well, looks like I'm the numbnut. Measured my stock swaybar and it seems like it is 18.5mm. I have a 5-speed. S Scion did put different swaybars on auto vs. 5-speed. I wonder why... The idea that "5-speed has more chance of being upgraded" does not sound that argumentative.

Ivben Blown

· #16 · Sep 2, 2004

Originally posted by zoltiz@Sep 2 2004, 05:32 AM
I have a 5-speed. S Scion did put different swaybars on auto vs. 5-speed. I wonder why... The idea that "5-speed has more chance of being upgraded" does not sound that argumentative.

About the only logical reason I can guess for the larger sway bar would be the added weight of the automatic trans. It represents an added cost (however small) to Scion and I'm sure they wouldn't do it unless they had to. Hey, maybe this is an opportunity for both Auto & 5spd owners.... Now auto owners can sell their sway bar on ebay for like $40-$50 and the 5spd owners could pick up a slight performance increase for a fraction of the cost....

Oh well, just a thought...
Thx for confirming the numbers.

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whosthatrussian

· #17 · Sep 2, 2004

I agree with your logic, however imo if you're upgrading the sway bar, you might as well upgrade to the TRD one. It'd only cost you about $100 more.

LoopyLady_1

· #18 · Sep 3, 2004

Maybe this is a stupid question...but for an eBay auction I looked at a few weeks ago for a sway bar, it didn't say anything about it's size.

If I decide later to pick one up off of the internet, how do I make sure I'm getting the right one for my manual tC?

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Ivben Blown

· #19 · Sep 3, 2004

Originally posted by LoopyLady_1@Sep 3 2004, 11:04 AM
Maybe this is a stupid question...but for an eBay auction I looked at a few weeks ago for a sway bar, it didn't say anything about it's size.

If I decide later to pick one up off of the internet, how do I make sure I'm getting the right one for my manual tC?

You were most likely looking at the TRD sway bar, it only comes in one size and works for both auto & manual equipped cars. It sounds like a worthwhile mod (still waiting for UPS to deliver mine...).

The comment I made above suggesting to sell the STOCK "auto" sway bar on ebay was more for grins than reality... it would be hard to know how much handling improvement there would be using the stock/auto swaybar on a manual. If you could find a stock/auto sway bar cheap enough (like 10-20 bucks, with bushings) it might be a good experiment. In that case you would want to make sure the sway bar is 20mm dia (or larger). The sway bar on your car now is 18mm dia.

imasaf

· #20 · Sep 5, 2004

Just as an FYI...

McGeorges is currently having a "Free Shipping" special on the TRD Rear Sway Bar. I don't know how long this will last but its only $138.95 out the door... if you are not in the state of Virginia.

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