beanie38

I know that a strut tie bar is the bar that goes under your hood and helps reduce chassis flex. I also know that a rear sway bar helps reduce car rolling right around the rear axel by connecting to the endlinks. However....

1) Isn't a strut bar just the actual shock/spring? The spring being coil overed the shock absorber?

2) If that is true then why are people saying they need new shocks AND struts? Or are you guys refering to the tie bar?

Please help clarify this for me

engifineer

Our suspension has a strut (the part with the shock absorber) and a spring mounted over it. The strut bar connects the top mounting points of the struts together (the two strut towers under your hood)

A rear strut bar does the same thing, only connecting the two rear strut towers together. These reduce body flex.. at least they keep the two towers from flexing opposite directions.

There are two sway bars. The rear and front. These use torsional force to compress the inner spring in some ratio to the compression of the outer spring when you corner. This reduces independence in the suspension, but prevents body roll. A thicker and/or stiffer sway means that as the outer spring compresses (body roll) the bar compresses the inner spring more than it would with a weaker sway bar.
Hope this helps.

newedgeperf

Some people will distinguish the difference in designs between shocks and struts. Both are spring dampers...their job is to dampen the motion of the springs to maintain control of the rate of motion.

A strut bar is more of a structural enhancement to stiffen the unibody so the suspension, not the body does all the work...it makes the car handle better and more predictablely.

I hope this helps.

Tony D

beanie38

Ok, I'm starting to get it, but then does the strut attach to the top of the shock absorber and then ends in the engine compartment where the strut tie bar would go?

If so then is it essential that I replace the strut to properly lower the car, or would replaceing my shock absorbers be sufficient enough?

Runawayrogue

You can get just a set of lowering springs to lower the car and leave the stock struts on. This forces those struts to work harder, though, since there is basically more pressure being put on them. In the long run it will wear your stock struts out faster. You can get new struts with the lowering springs if you want as well, which will cost you more upfront, but last longer. The other option is to get coilovers, which are kinda like both in one package. I'm not too familiar with the coilovers so if someone can explain it better please feel free.

Honestly, though, the stock struts are pretty nice and if you just want to lower it for daily driving a set of lowering springs is good enough. If you're going for performance/tuning, though, replace the struts with them or just get coilovers to handle the added stress of racing and/or fast cornering.

engifineer

If you lower it aggressively you will go through the struts sooner. But for the TRDs or similar drop, I would not worry too much. You will get close to maximum life out of the struts with them.

As far as your last question, a strut setup is different than a shock and spring setup, but they work the same, as already mentioned. The strut contains the shock ,and the assembley that the spring sits in. The top of the strut attaches to the towers you see on either side of the engine bay. The tie bar connects those two mounting points so that as the body flexes, the two towers are not flexing in relation to each other. Rather, they are flexing in the same direction. This helps to prevent the alignment of the two wheels from being pulled off in relation to each other.

So, for lowering around 1.25 - 1.5 inches in most cases, I would say go ahead and keep the stock struts unless you want a significantly better performing strut, or unless yours already have a good number of miles on them. There is no point in going through the work of changing them.. then having to replace the struts again in 15 20 thousand miles.

As for the strut bars, with this car, the towers are very close to the firewall, which provides some support with its tensile strength. But you should still gain some from adding the front bar. I dont have any experience with the rear strut bar on this car, so I cant speak to the advantages of them. I know some on here are running them though.

As for the sways, I would go with the rear first if you just do one. A FWD car suffers from more understeer naturally. Replacing the rear sway with a stiffer one promotes more oversteer and vice-versa for the front. I am getting the rear sway bar first myself. For a street driven, and possibly a sometime autox'd car I think the TRD springs and rear sway would be great together. Still very streetable and with some added handling.

May as well add in some about dificulty of installation. Obviously the strut bars arent the most difficult to install. The rear sway is also very easy. The front sway requires a bit more work. You can look under the front to see what I mean.

beanie38

Thanks a lot everyone, but epecially engifineer for the input. I was wondering if anyone knew where to get struts? A website or anything. Thanks again guys.

*Edit*

TRD Performance Struts
TRD Performance Struts are gas-charged, monotube constructed for increased cooling, and are valved to give the xA and xB a firmer, more responsive ride.
Image Part Number Description Sale Price MSRP
00602-48030-050 Shock Set, Scion xA $293.82 $329.00
00602-48030-150 Shock Set, Scion xB $293.82 $329.00
PT901-48030-16
(00602-48030-160) Set (4), Shocks, Scion TC $470.82 ** $525.00
** LIMITED TIME OFFER
HURRY BEFORE ALL ARE GONE AT THIS ONE TIME SPECIAL OFFER.

------ I copied and pasted this info from a website, and now I don't get it haha... IT says trd performance struts, but it says set (4) shocks. So does this mean that the struts are included with the shocks?[/b]

OuterHeaven

Struts and shocks are terms that are used interchangeably. They both mean the same thing by most people though technically they are different.