Let me know what you think of the ride versus stock post install. I have vogtland springs and tokico blues on mine with 160k and the ride is real harsh over the rough pavement. Curious what other setups ride like versus this one. Particularly from folks using it as daily driver as I do. Actually considering dropping back to stock if I could find a complete shock/strut set to swap back with.

 

Will do bro, Im actually kind of surprised that the Tokico's are giving you a hard ride...I thought if anything those would have more comfort than the TRDs. I'll have to see though. How low of a drop are those springs you have?

 

I'm surprised to hear this too. I was on tokicos and s-techs and it felt great.

 

Ya the roads are real rough here in Hartford so I think that plays a good part of it. The car does handle great on the flat pavement but the rear skips around quite bit when cornering on on anything but perfect pavement. Bit too much jumpiness for me. Hard to explain but just feel like the potholes and bumps we have our here are destroying the car without more compression.

Also considered getting a rear sway as discussed here to help keep the rear in line... Eh... The car rear that is.

There is a guy who works at a local auto shop that swears TRD setup is too low spring rare in the rear and you actually need to tighter spring rate in rear than most springs are set to, that this explains excess bounce in TRD and other setups. Not sure if I buy that argument.

Keep us posted in the install. Looking fwd to hearing how they compare to stock!

 

im on trd shocks and springs.. its a bit stiffer compared to stock even stiffer compared to stock struts and trd springs (my brother has stock struts with TRD springs) - so yea its a bit more aggressive than stock. ride is a bit stiffer not as stiff as a coilover but stiffer than stock for sure. I still am on TRD Shocks and Springs, debating to get coils since ill be boosting but im gunna try this setup on turbo b4 i decide to get coils. it just might work

ride height on stock oems is a 2.5 finger gap all around. i love the stance its not to low or too high kinda reminds me of a BMW stock stance. anyways i hope this helps. ive been on coilovers and tien S techs out of all the setups im loving the TRD shocks and springs combo the most! i even autocross with them

 

Hey I know exactly what your talking about as far as the looseness of the rear end. I end feel that when trying to take really fast and tight turns even over reasonably good pavement. So I tried the install today...unfortunately I would have to say it was a fail.....My father and I were only able to get one strut and spring on (front drivers side). The front passenger side were are going to have to take to a tire shop in the morning and have them hit the two big screws that hold the bottom of the strut. My father has an electric impact wrench and it had trouble breaking free the first strut but after spraying it a couple times with liquid wrench, it came free. The passengers side didnt come off at all however. Not with the liquid wrench spray, not with heating it with a propane torch, and not after breaking two adapters for our breaker bar....so wish me luck because this has to get done today as its my last day off for the weekend...

 

that sucks, I've actually changed out my suspension 3 times, Stock > TRD > FF Type II > TRD (to sell the car...) and various height change adjustments with the Coilovers (Lowers by the body housing)
And I've had the pain of breaking 4 adapters During that time, so I understand the frustration. Later I just used only 1/2 inch drives only. Either way these were all done with normal hand tools (with the occasional pipe) and actually never had to use liquid wrench/penetrating lube.

Good luck in getting it done though.

 

I've installed my TRD spring & strut setup at 60k. Now I'm at 196,000+.

Being in Wisconsin with snow and salt killing our roads at every end of winter with potholes & cracks. I started the strut wear about 50k miles ago. I remember hitting one really nasty pothole within couple of weeks installing. They didn't break but two of my tires were blown. So I'm pretty surprised they lasted this long and I'm REALLY attempted to buy another TRD setup with TRDSparks.


I bought this setup from the dealer. $200 for springs & $746 for struts (I know it was WAY more than what TRDSparks is selling them for. I didn't have a debit or credit card to buy it online.) To top it off, I let the dealer install it. Only positive when going to the dealer, they can do alignment right there. For installation and alignment charges- $649-ish!

Its still nice ride even with wear-out struts; just a tad noisy. lol

 

Anything I've bought at the dealer I've had them price match. I just get on my phone and get on whichever site and let them look.

 

Sorry to hear of the troubles man! Hope the tire shop can help out a bit. I had same experience on my first install and it sucks to have car 1/2 apart and have to reassemble just to bring somewhere else.

Xprescion, sounds like you are running close to what I am out, higher mileage in challenging conditions! I am really curious about the ride quality on the TRD springs. I checked the height and they are less of a drop than my Vogtland's which are at 1.6"/1.4" and just bounce me around a bit too much. Would love to hear from someone who has driven both to compare or maybe just find one for sale locally and compare the two.

