2014 SE TRD rear sway bar installation problem

[NYC-SE]

After reading so many positive posts recommending it I bought a TRD rear sway bar. Read the install instructions and the various threads here and it seemed like it would be simple enough to do. Today I crawled under my car to install it and well...not so simple.

The forward hole or upper hole (NOT the shock mount hole) is already in use. I was unable to get a picture but it seems like some sort of lateral bump stop is installed there. That's the only possible purpose of this doohickey that I can figure out. There is no mention of this thing in the instructions and I can't even find it on any of the parts diagrams I was able to pull up online. Does anyone know what I am talking about? My car is an SE model, so I was thinking this might be something unique to the SE.

If there is anyone here who has installed a TRD rear bar on an SE I would love to hear how you dealt with it. Toyota went to the trouble of designing and installing this thing, they must have had a reason. I am reluctant to just discard it without knowing what that reason is and how it would affect things.

Thanks in advance.

[fatpanda]

Whatever it is, I took it off and installed the sway bar. I have 25K on my car with no issues if that helps.

[aznturboman]

I have a 2012 SE yaris and I also had the same problem with a bump stop looking thing in front. I decided to just bring the bump thing to city mill and find a grade 8 bolt and a locking washer. Find a bolt that's a little longer because the sway bar takes up space in between the bolt head and bump stop. Then torque it to the specs and it works like a charm

here was my short thread asking about it http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48905

[NYC-SE]

I've decided I would like to keep the bump stop, like I said it's there for a reason.

So just so I understand...Did you use the built in nut on the bump stop or did you use the nut supplied with the sway bar hardware? If you used the supplied hardware did you have to drill out the bump stop nut or grind it off? And as to the order (from closest to wheel moving inward) it should be sway bar tab then trailing arm then bump stop. Is this correct?

[aznturboman]

I didn't use the supplied bolt or nut for that hole. I just bought new grade 8 bolt's with the same thread as the nut on the bump stop. Not sure about what the thread pitch was so I brought it to city mill to test the different bolts. Also just make sure that you get bolt's that are a little longer cause now you are adding the sway bar tab between the bolt and nut. You don't have to grind or drill anything.


For the order yes you have it correct.

[NYC-SE]

Thanks aznturboman, all my questions are answered. I'll give it another go when I get some free time.

[NYC-SE]

Finally got the sway bar installed today. It wasn't too difficult to do but I was working without jack stands so it was a slight PITA.

I haven't had an opportunity to really push the car yet but on the test drive today it felt more stable, seemed to hold a line better, and the ride quality didn't seem to be negatively affected. So far, so good. Looking forward to really testing it out over the next few weeks. Final opinion then.

[NYC-SE]

Just a quick how-to recap for TRD rear sway bar installation on a 3rd Gen Yaris SE.

Things to know:

1. TRD sway bar part # is PTR11-52071. This is the same part that fits the 2nd Gen Yaris and the Scion xD.

2. 3rd Gen SE models have a “rear axle beam dynamic damper” installed in the upper hole where the sway bar will mount. They look like this:

You CAN discard these, thereby freeing up that hole and install the sway bar with the supplied hardware BUT I recommend that you DO NOT. Toyota went to the trouble of designing and installing these dampers, they serve a purpose. I decided to keep mine.

3. If you decide to keep them you will have to buy 2 new mounting bolts. The bolts supplied with the sway bar will not fit the dampers, the thread is different. DO NOT reuse the bolts holding the dampers in place. They are too short and they are lower grade.

VERY IMPORTANT: make sure you buy Grade 10.9 bolts. (This is the same grade as the supplied bolts.) You will NOT find them at your local Home Depot. I had to order them online from Fastenal. Part number is 11116380. These are M10-1.25X30mm, Class 10.9, Yellow Zinc coated flange bolts. They look like this:

DO NOT use lower grade bolts. There will be a greater risk of failure if you do. Don’t put yourself in danger.

4. You can use the washers supplied with the sway bar. They go on the bolt head. The “nut” is cast into the damper.

5. Remove the dampers first. Then install the sway bar according to the supplied directions, except of course, use the 2 new bolts and the rear beam dynamic damper for the upper mounting holes. Torque to specs. (44 ft-lbs for upper {new} bolts, 36 ft-lbs for lower shock mount bolts).

6. You can do ALMOST all of this with the car on the ground BUT you will have to jack up the vehicle and remove the tires for the final torquing of the upper bolts. There is not enough clearance to get a torque wrench on those bolts with the wheels on.

[Exiwolfman]

Can u post a pic of the dampers installed on car ..could say never noticed on the SE , what purpose do they serve ?

sent from my S4 on Mars

[WorkTL]

Does the LE 3rd gen bring the bump stops? I just ordered a Whiteline 22mm RSB.

