sedan and wind.....

[chew246214]

Ok sounds really dumb but I love the little sedan.. not a speed demon but great on gas... But myself and my wife both hate the fact that any little bit of wind and the car is thrown all over the place.... Any ideas what to do to help with this??? We live on the coast of RI and it seems to always be windy here so it's a big problem... Been debating about springs sway bars things like that but don't want to toss a bunch of money and be wasting it on a commuter car if it's not going to help.... it's reall driving us nuts otherwise the car is great... Plus it might just give me an excuse to do some suspension mods.. then of course tire and rims to follow... you know the deal...:wink:

[supmet]

The sway bar is definitely not a waste of money. It helps a ton with the wind, and handling in general. I have a TRD sway bar, but garm sells pretty much the same thing, just a different brand here:

http://shop.microimageonline.com/product.sc?productId=100&categoryId=4

Springs/struts and tires will help too reducing body roll and giving more traction, but the sway bar is by far the cheapest easiest fix for wind.

[JBIZZ]

+1 on the rear sway bar. Lowering it will also help & the ride won't be as bouncy. The rear sway bar can be installed by anyone who can turn a wrench. Lowering springs can be installed by anyone w/ basic mechanical skills. I would suggest getting the Tokico blue shocks or TRD if you lower it, especially if you lower it below 1.5".

[ROCKLAND TOYOTA]

all the suspension parts in the world WILL NOT help you with this car when the wind is
40-50 mph like today was. i got EVERYTHING possible under my car and it was a bitch trying to keep her on the road......

[YAR1S]

LBs feel the wind much worse I think.
Get yourself a Rear sway bar, collectively it seems to cut down on the wind thrown feeling.... I have yet to get one of these..... :p

[chew246214]

today I can understand, there is at least50-60 mph winds going and boy are they cold.... It's the everyday normal wind that concerns me... I deal with it, but my wife bitches about it so bad she dosen't want to drive it and wants to take the suburban which defeats the purpose of buying a car that gets 40 plus miles per gallon on a 75 mile commute to work....Just trying not to spend money on useless parts thats all..... Also found this ad...
*****For SALE w/ InstaLL Tanabe DF210 Lowering springs for 07-08 Toyota Yaris...used for the summer and now clean and in the box
---INSTALLED $250 within 2hrs

***Springs alone for $150 obo***
I need to double check it was for a sedan if not are they interchangable? and it seems like a decent price to me considering he is willing to install them.(I don't ave time) any thoughts?

[WeeYari]

Springs are interchangeable between LB and sedan.

Might want to keep in mind that Tanabe DFs are a nearly 2 inch drop.

[chew246214]

wow that was a quick response, Yea just saw that... since I don't plan on getting rims/tires just yet and this is a commuter plus it only has 1500 miles on it this might be a little too extreme to go with now....I'm thinking the sway bar would be a starting point..I do have the skills and usage of a shop for more advanced stuff but right now I'm gonna try to keep that on the back burner.....(lets see how long that lasts...)

[chew246214]

Any other suggestions for a rear (anti) swaybar for the rear as far as bang for your buck.... supmet suggested the ultra racing, and I also found the TRD for $149.. any others cheaper? Better?

[Yaris Hilton]

Wider tires are more prone to wander.

[chew246214]

stock 15's no wander just pushing around from wind especially sidewinds.... actually not completly stock I have scion hubcaps for my snowtires that are stock size) I know how a wider tire will wander especially when braking hard I am more used to driving lifted trucks, this is only my 3 rd import car the others was a 4 door civic sport and I has a subaru legacy.... they both had rims/tires/ but no real bad effects from the combos except on the subaru I went too big of a rim and too low of a tire and kept destroying them on rough roads... which is why I do not want to go bigger then 16's on this car but trying to stay on 15's if I can..... this car is a commuter that is now getting driven daily in the last few weeks except the few days of snow....

[supmet]

Wider tires are more prone to wander.

I agree in wet or bumpy roads, but just talking wind on the freeway, is wider really worse? I could kind of see spreading the weight out leaving you less planted, but it still doesn't make sense to me

@rockland

We've had pretty heavy winds out of the cajon pass the past few weeks with steady winds at 30-40 and gusts at 60-70. My sedan doesn't handle that bad, its a little scary sometimes, but I can definitely hold it steady. Maybe its time for an alignment

[cali yaris]

Any other suggestions for a rear (anti) swaybar for the rear as far as bang for your buck.... supmet suggested the ultra racing, and I also found the TRD for $149.. any others cheaper? Better?

