Understeer and genral handling problems

Jules-B

Member +
hi all

im wanting to make the handling on my glanza better..as when giving it some round bends it understeers and keeps going straight untill i let off the loud pedal!..

i know there is endless bars and strut braces..but which will improve the understeer factor..and genral handling?
cheers
jules
 

turbo-roj

Member +
I found that just by lowering the car (40mm) that the understeer stopped, was a bit scary before it was lowered when going round roundabouts in the wet lol, fun tho, DRIFT TIME!!
 

Toby@ToyTuning.com

Banned - DO NOT BUY FROM TOYTUNING
Bushes Bushes Bushes, without a doubt THE most overlooked parts on the Starlets. The rubber OEM ones have a small life span, couple that with hard driving once the cars get here and they soon disintegrate.

We had a car in yesterday and the ARB link bushes were so worn the top and bottom disk were touching. We installed some Poly Zep bushes and the car was transformed in 10 minutes. If you want to improve chassis response then bushes are your first port of call.

There is no point buying braces as this will only hide the problem for a small while, most braces are connected in some way via the cars bushes so you really need to concentrate on these. Lower arm bars actually increase a little understeer but you can balance these cars quite easily as there pretty basic.

I would suggest you look at the following bushes/parts:

Top mounts
Lower Arms (All three)
ARB D Bushes
ARB Link Bushes
Panhard Bushes
Rear Twist Beam
Rear Lower Arm
Ball Joints (Important)
Track Rods

That's a bare minimum, we have replaced every single bush on the demo car with uprated units, where we couldn't get uprated we either custom made or replaced with OEM..

T
 

Toby@ToyTuning.com

Banned - DO NOT BUY FROM TOYTUNING
Obviously if you want to improve your setup then the lads above are on the money but the above is a suggestion to all members regarding the importance of good bushes..

T
 

Jules-B

Member +
ye that is probably one thing people dont replace!

o ye didnt mention my car is on tein coilovers.

with the front lower arm bar and rear arb...is that going to give me clearance issues as my car is pretty low already!
 

sx_turbo

Lifer

Toby@ToyTuning.com

Banned - DO NOT BUY FROM TOYTUNING
Yeah there metal bushes Ricky, we have them all on our demo car. There not cheap but well worth it, I would imagine we've spent well over 1k just on bushes!!

T
 

Jules-B

Member +
so with the lower arm bar...that would improve handling in what way..

sorry for the ignorance..but obv apart from stiffening the front end up what else does it do
 

sx_turbo

Lifer
it stops the front of the car flexing, under cornering, and improves turn in response.

when i had mine fitted you could really notice the difference
 

riko666

Member +
when I'm in the mood, I'll do a huge Handling rant like I did on the old forum (couldn't find it)...it was fairly informative :p
 

Enzo

Member +
if your bushes are ok the two mods that give the most drastic changes to an ep chassis are

  • the anti lift /astor kit,
from whiteline which increases caster (stearing feel) eradicating the vague stearing(the feeling of not knowing how much front grip you have)giving you more confidence with the car
and has anti lift propertys due to the ofset bushes.
think of a primitive type of lsd is the best way i could describe the feeling from this mod helping you cover ground alot faster in greasy and wet road conditions.

  • and rear anti roll bar
most cars come from the factory standard with one so why toyota omited it from the ep is a mistery and is the main reason for the woful understear issues associated with the ep chasis.
its job is to increase roll stifness and resist against weight transference.
you will find yourself taking corners alot faster due to the car rolling less which has a knock on effect of loosing the ellusion of travelling speed

most people waid in with expensive coilovers and chassis braces on recomendation but,
i cannot stress enough how different your car will feel after these mods which will raise your corner and exit speeds by an eye opening amount.
even on standard suspension they make a big difference reducing almost all understear opening up a totaly exploitable chassis
obviusly its a good idea to get your wheels aligned aswell

anyone(very few) that have fitted these two mods to their ep can vouch for what im on about and for £150 for the pair its money well spent :)
 

slick_ep

Fresh Recruit
i noticed intensely reduced understeer wtih only a rear strut brace but my car already had a aftermarket front strut brace.

also i put in some nolathane sway bar links, and that helped with control.

lower arm brace simply tidied up the turn in and front grip

anti lift kit helped the understeer a little in my case and obviously stopped the nose lift.

adjustable panhard rod helped with getting the back around corners and keeping a decent cornering line.

rear sway bar tripled my cars grip - best mod by far.

next is trd/nolathane bushes for the rear and also front swaybar

also i use low profile tyres so theres no tyre flex and you should also keep your tyre pressures up to help
 
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riko666

Member +
will be, I've used EP82 Pillowball Rear Axle Arm Bushes on my EP91 Rear Axle....the only differences are in the anti-roll bar link bushes
 

Damage

Member +
The above will always help but you will still have understeer. The most important thing it to learn how to control your right foot buddy ;)
 
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