Sway Bars - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

ilovecorollale · 10-16-2009, 07:10 PM

Just wanted to know if anybody has installed sway bars to their corollas 01-02.Mind posting any pics?thnx. i just wanted to see how it looks like and which sway bars are the best?

Crowbar911 · 10-16-2009, 07:36 PM

I just installed the hotchkiss set on my 01. Both front and rear.

It has transformed the handling of the car. There is close to ZERO body roll.

I dont have any pics however, as there isnt much to see with them.

Also, After doing them myself, the fronts arent too bad. The rears are a PITA since they are ABOVE the gas tank. I broke a gas tank strap bolt point, and had to had it welded on by a mechanic who would even take a chance with it. (i was turned down by 3 simply for the location of the tank)

I believe the only options we have for sway bars are whiteline and hotchkiss. Whiteline's are solid and non adjustable, whereas hotckiss are hollow and the rears are adjustable.

I went with hotchkiss since they are hollow (stronger than solid due to some sort of engineering feature of a hollow tube, fishexpo may be able to explain.) and because they are adjustable. You can adjust the rears to 3 different levels of stiffness. I read alot about adjsutable sway bars, and after feeling the car with all 3 settings, the stiffer, the better.

If you get sway bars that are to stiff, you can lift a rear wheel while cornering. I can do that if I really try to, but in autocross, I dont even get the chance.

btw, my endlinks where blown at 80K. and we only have oem replacements, no aftermarket endlinks.

ilovecorollale · 10-16-2009, 07:50 PM

Really wow.How much did it cost? I mean separately (front and rear bars).

Crowbar911 · 10-16-2009, 07:53 PM

Just the sway bars themself where $446.66 (includes shipping)

Fixing the gas tank was $80
new endlinks where $80
Replacing the 3 lug nut studs I broke were $80

So all in all I learned 3 things:
Air tools are KING
Know your mechanical limits
Any bolt can and will break (murphy's law of bolts)

The sway bars where worth every penny. the repairs.... not so much.

ilovecorollale · 10-16-2009, 07:56 PM

thxs. By the way, do you think getting it on ebay is a good idea or elsewhere?

Crowbar911 · 10-16-2009, 08:05 PM

I bought them off of hotchkiss themselves. Im very wary of buying off of ebay.

Andy's auto sport has a set of hotckiss sway bars for $330, but Ive found that they take FOREVER to ship.

And Im unsure about the warrentey of the product.

MacktasticSlick · 10-16-2009, 11:17 PM

I might look into a set of these myself now. Although I got new lights for the front of my car from Andy's Auto Sport, and it didn't take too long to ship at all, that's weird.

Crowbar911 · 10-17-2009, 11:39 AM

I havent had a problem with the endlinks snapping.

Only way I could see that is if the endlinks are too stiff, But your car should tripod well before any breaking occurs.

***PhatRoyale*** · 10-17-2009, 06:54 PM

Best ones?

IMO, solid Whiteline bars are the best. They used to make a nice 20mm adjustable rear sway bar.

Good luck finding them though, since alot of them are discontinued for older Corollas.

Crowbar911 · 10-17-2009, 10:02 PM

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum.../t-334213.html

The thread goes on to explain the engineering math of hollow vs solid sway bars.

A good read If your interested.

MFCC08 · 10-17-2009, 11:27 PM

So are you guys saying that stuff can break if you put different sway bars on??? So the stock suspension wouldn't work?

Crowbar911 · 10-17-2009, 11:37 PM

Ive had zero problems once I got the sway bars on with a stock suspension. (and Ive done some autocrossing with them)

Another user was having a rpoblem with a non stock suspension.

MFCC08 · 10-18-2009, 09:40 AM

Awesome! I have a stock suspension!

***PhatRoyale*** · 10-18-2009, 10:58 AM

KYBs are OEM replacements, meaning that they still offer a soft and pillowly ride.

If you want something stiffer that controls body roll, look elsewhere.

MFCC08 · 10-18-2009, 09:47 PM

Straight98,

Awhile ago, I was in a similar situation. I wanted to upgrade to coilovers. Being in college myself, I realized this probably wouldn't happen anytime soon. What I did was found out info on struts.

They don't make many performance struts, but I talked with a guy with an MR2 1st gen, and he used Tokico Blues. Those struts paired with lowering springs are the best combo I found online. They aren't adjustable, but are performance oriented over stock. You can get a set of 4 struts and 4 springs for about 6-8 hundred dollars.

Hope this helps, and good luck with college! Midterms this week for me!