[NYC-SE]

Does the LE 3rd gen bring the bump stops? I just ordered a Whiteline 22mm RSB.

I don't know for sure but I suspect the answer is no. I found a part diagram for the rear suspension online, it shows the dampers on rear disc brake models only. In the US that means SE trim.

I'd be interested to know the answer myself. So do us a favor when you install your Whiteline bar and please let us know.

[NYC-SE]

Can u post a pic of the dampers installed on car ..could say never noticed on the SE , what purpose do they serve ?

sent from my S4 on Mars

Yeah I should have taken a picture while I was under there but unfortunately I didn't. It's very tight quarters though and I don't think I would have been able to get a decent shot anyhow. I mean a shot where you would be able to tell the positions of things in relation to each other. I have no plans to do so at the moment but if I crawl under the car again anytime soon I will attempt it. Maybe someone else has a pic?...Bueller...Bueller...

Purpose? Not really sure but it seems to function as a bump stop to prevent the shocks and springs from moving out of alignment with the axle beam and to keep the axle beam perpendicularly aligned to the direction of motion. I suppose driving over rough surfaces or heavy cornering could induce forces on the suspension which would be limited by these dampers. It will make more sense when you are actually looking at it. CTScott where are you?

[DJYojimbo]

NYC thanks for this man! hopefully during the summertime i can get a rear sway bar and get it installed on my car! Did you do anything else on your se?

[NYC-SE]

NYC thanks for this man! hopefully during the summertime i can get a rear sway bar and get it installed on my car! Did you do anything else on your se?

My pleasure. So far the sway bar is my only mod. I would like to get a set of sport pedals and install turn signal mirrors at some point. Maybe.

[NYC-SE]

I haven't had an opportunity to really push the car yet but on the test drive today it felt more stable, seemed to hold a line better, and the ride quality didn't seem to be negatively affected. So far, so good. Looking forward to really testing it out over the next few weeks. Final opinion then.

Final opinion: Well worth the money and time spent. Excellent bang for the buck. Car definitely handles better and I see no negative effects. It should come standard on these cars, especially on the SE model.

[DJYojimbo]

Final opinion: Well worth the money and time spent. Excellent bang for the buck. Car definitely handles better and I see no negative effects. It should come standard on these cars, especially on the SE model.

Installed an afe short ram intake and lightweight oem sized crank pulley on my SE. I had a tanabe exhaust on my SE but I removed it and got the stock exhaust back on. When I had the tanabe on the SE, I had dj equipment in my car and drove off a really high curb damaging the tanabe exhaust and smushing it against the bumper. So everytime I hit a bump, the exhaust would rattle and annoy me so I had to take it off. Hopefully gettin a brand new tanabe exhaust, trd rear sway bar, tints, and a dc sports header and be done modding my SE. Haha!!

[Kalispel]

Thanks for posting this awesome thread NYC-SE. :thumbsup:

I just finished ordering a TRD Rear-Sway-Bar and the two #11116380 bolts to adapt it properly to a 3rd Gen SE. Looking forward to installing it when it arrives. :biggrin:

Now I just need to figure out what quality-brand aftermarket springs I need to order for a modest 1" drop - and ones that won't sag with time.

[NYC-SE]

Thanks for posting this awesome thread NYC-SE. :thumbsup:

I just finished ordering a TRD Rear-Sway-Bar and the two #11116380 bolts to adapt it properly to a 3rd Gen SE. Looking forward to installing it when it arrives. :biggrin:

Now I just need to figure out what quality-brand aftermarket springs I need to order for a modest 1" drop - and ones that won't sag with time.

My pleasure. Good luck with the install. Unfortunately I have no recommendation for springs, mine are stock and I plan on keeping them that way.

[Kalispel]

I posted this in another thread, but posting it here also for those who are searching for information on the 2015/2016 Yaris SE, with regards to installing a TRD rear-sway-bar.

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My mod-adept nephew and myself just installed the TRD rear-sway-bar on my 2015 this evening after work.

Some notes regarding the 2015/2016 versus the 2012-2014 SE: My SE didn't have any “rear axle beam dynamic dampers” in the secondary bolt-holes (they were empty), so either the design was tweaked some between 2012-2014 and the 2015 refresh as to not require them any more, or some French guy/gal forgot :eek: to install the ones on my Yaris. Thus, the "2007-2011" TRD rear-sway-bar is 100% plug-and-play right out the box on the 2015/2016 SE also, using the Toyota/TRD supplied bolts.

