suspension mods?

[ElusiveIS]

for those that have upgraded their suspension components.. please chime in on what part(s) made a difference in your opinion.

i am focusing on suspension mods soon.

looking to take the car to a few road course events next year. :D

[BrokeAZZWillie]

i hear sway bars do wonders

[whitetezza]

sways definately..

first suspension mod i did.

[wenger828]

my trd yellows did do wonders to the handling. i have front strut tower brace, but haven't really noticed a difference. i hear that it effects turning while braking, but i dont know. from what i heard rear strut tower brace is pretty noticeable. thats next up on the mod list when i get rid of my subs.

[LexIS77]

I don't have any first hand experience with suspension upgrades besides OEM stuff or my springs, but I can give you a little info. First off, a front sway bar would be a good choice. Sway bars enable your car to turn properly while under load(like while steering heavily). They run under the frame on each side of a car, and connect to the lower control arms.
Certain components in the wheel I would say would be a waste of time, such as ball joints. I've seen performance ball joints on the net, but all a balljoint does is provide flex for the connection between control arms and the knuckle assembly(the piece that holds the wheel bearing and hub assembly.)
The IS300 is a pretty heavy car compared to most corner-tackling cars weighing in at a decent 3275 pounds curb weight. Lowering it would obviously help in lowering the center of gravity, and thus sticking more traction continuously to the ground both while accelerating and cornering. I'd say if you really wanna get into the street course thing, get adjustable coilovers and crank em down a decent amount while you'll be pounding it. For driving around though, you'll want them at more of a medium height.
Wider tires and lighter wheels will help in braking and steering.
Strut tower braces...For the front you probably won't notice that much difference, because the weaker connection in the chassis of the IS300 is more towards the rear to middle of the car in it's unibody design. The weight proportion of the car I think is 54/46 if I remember correctly, so the weight is more towards the front, but the front also has a solid subframe to stabilize. The rear is a lot more prone to swaying in the suspension, and a rear strut tower brace will increase throttle reaction in corners as well as help keeping the wheels true to the surface of the ground.
I think thats about all I can think of at the moment...

[mikefate]

hmm. front sway didnt make much difference on straightaways or turning hard for that matter. i didnt lose any traction or gain roll from taking it off to clear the TB. the rear STB made a huge difference keepign the cars ass planted to the ground.
sway bars had to be the most dramatic change ever. made the car feel like a fuckin GT lemans car, no joke. no roll, and i have put them thru a lot this summer. eric, imagine taking the exit ramp near your house at close to 85mph. stuck liek glue. PLP in trunk bar didnt make a noticeable difference at all, and PLP product flex too muich and in my opinion they suck my nutsack. boxed control arms helped a lot with the chassie flex in the rear. swapping bushings & adding the Turboeast Bitch Braces also made the rear a hell of a lot stiffer.

and as bryan staed, wheel/tire combos make a huge difference. big gawky heavy 19's will not help at all.

my next to do for suspension is the do-luck in-cabin cross bar that goes on the floor over the hump. it reduces flex even more, and with me wanitng ot road race in 2007, i think its a worthwhile addition. also plan on adding do-luck under car braces, they go lengthwise from axle to axle on either side to replace the flimsy stock pieces.

[bgwillyis300]

Ok eric.

Dont get the TRD's Hotchkis are same money and a lot better. I have owned both adn hotchkis outperform the yellas by far.

So first get hotchkis sways or maybe even think about getting a custom rear sway made. None of the aftermarket rear sways are as big as they should be IMO. but the hotchkis will do for the normal enthusiasts.

If you really want to get into road courses or auto-X you need a good set of coils. Ive heard tein is going downhill. Im going to go with endless. or HKS. If you dont have the money for the HKS or endless. D2 coilovers are good for the money.

There are lots of braces underneath the car that if you know anybody that welds you can beef those up a lot. Every little thing helps.

Im going to have to disagree with everybody on the front strut tower bar. I miss the hell out of mine and am going to have to get one custom made to fit over my turbo. The front strut helped an incredible amount with turning response. Much more of a difference than my rear strut did.

But over anything the best suspension mod i made. Was my custom Roll cage. When i got my car back it felt like a whole new animal. And theres still room for improvement with my cage.

