tuning the handling of a levin

[RAZA]

does anyone have any suggestions of how i can reduce the amount of understeer i get in my levin?

i realise that being a (kindof) powerful fwd its always going to be prone to it if i drive with a heavy foot but it seems to have more than what i would expect after owning a string of similar cars...

I find that while it hangs on most of the time its a bit inclined to let go at the front suddenly mid corner when its wet and i would like to make it at least do it a bit more gradually.

It has good tyres and the factory strut brace and everything else is factory in the suspension.

I'm wondering if a strut brace should help or if i can adjust the camber of the wheels or something to make this better - any ideas?

[TRDWGN]

LSD

[vvega]

talk to ewan (10k 20v)
his ae 101 is quite the we handler
trd front strut brace and good tyres
bilsten suspention oh and a lsd help it i guess :d


v

[Bazda]

fully adjustable suspension makes the biggest difference!!!

[85AW20v]

Ewan also has an upgraded adjustable rear sway bar(sorry for letting out all your secrets Ewan) so that helps by transferring weight onto the front wheels. Probably the best mod to do for a start.

[Leon]

I have a whiteline adjustable rear swaybar on my ae92.

It makes it into an entirely different car. I highly recomend this as something to try on a FWD car.

[Mr Revhead]

several things you can try:

adjustable rear sway bar
adjust camber in the front
tyre pressures
good tyres, not meaning to annoy but quite often 'good' tyres arnt as good as they should be!
driving style
shocks
springs
the list goes on!

what kind of springs have you got?

[Mr Revhead]

oh, also when was the last time you had a wheel alignment?

[RAZA]

the tyres are bridgestone potenza's - they dont seem really awesome but they're meant to be reasonable and they still have about 70% tread so im not keen on throwing them away - seems like a waste.

tyre pressure is ~30psi at the moment, is it worth trying to raise this to make the tyre stiffer?
(also on tyres - forgot to mention its got 15" mags and tyre size is 195*60 i think, will have to check)
alignment i've not had done in the 3 or 4 months i've had the car so who knows before that, but the tyres seem to be wearing evenly so ive been assuming its ok.

its got standard springs.

[Mr Revhead]

well the first thing id do is get an alignment.
a GOOD one, which can be hard to get. tell them to stuff the factory specs and give you as much neg as they can. dont worry bout ya tyre wearing funny, mines set at 1.5 neg and they wear fine. if they cant get much out of it youll need new camber bolts. (about $10 each)
also up ya pressures, may have to experiment with them to get what you want. i run 34-36 in the front and 32-34 in the rear depending on how i feel. have been know to run 36 in the rear.
iv got dunlop fm901s and mine sticks like glue, have out corned a wrx and vr4 legnum in the wet!! maybe iv bigger balls then wrx owners though!

after all that then id look at spending $$
are your shocks in good nick?

of course it could be driving style, get off the throttle!

[Bazda]

buy the time u buy new springs, buy new shocks, and cant adjust anything u may as well get fully adjustable suspension!!

then u can adjust your height, camber and shock harness all in one!

[Mr Revhead]

eh? whos talking about new shocks etc? i dont think he needs to go that far yet...

also theres camber adjustment in the ae101/111 unless its s/s
which is a point... you got s/s or not?

[RAZA]

no superstrut for me

looks like im off to the wheel alignment shop then - anyone in auckland know of a good place?

oh and the shocks are getting on i guess - car just clocked over 150k, and not having equipment to do any sort of advanced test on them its hard to say. but they still seem to be damping the bumps ok, if i go over a bump or jump up and down on the bonnet it seems to stop bouncing as quickly as you could imagine it being able to even with new shocks.

[Mr Revhead]

cool
well check your alignment. make sure you get a print out of what it WAS and what the set it TO.
then see what that does

[RAZA]

oopps double post

[IH8TEC]

LOL, i seem to have oversteer problems, no understeer, i have fm901/s on the front though, potenzas on the back, oh well, it's good fun.

would one of those adjustable swaybars help my situation

[10k 20v]

DROP ME A PM

[Leon]

would one of those adjustable swaybars help my situation

I think swapping tyres front to rear might be a cheaper fix for you

[Bazda]

LOL, i seem to have oversteer problems, no understeer, i have fm901/s on the front though, potenzas on the back, oh well, it's good fun.

would one of those adjustable swaybars help my situation

cos the rear of yoru car is high and the front is low. weight transfer is wrong.

camber adjustament in a ae101 and ae111, hmmm how u going to do that it's fixed. my ae92 is the same is an ae101 and ae111 and i had to get camber plates

[Mr Revhead]

id be going to get a set of fm901s for the rear...

ae101/ae111 is adjustable, you can get diff size bolts from toyoa bout $10 each, thats allows adjustment in the front.

potenzas are apparantly not as good as the fm901s