I treated my nephew to dinner out afterwards, and took some corners and such more aggressively than normal, and the car definitely feels much tighter, flatter and controlled on the turns. For the money, it's a really sweet bang-for-the-buck handling/stability mod. :thumbsup:

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[NYC-SE]

Good to know that the 2015+ SE models do NOT have the rear axle back beam dynamic dampers. I wasn't sure about that Kalispel, I mentioned that I was only sure about the 2012-2014 SE models. Sorry to make you spend money on bolts that you didn't need.

Glad to hear you were able to install with no problems. It's a great mod, as you have discovered.

[VaultTec]

Can you guys post some photos of it installed? Don't really like looking at the stock photos I find online.

[Kalispel]

Good to know that the 2015+ SE models do NOT have the rear axle back beam dynamic dampers. I wasn't sure about that Kalispel, I mentioned that I was only sure about the 2012-2014 SE models. Sorry to make you spend money on bolts that you didn't need.

Glad to hear you were able to install with no problems. It's a great mod, as you have discovered.

We had a rough time getting the two primary bolts loosened, so that we could install the sway bar in the occupied bolt-holes. We had to jack up the rear end and take off the rear wheels to get the space/angles needed to loosen up those suckers. Luckily, my nephew has a lot of do-it-yourself tools and heavy-duty jacks (he does a lot of work/mods on his 1999 Lexus sports-coupe). I would rather have the extra bolts and not need them, than need those variant-thread bolts and not have them. :wink: Plus, with my luck, my SE should have had those dampeners installed, but didn't due to some factory-assembly oversight. I won't know until someone else here with a 2015/2016 SE crawls up under their car and takes a look to confirm.

[Kalispel]

Can you guys post some photos of it installed? Don't really like looking at the stock photos I find online.

I will try to take some pics tomorrow after work. Most of the sway bar is pretty concealed, and tucks right up into the groove of the main beam, running between the two rear wheels. You really only see the red sway bar where it swoops down on either end to where it bolts onto the wheel/brake/shock area.

Here are some pics taken from another thread on YarisWorld (from a 2012 Yaris), that sort of illustrates what I just said above. The 2015/2016 really isn't any different underneath there as the 2012-2014, or the 2007-2011 for that matter.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b90/compost_bin/car/IMG_5928.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b90/compost_bin/car/IMG_5925.jpg

[VaultTec]

I can confirm that my 2016 SE doesn't have the dynamic dampers. Thanks for the photos. I will be ordering one later today. Would be be possible to get a photo from the back showing some of the rear bumper? I don't want too much of the bar exposed. It'll look weird seeing a red bar on a white car. I'm just trying to get an idea of how much would be seen from the views of a car behind me.

[NYC-SE]

On my 2014 it is pretty much invisible from behind.

[Kalispel]

On my 2014 it is pretty much invisible from behind.

Yep, the only part of the sway bar you can see is the rounded end-piece near where it is bolted onto the car - even when you are bending/squatting and trying to see it. You don't even really see the end-pieces if the sun isn't shining directly onto them. That bright red can really catch the sun though. :laugh:

I really noticed the handling/performance difference with it on the car today during my commute. The car stays flat as a pancake on spirited turns or taking those curvy "40 mph speed limit" highway on/off ramps at higher speeds. I also didn't feel the wind pressure buffet the car like it used to when big-rigs passed right next to me at high speeds on the highway. It really is the best bang-for-the buck stability mod that you can make to a small, featherweight car like this. :thumbsup:

[Sharky144]

EDIT: Woops sorry my bad, somehow I managed to overread that the nut ist cast into the dampers and thought the only problem was the length of the bolt.




Hey everyone,

as a German it's really hard to get any TRD parts, so I went to eBay and bought one of a seller from USA.

I'm driving a 2012 model with dampers, thanks to this thread I knew that i had to get some extra bolts.

So I searched for them but I couldn't find any.

I waited for my package which arrived today, only 7 days from USA to Germany!


I'll install them asap and report how it went.


See ya!

[NYC-SE]

Those are the wrong size bolts. The thread pitch is wrong. If you want to keep the dampers you need M10-1.25X30mm bolts. In US I purchased from Fastenal, I 'm sure they're available somewhere in Europe but I don't know where.

[Kalispel]

Those are the wrong size bolts. The thread pitch is wrong. If you want to keep the dampers you need M10-1.25X30mm bolts. In US I purchased from Fastenal, I 'm sure they're available somewhere in Europe but I don't know where.

Yep, the bolts supplied with the TRD sway bar won't work if you plan to keep the dampers on your 2012-2014 3rd Gen.