[mikefate]

^my animal beats your animal, and not just in a straight line. muah ha ha

oh willz, i talked ot jeff. email him about the 90mm TB/plenum for price

and cusco rear sway is diesel. check them out. i had it across 2 crates and bounced on it. shit is solid as tsop's cock when he sees a little boy

[ElusiveIS]

great info so far.

i'm installing my coils.. they are the gen1 jic flt-a2's. 15 way adj.. monotube.. 14kg/10kg spring rates.

looking at getting sways next.. but i might wait and track/autox the car with just the coils.. then keep adding upgrades to see if they make a difference.

[bgwillyis300]

^my animal beats your animal, and not just in a straight line. muah ha ha

oh willz, i talked ot jeff. email him about the 90mm TB/plenum for price

and cusco rear sway is diesel. check them out. i had it across 2 crates and bounced on it. shit is solid as tsop's cock when he sees a little boy


yeah mike im going to pass and wait till next year when i can affod a nice EMS. he said i need a standalone to egt rid of DBW. Bahhh:(


glad to hear the progress and GL eric. get sways man.

[LexIS77]

Its good to do one thing, then test it out, and see the differences. It'll give you a ballpark idea when it comes to diagnosing which components would improve your performance, or if you're not feeling much of a difference with certain products.

[mikefate]

eric, sways are a must. drive my car. youll see what i mean. sways should be a dealer option in my opinion.

[BDR]

TEIN has gone downhill.

The SS coilovers on my Supra are FAR INFERIOR to the HA's that I currently have on my IS300. 4yrs and counting on those HA's and they are still a dream to ride on!.

I need to buy new coilovers for the Supra this spring.

[mikefate]

what are you thinking? i am looking into cusco

[bgwillyis300]

hmmmmm cusco forgot to mention those.

the zero II:p

[ElusiveIS]

what mm piston does the hks.. cusco.. have? how about rebuild? do they have US support?

[mikefate]

cusco does. nukabe motorsports. i am working on a deal with them actually. they are a big evo/wrx type place, looking to branch out.

hks, good products, but good luck for any US support. for example, look at the EMS, works great for people that have it, but theres like 1 tuner in the US(CA) that can tune it due to the lack of software(actually id say price of software)

[ElusiveIS]

Mike,

The Cusco Zero-2 has almost the same spring rates as your Greddy...

Cusco - F: 12K, R: 9K, ??mm piston, 5 way adj
Greddy - F: 10K, R: 9K, 46mm piston, 36 way adj

..you should just see if you can get stiffer springs from Greddy. The JIC's that I have have the following spring rates - F:14k/R:10k.

A good coilover chart over at .net - http://my.is/forums/showthread.php?t=310571

[mikefate]

there are options for the zero 2 thru nukabe

[ElusiveIS]

more food for thought..

http://bulletproofautomotive.com/items/alt114_16t.jpg
Toms Lower Performance Solid Rear

http://bulletproofautomotive.com/items/alt114_25t.jpg
Toms Side Frame Brace

http://bulletproofautomotive.com/items/alt114_24t.jpg
Toms Suspension Member Rod Front

http://bulletproofautomotive.com/items/alt114_23t.jpg
Toms Suspension Member Rod Rear

http://bulletproofautomotive.com/items/alt115_14.jpg
CUSCO Negative Upper Arm

Questions is... will they fit the IS300, since most of these parts are for the Altezza.

[ElusiveIS]

This suspension kit from Toms looks good:

http://bulletproofautomotive.com/items/alt115_05.jpg

TOMS Advox and Brace Kit
(Suspension/Chassis)

Our Price: $3,494.40

[mikefate]

eric, i have the cusco front "triangular" brace for the front frame. i have inquired about the cusco control arms, but havent gotten a definite yet.

[bgwillyis300]

the cusco front arms will fit. However i dont know how much of a difference they might make. Besides possibly being lighter.

As for the TOMS rods All that stuff will fit the US spec IS300. I have the toms Toms Lower Performance Solid Rear. As for the front suspension rods i heard you run into problems getting those to fit when you are boosted. The I/C piping gets in the way.

Dont forget cusco ZERO II also have a EDFC type device available now. Thats what im looking into:)