These are the spring steel bars that connect across from wheel to wheel. They are mounted on the chassis across the car also, both at the front bar and the rear. They allow both left & right hand suspension to move up and down together without having any effect. Hence they do not disturb the normal spring rates or make the ride stiffer.

However when the car rolls as it goes around a corner, the anti-roll bar pits the inside wheel going down the suspension arm against the outside wheel going upwards, and tries to hold the car flat. If you have massive sways, the inside wheel will be lifted off the ground and the sway have no more effect.

Surprisingly, the bigger the sway, the less grip the car has on those wheels. So a big front sway bar means more understeer, which is why the manufacturers run them like that! That's why I only changed the rear, because I like a car that does not understeer.

Years ago on my road/rally car I cut the seat off the pin that connects the sway bar to the front lower control arms. I put a pair of valve springs in there, so the sway bar had to compress the springs. This allowed the car to roll initially, then hold that attitude. The initial roll gave good grip by jamming the outside wheel on the ground, and the sway then stopped the car rolling too much.

You can buy after-market stiffer sways, usually rated by their thickness and the % greater stiffness over stock. Two factors affect stiffness, the diameter/type of steel, and the distance from the pivot point to the mounting eye. Most manufacturers use % stiffer over stock.

TTE red Front 28mm diam, effective lever arm 225mm
TTE red Rear 17mm diam, ELA 90, 105, 120mm (adjustable with three holes)

EIBACH are re-badged TTE & have the same specs as above.

TRD Sportivo Blue front 28.6mm
TRD Sportivo Blue rear 16.0mm

TRD Yellow Front 30mm +49%
TRD Yellow Rear 19.1mm +99%

CUSCO Front 30mm +140%
CUSCO Rear 16mm +125%

L-TUNED Front +49%
L-TUNED Rear +99%

HOTCHKISS Front 32mm +56% & +61%
HOTCHKISS Rear 19mm +144% & +227%

TANABE Sustec Front 30.4mm
TANABE Sustec Rear 18mm

HKS Front +130%
HKS Rear +116%

ARC Links Front +216%
ARC Links Rear +146%

DTEC no data

STILLEN no data

Now you're an expert!! :lol:

So if one were to get the ARD endlinks with sways, never mind that, things would get dangerous!!

keith.. pls ammend the cusco rears to 23mm .. they are damn thick as!

dang! they must have a couple of different types.

I bought a Cusco rear from Frylai and it is only 16mm, about a mm thicker than standard. Stiffer tho', so I think they use a different steel & shorten the lever arm length.

If I'd know they had fat ones I would have got one!!

My Cusco's are 16mm also.

ok np.. didn't mean to come across saying that you guys were wrong.. however, the guys at the workshop said 95% of the altezzas they did in hk were the cusco thick as cusco rear sway.. which i am considering swapping out (pending testing the current setup on track)..

Matt loaned me a TRD yellow rear sway, so I've just done a little bench test. I had my standard sway lying around and a Cusco on Greeneyes.

Mounted on a bench with a little overhang at one end, using a 25kg load-

Standard sway deflects 8.6mm

TRD Yellow deflects 6.1mm

Cusco deflects 5.4mm

This is interesting, for although it agrees with what the manufacturers claim, the TRD is much thicker than the Cusco. I was damm surprised after holding the TRD up against the Cusco.

This weekend- we test cross-strut braces!! B)

Hi guys!!!!
is there any different between Is300 sway and Is200 sway???????


thanks

I don't know, but there should be!

Ask Frylai via PM....

Hey greeneyes, have you tested those swaybars yet? If so what was the outcome?
I know I don't drive a Yoyota but the basic physics should be the same...

I finally got both my rear and front Cusco sway bars fitted.

I fitted the rear end first, 30 min job.
I didnt have many chance to push it hard + with Eibach Prokit springs, they didnt lower the rear end that low, so didnt have any significant noticable difference for me (may I was too chicken to push it hard). What I did feel was the power output is more direct.. (maybe less bodyroll, so power distribution to both rear tyres more even??)

about 1 month later, I fitted the front one. more procedures involved. There is a nut @ one end of the bar was a bitch to loosen. took me a big effort to remove. (I had to eat dinner to boost my energy to be able to loosen that bloody nut. Just like Popeye,need his can of Spinach)
After the front end installation.... I love the handling!! can push much harder with confidence. adn "traction" light was flashing more frequently.

I got these CUSCO bars as used items from a former club member. Thanks TB2 for helping out.

the front bar came with bushes, but not the rear bar(is that normal?) , so I transfered the original bushes for rear end. not sure if the bigger diameter of CUSCO bar will cause the OEM bushes to deteriate faster or not

Rear bars comparason

Rear bar installed

Front End comparason

My rear bar never came with a bush either, so I suppose they don't.

The diameter difference is only 1mm or so, and I don't think they will hammer the original bushes any harder.

I noticed more oversteer with the Cusco rear only, but have never changed the front. That's on stock springs and shocks and ride height.

silly question but IS200 and 300 bars are interchangeable?

probably looking at a set of these
http://my.is/store/customer/product.php?pr...1&cat=22&page=1

i'd imagine they essentially go in the same spots, however the front would be thicker on the 300, perhaps having to deal with more roll on the front with a heavier motor?

