Improved handling, Step By Step

[Spork]

My wife's son has a 2007 Yaris. he wants to improve the handling so I'm going to buy some stuff for him and teach him how to install it.

I don't know diddly squat about these cars. We have a Miata that my wife drives as a DD and he likes that. Don't know if we can get close to match that in handling but would like to try.

He wanted to get new rims and tires but he's got quite a bit of life in the existing. I told him we may want to go sway bars first until the tires wear out but searching on here I see lowering, struts, coilovers, and a bunch of other ways to go.

I don't want to dump a bunch of money at a time on this thing. His birthday is coming up so I thought I'd get him something. I'd like to do upgrades on a step by step basis over time.

It is his only car but he doesn't drive a lot, lives close to his work.

What would be the first thing to do?

Thanks.

[Altitude]

First thing would be the sway bar. Hands down.

[why?]

First thing would be the sway bar. Hands down.
yup rear sway bar:
19 mm, (http://shop.microimageonline.com/Ultra-Racing-19mm-rear-sway-bar-YARIS-UR-AR19-100.htm)23 mm, (http://shop.microimageonline.com/Ultra-Racing-23mm-rear-sway-bar-YARIS-UR-AR23-100.htm) or 22 mm adjustable. (http://shop.microimageonline.com/Whiteline-22mm-Adjustable-Rear-Swaybar-Yaris-xD-BTR86Z.htm)

Then springs/shocks or coilovers depending on how much you want to spend.

[Astroman]

I would go for a nice set of springs, after the sway bar if you wan't to do one at a time. I did springs and sway bar at the same time, along with a rear lower strut bar. Night and day for handling. Also a front strut bar will help, but you'll really only notice it on highway or extreme driving. I have the tanabe, lightweight and built well.

[cali yaris]

^ This is all good advice, and you are welcome to call our shop to get guidance (818) 610-3635. We drive on the street, we race a lot (not on the street!), and we know the Yaris suspension pretty well at this point.

[NJ Drive]

Tires, rear sway bar, and a proper alignment are the best places to start.

[xnamerxx]

Skip the rear sway bar if you plan on any type of tracking with the stock springs. It will introduce some mid corner oversteer on faster turns if your driving at the limit. The downside will be you'll lose traction on corner exit. For a novice mid corner oversteer can be extremely dangerous and make it quite difficult to learn how to drive the car properly.

[malibuguy]

MI springs with UR 23mm rear sway bar...then tires

[33OH]

I vote springs (shocks optional but recommended), then sway bar. The stock springs are horrible.

I would recommend Micro Image - very reputable vendor.

[chriskizi]

sway bar, suspension, tires... wider / lower / stiffer / lighter

all helps for better handling

[Yaristeve]

Hmmmm... As you can see a lot of diferring opinions. I would buy him a book on handling and suspension theories and let him decide which compromise he would prefer. Who knows, he may not even care in which case, a set of cool looking wheels would be good enough...

[xnamerxx]

An easy book to help you digest how to setup a car for handling would be HPBooks How to make your car handle.

Its a bit old but the principles are still the same plus its a easy read.

[Spork]

^ This is all good advice, and you are welcome to call our shop to get guidance (818) 610-3635. We drive on the street, we race a lot (not on the street!), and we know the Yaris suspension pretty well at this point.

Well, I ordered a rear sway bar from Micro Image for him. His birthday is in a couple weeks so I'm going to install it for him. We'll see how it works.

I'm going to have to take the car out and trash it a bit to get a baseline before the swap. I've only driven it once and that was around my house in the dirt (I have an acre) and then down the dirt road we live on. It was basically to show him how to do e-brake turns and pitch the car sideways.

In addition to my hot rods, I'm a Corvette guy so I'm used to "throttle induced oversteer". That is not a concept that the Yaris (nor my step son) is familiar with! :eek::biggrin:

Thanks for all the help. I'll update after the install.