Highly tempted to ditch my TC for a Mini Cooper S line. Just test drove a JCW Coop today and the suspension setup was perfect - firm yet plush over the bumps. My TC felt much more like the standard line Cooper they had there, jumpy and far more abrupt on the bumps. It really makes me wonder if there is just something else other than the springs/struts that is simply worn out or broken. Are there other parts that do wear out on the TCs that would make the cars less stable or plush over the bumps?

 

I test drove one myself and I wasn't impressed at all with it. It wasn't the newest one but it had low miles and looked well taken care of. The supercharger felt like it had turbo lag. Just figured I'd share my experience. I wanted to get it too to ____ off my brother-in-law. LOL he really wants one bad and I think he's the biggest douche in the world.

 

So I finally finished the install. I didnt get it done in time to go somewhere and get it aligned so I'll either do that before or after work tomorrow. I can definitely see that there is a noticeable drop but in my opinion the car so far drives exactly the same as it did before....I dont feel any increased stiffness at all. My ride is alot less nosier as I think most of the problem with my suspension was bad strut mounts. I'll have to give an update once I get it aligned and everything gets broken in.

 

Congrats! May want to wait a week or two to get aligned as shocks will settle in a bit over initial usage. Interesting to hear your initial impressions. Keep us posted!

Out of curiosity did the TRD setup come with new strut mounts or did you have to buy those separately?

 

Hey thanks, and are you sure it's okay to wait a week before getting the alignment? I drive about 30-40 miles/day to and from work. That wont wear my tires? I just put them on last year (Continental Extreme Contact Pros) and they were not that cheap...so I definitely dont want to ruin them after not even a whole year. But are you saying that might possibly happen if I get it aligned immediately before everything settles in, and then when that does happen it will be out of alignment again? Also no the struts did not come with mounts. The mounts were 70% of the reason why I even did this install.....they were unbearably noisy....they noise is gone for the most part...now I just have to find something to tighten down my very loose hatch handle..which is actually causing some noise. So far though the ride seems just as smooth and comfy as stock, I'm guessing this will change over the next week or two once as you mentioned everything gets settled in. I actually dont think I'll mind the stiffness, and like I mentioned in the previous post I can definitely notice the small but nice looking drop. It doesn't look to ricer looking...I've seen alot of tc's where it looks like the tire is probably constantly scraping....where the lip of the wheel is above the fender...I don't like that look at all...It says "Hey! Hey! You! Look at me! I lowered my car as much as I possibly could!" I like the drop because the average person will think its stock and a real tuner will be able to tell that it's lowered. So far though everything seems to be okay...I think im going to buy some sway bar links for the rear as the nuts back there are stripped and wont come off. I was lucky to get the passenger rear bottom link off to remove the strut. I really want to get a rear sway bar, maybe even a rear strut brace. As far as the sway bar what is the stiffest and best performing sway bar you can get that is also adjustable? I was looking at Hotchkis and will most likely try them. Any other ideas? Also does a front sway really give that much of a handling advantage on this car? Because the front seems to be ok to me, it's always been the rear that has seems unstable....

Will keep you guys posted though

 

Yeah wait atleast a week. u need to let the springs settle, if you do your alignment now a week later it'll be out again. Ur car will get a little lower as the springs settle.

as for the sway bar, don't get the front unless you get the hotchkis. And unless you autocross don't bother with the hotchkis, TRD is fine. As a matter of fact I autocross and I got a TRD which works well. TRD is perfect for the streets, a little loose for autocrossing but I don't autocross enough to care.

 

Hey thanks, I asked about the sway bars because I know they lower the understeer that out car has, but I read on a forum somewhere, where some guy said that the TRD sway wasn't thick enough for him....I guess he was a auto xer...But yea I dont want anything too stiff, I just want something that makes that suspension feel tight, but not too stiff. I'll def look into the sway once I replace my brake pads and rotors....again....

 

yeah do TRD rear sway if U don't want it to go over the top. it's definitely a significant improvement over stock. I can do an on ramp at 35-45 mph and even get a little power-on oversteer.

 

So how would the car react if you put too stiff of a sway bay in the back? Just curious, I've never upgraded that on any of my cars since all I did was 1/4 mile races. However RhythymnSmoke has inspired me to try out T/A or any type of circuit racing. Just don't know how close or far in the future.

 

Don't quote me on this, but more over steer i believe. You want a fairly even balance. Slight oversteer but not too much. I like the set up with the TRDs cuz it's easily controllable, Power on into the turn, if I understeer, and I usually do thanks to the FWD, pull the gas a little back, get the front end to come around and power back on for some oversteer.

I'm not an expert in tuning the stiffness of the suspension so I could be very wrong in this.

 

I guess there's more to it than I expected. At least now I have an idea/grasp of what lays ahead. Thanks for giving your feedback through experience.