[DJYojimbo]

Those are the wrong size bolts. The thread pitch is wrong. If you want to keep the dampers you need M10-1.25X30mm bolts. In US I purchased from Fastenal, I 'm sure they're available somewhere in Europe but I don't know where.

Will this work?

https://www.fastenal.com/products/details/11116351

[NYC-SE]

Will this work?

https://www.fastenal.com/products/details/11116351

They will. The only difference is the coating. Yellow zinc stands up to corrosion a little better than plain zinc coating. I went with the yellow zinc for that reason. FYI the bolts supplied with the TRD bar are yellow zinc coated as well.

[DJYojimbo]

They will. The only difference is the coating. Yellow zinc stands up to corrosion a little better than plain zinc coating. I went with the yellow zinc for that reason. FYI the bolts supplied with the TRD bar are yellow zinc coated as well.

Oh nice nice! I'll go with the yellow zinc ones then thank you!!!

[YotaYaris]

I am so glad that I came across this post. I sold my 2009 Yaris about 3 years ago which I installed the TRD rear sway bar on. I am buying a 2012 Yaris SE this weekend and I plan on getting another TRD sway bar ASAP. This is the number one mod that everyone should do to the Yaris.

Now I know that I will need to buy new longer bolts to make the TRD sway bar fit properly. Did you remove anything from the car, or did buying the longer bolts allow you to keep the dampers in place?

I am going to have to take a look at these dampers when I get my car. I am really curious what purpose they serve and why they took them off after 2014.

[NYC-SE]

Did you remove anything from the car, or did buying the longer bolts allow you to keep the dampers in place?

Only thing removed was the original bolts holding the dampers in place. The dampers themselves have to be temporarily removed while fitting the sway bar. After you have it lined up simply reinstall the dampers in their original position and secure with the new longer bolts. Torque to spec. Done.

I have a mini DIY posted on the previous page that should answer any other questions.

[91mustang]

Does anyone know if this bump stop would be reused with a set of tanabe sustec coil overs?

[IllusionX]

Does anyone know if this bump stop would be reused with a set of tanabe sustec coil overs?
The coil overs should have its own bump stoppers.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[91mustang]

I can't remember if there are bump stops with them. I'll have to look.

I just ordered a white line 22mm rear sway bar for my 2012. Does this issue still apply in my situation?

[CoryM]

Just to be clear: These are not bump stops. They are just vibration dampeners to deal with NVH. Basically some chassis engineer found that in that area of the vehicle there was a vibration that may cause excess noise to the driver. So they bolt a dampener in place because it's cheaper than making new axle assemblies. Chances are you can remove the dampener and never notice any noise difference.

[NYC-SE]

Just to be clear: These are not bump stops. They are just vibration dampeners to deal with NVH. Basically some chassis engineer found that in that area of the vehicle there was a vibration that may cause excess noise to the driver. So they bolt a dampener in place because it's cheaper than making new axle assemblies. Chances are you can remove the dampener and never notice any noise difference.
That's interesting. I have wondered about their purpose since I discovered them. So is this the "official" explanation? If so how did you come by this info?

[CoryM]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Vibration_Absorber

Think of it as putting your finger on a small bell and ringing it. Much quieter right? I come by the info by knowing a bit about physics..... and being a mechanic :þ I would ASSume that by putting small dampeners there, it prevents the NVH from travelling to the body (which will amplify it) and potentially bother the driver. The other likely cause would be due to Toyota adding disc brakes to an existing twist-beam and finding squeal/groan complaints. Rather than making a new twist-beam they just bolt those dampeners on until the next redesign.

In practice removing that dampener will likely result in no noticeable change in NVH to the driver.

[davinoft]

Go to fastenal.com and order part number 1111 6380 it's a M10 1.25 x 30 millimeter Bolt you can use these bolts to the factory bump stops with no problem I used on my 2014 SE model

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

[91mustang]

In that case I'll just remove em. I don't know if there is a fitments difference between white and the TRD unit. Nvh doesn't bother me.

[lambo]

Thanks for the detailed info ... I was looking for a mod for my new (new to me) 2014 LE

[NYC-SE]

Thanks for the detailed info ... I was looking for a mod for my new (new to me) 2014 LE

The LE models do not have the dampers. Sway bar can be installed in normal fashion. The modification only applies to 2012-2014 SE models.

[91mustang]

I installed my white line bar, I didn't have to remove any dampers on my SE. I honestly did not even see them or look for them during the install.

[NYC-SE]

I installed my white line bar, I didn't have to remove any dampers on my SE. I honestly did not even see them or look for them during the install.

Then they weren't there. If they were it would be obvious. Did you buy the car new?

[91mustang]

I'll take another look, I think it is because the white line installs differently.