Strut Bar for a sedan ZRE

[SHIRE.ZRE]

Hi Guys,

I was just wondering if anyone has fitted a strut bar on the ZRE sedan?

Are the chassis the same on the sedan and hatch ZRE and can the same strut bar be used on both cars?

If anyone has fitted a strut bar on the ZRE sedan, please let me know what you had to do to fit it.

The reason am asking all these questions because I have attempted to fit a strut bar today that was sent to me from overseas marked as "Toyota Altis" which is the same car as our ZRE here, but the base of the strut bar did not align with the strut bar mounts, so I couldn't fit it.

In addition to the above, the installation process was so complicated that I kept scratching my head, as I had to remove the entire plastic cowl part from the car and also remove BOTH wipers to be able to remove this cowl.

When I had all this done, I noticed the black horse shoe connecting 2 of the strut bolts and I couldn't remove this horse shoe from its place, it would slide off one bolt but not the other, as the top metal section (which sits under the plastic cowl) was blocking access of the horse shoe and I couldn't slide it out.

I have never seen anything like it before and this must be the toughest car to fit a strut bar on LOL :) It's either that or am doing something totally wrong ;)

Look forward to hearing from you guys.

P.S. Is the Australian ZRE sedan based on some other JDM platform (example: Toyota Premio or Wish)?

Edited September 4, 2009 by jalalski

[jskill]

I'm not to sure if the chasis is the same for hatch and sedan ZRE but me, Vinh (Le.vinh.zR) and another mate tommy (shin0bi) just purchased one that is made for the ZRE Hatch its from C-One so im not to sure if it will fit the sedan.

Edited September 4, 2009 by jskill

[SHIRE.ZRE]

Thanks for the reply mate. Have you fitted yours yet?

How did you go about removing the black horseshoe from the bolt that is closer to the firewall?

It would be good to have pics showing the installation.

Here are pics showing my problem:

Edited September 4, 2009 by jalalski

[Jaaassseeee]

Should really have done a little research before going ahead with it, as people in this forum have tried and failed with getting parts from any place other than Japan.

To put it simply, the hatch and sedan in Australia and the Auris (Japan) run on the same chassis, aka E15 (ZRE152), hence why the C-One Struts would work on our Corollas. It wouldn't make sense nor would it be cost effective to have the same car model in Australia running on different platforms. From my understanding, the E14 (ZRE142) is utilised in Asia, Europe (I think this was mentioned by SuperDave) and America.

Before buying things, I'd suggest you ask around first. Just so you know, the TWM Short Shifter made for the 2009 Corolla in America also does not fit the Corollas over here.

Your best bet is getting something either locally made or imported directly from Japan (i.e. C-One for various things, HKS for their Compact C Coilovers, Teins [apparently they have one for the Auris], Dixcel for anything brakes and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head, otherwise the rest will be trial and error.

[SHIRE.ZRE]

Thanks Jase,

This strut bar was sent to me to trial and test-fit and I always like to try and explore new things myself first hand before making judgement on things and saying they simply won't fit.

The strut bar in question is made by a company in Taiwan that manufactures them for every single car in the world, they have told me that it fits the US ZRE version and it also fits the Altis in the Asian market. I had no idea that the chassis will be different between our ZRE, the one in the US and the Altis in Asia, but now I know ;)

I think this strut bar is suited for the E14 Corolla in Asia which has different strut mounts to ours.

At least I know I wasn't going crazy today when I couldn't fit it, but that still doesn't answer my question about removing that black horseshoe and how you guys managed to do it.

[SHIRE.ZRE]

Guys,

Does anyone have pics showing the C-One strut bar fitted to their ZRE and where can I buy it from?

EDIT: Never mind, I found the thread with pics.

[juvenile]

try this, hope it worked

http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/inde...showtopic=22418

[SHIRE.ZRE]

try this, hope it worked

http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/inde...showtopic=22418

Thanks mate, this thread has some good info. too

http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/inde...mp;hl=strut+bar