The rear i imagine would be the same, if not slightly thicker.

Oh and SSML, there is an easy fix for that blinking traction light! find the TRC OFF button :D

what about these from prolex ?

http://www.prolex-uk.com/store/product_inf...&products_id=82

Look at that PRICE!!

ISMR will get you a set of front and rear Cusco's for 750 landed.
FOr the same price, i would go with a known japanese brand over prolex. No offence to prolex - they make awesome kazama mufflers :D

they are TTE rollbars brian!

go thicker bars for the win

I'm not 100% sure on this but to find out how much stiffer bar 1 (diameter (mm) = A) is to bar 2 (diameter (mm) = B):

[(B^4) / (A^4)] X 100

This is assuming that the internal construction and materials for both bars is the same.

Brian, did you end up going for the Hotchkis?

Sendog-

They use different steels as the Cusco is really no thicker than stock but is noticeably stiffer. One of the TRD models is thicker than the Cusco, but it is softer.

The other factor they play with is the leverage arm length, the distance forward from the cross piece to the eye-hole where the upright bolts in. The Hotchkiss is nice as you can select which hole you use, and a shorter arm means a stiffer bar.

nah stephen, seller was reluctant to post o/s

Anybody measured their RS200 sway bars diameters? especially Tiptronics?

My tiptronic has a lot of roll when cornering hard but when i measured the thicknesses of the bars they don't seem to compare with normal IS200 sway bars that are being discussed here...

FRONT = 28mm

REAR = 16mm

black in colour so I'm presuming they are factory fit ... maybe hollow though, i don't know ... anybody else measured their original sways ?

Whats sways are recommended for Tiptronics?


cheers

Stock rear is 16mm-

I haven't measured a front.

Ah Ha, just so happens I took both of them out yesterday. The front is 26 and the back is 15-16mm. Not too sure if they change size on the year but that was from a 2001 RS, Manual.

So that means my rear bars are stock and the front are probably hollow?






BTW i have a 2000 RS200Z tiptronic


cheers

Do rear sway bars stop the rear end swinging out under hard fast cornering? Thanx

not always-

Real driving is a combination of spring stiffness, shock dampening and sway bars, and what is great on one road may be terrible on another.

But generally, stiffer sway bars mean better cornering, providing they work with the springs and shocks.

I fitted a Cusco rear sway onto all other stock gear to make the nose dive in better. It did that by making the tail step out a little more.

When I put Koni shocks on front & rear it changed that completely.

That is why race car teams change shocks/springs & bars for each racetrack.

Hey, I have not long uprated both front and rear sway bars, and found when loading the car up at speed on corners and round abouts that the sways help heaps on the recovery. What I mean is when 3/4 though the turn you dont get the weight of the rear to drag around on the exit. Hope that makes some sorta sence. Well worth looking into I reckon. Just now the traction control comes on at almost every tight corner as the inside wheel skips way too easy.

posted this also on another forum with the same info...lol

TTE red Front 28mm diam, effective lever arm 225mm
TTE red Rear 17mm diam, ELA 90, 105, 120mm (adjustable with three holes)

EIBACH are re-badged TTE & have the same specs as above.

Greeneyes ... the above info i have a question do you really mean that EIBACH get their sways from TTE or should it read that EIBACH actually make the bars and TTE rebadge them ???

thinking about just upgrading the rear like you have as the front is ok really...also thinking of fitting eibach springs?

what do you think?

I think TTE make them & Eibach re-badge them... that was years ago! :lol:

They write their specs in "lever arm length", whereas nearly everyone else uses "% stiffer than stock", which means they can't be compared properly.

However I like the idea of adjustable rear bars, like TTE or Hotchkiss. Get the TTE if you can.

Don't forget that if you stiffen the springs very much then the stock shocks won't be able to control them, so then you'll need new shocks as well.... :o

Spring rates are listed in a topic there somewhere to-

Actually its the other way round. Eibach makes the springs and they are rebranded as TTE. I know this for sure for TTE springs but not sure about other TTE parts.

So with coilovers fitted, better handling from getting the front and rears ARB's upgraded or just the rear as some people seem to be going for. Looking at getting the Blue TRD ones from Kinway

Buy a rear and fit it, drive for two weeks, then borrow a front one and fit it as well, drive it for a day and let us know the difference! :P

I upgraded my rear stabilizer bushes to TRD items today. Just for the record, the standard rear bush size on an IS200 (2000) is 13mm and the TRD bush is 15mm.

The upgrade was required as the standard bush was too small for the Cusco bar.

did you notice any improvements with the new bushes?!?

So the IS200 has a thinner sway diam than the Altezza-

and the stock Altezza bushes will take a Cusco bar OK.

Appears so ;)

The bushes on their own did not seem to make any noticeable improvements. Then again, the original bushes appeared to be in good condition...just too small.

They were not expensive and wanted the correct size bushes for the Cusco bar.

Is it easy to install?

The rear bushes? Yes. I was able to replace them without jacking up the rear :)

how did u fit under the car to get access the rear sway bar?

i thought u have to undo the brackets holding the bushes for the rear side?

cheers
SSmL