That $149 for the TRD did not include shipping.

The Ultra Racing 19mm is $139 shipped (thanks supmet).
The 23mm version is $164.95. If you don't mind the extra $30, get that one.

[chew246214]

Yea I can hold it steady, my wife complains about it she can also... It might just be an excuse to drive the suburban which she perfers... trying to stop the spoiled goody girl in her a bit and be practical

[derickveliz2]

Lowering the car, low profile tires and rear swaybar are a must! I love the way it drives now.

[chew246214]

micro.. I know you are one of the fellow guru's here.. I did mention this to you awhile ago when you were testing a new set of springs a while back... would the 23 mm bar be too much for a daily driven commuter and not really driven hard at all... (not slow but not really tossed around though) It is staying basicly stock for now and I know too big an anti swaybar can also be a bad thing... I don't want unpredictible things happening.. we do drive this car 150 miles 5 days a week as of 2 weeks ago....this is another reason I'm debating if the car can also justify new springs and the price since it will be driven a lot and nowhere near a toy, it's a driver.... we have 10 days of commuting on it and about 1600 miles as of yesterday.... minus 3 days for the almost 3 feet of snow so we are definatly going to be racking up the miles.....

[YarisSedan]

I noticed that the first thing i got my car. On a windy day on my sedan it feels like your driving a boat through a storm. Lot of swaying back and forth it was almost scary at times. Took bit more concentration to drive the car.

First mod i did was the TRD sway bar. This helped significantly. It dropped the saying by maybe 50 percent. After that was the TRD springs. This chopped it down another 40 percent. So its almost completely null now. After that i started to mod nonstop. So its hard to say what else helped and didnt help. But i have no swaying now.

[chew246214]

I think thats the route I'm gonna go anti sway bar see if it quiets her down.... then if need be springs.... trying to save money on this, I have a habit of getting carried away quickly when it comes to vehicles trying not too even though I know I can.. still in the process of finishing up a suburban that I got about 2 months ago and have taken it further then I planned, also a cherokee that started with a/t tires for the snow now sits on locked dana 60's and 37's with a full exocage..... Don't want to do this with a brand new car yet.... plus I was given a 125,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty and don't feel like voiding that if I can help it...

[ROCKLAND TOYOTA]

today I can understand, there is at least50-60 mph winds going and boy are they cold.... It's the everyday normal wind that concerns me... I deal with it, but my wife bitches about it so bad she dosen't want to drive it and wants to take the suburban which defeats the purpose of buying a car that gets 40 plus miles per gallon on a 75 mile commute to work....Just trying not to spend money on useless parts thats all..... Also found this ad...
*****For SALE w/ InstaLL Tanabe DF210 Lowering springs for 07-08 Toyota Yaris...used for the summer and now clean and in the box
---INSTALLED $250 within 2hrs

***Springs alone for $150 obo***
I need to double check it was for a sedan if not are they interchangable? and it seems like a decent price to me considering he is willing to install them.(I don't ave time) any thoughts?

NORMAL everyday driving will benefit from the swaybar right away and with the springs its makes things even better........


@rockland
We've had pretty heavy winds out of the cajon pass the past few weeks with steady winds at 30-40 and gusts at 60-70. My sedan doesn't handle that bad, its a little scary sometimes, but I can definitely hold it steady. Maybe its time for an alignment

not a bad suggestion seeing as its been almost 3 years now and it couldn't hurt. also the liftback isn't as wind friendly as the sedan so my normal commute yesterday was greeted by 2 hands on the wheel and the hopes there was no ice patches around when i got jolted.

[chew246214]

BTW meant to tell you rockland toyota.... I used to live up by you and worked for the dodge dealer on 17 in Ramsey that closed... Used to drive by you all the time dealing with accounts and one of your techs or service guys used to buy parts from us all the time.... Find that kinda funny....

[chew246214]

Oh and I shouldn't need an alignment yet.. no real bumps hit yet.. only been driving it the last 2 weeks... we bought it a few months ago but had a lease that was very low on miles that went back 2 weeks ago so we racked the miles on that before we got rid of it.... Actually bought it with the cash for clunkers deal and then parked it in the garage until two weeks ago.... so we only started to put miles on it.. it sat in the garage with 4 miles for a few months....

[MUSKOKA800]

I installed the TRD swaybar before the other mod's and found it significantly reduced wind buffetting due to crosswinds and truck wake. A worthwhile investment for this reason alone, not to mention the great cornering improvement. Should have been added at the factory. It's that much better / safer.