Aurion Series 50 – Understeer FIXED - Upgraded adjustable rear sway bar FIXED - Harsh rear suspension FIXED.

[Geoff Toyota Aurion]

Aurion Series 50 – Understeer FIXED - Upgraded adjustable rear sway bar FIXED - Harsh rear suspension FIXED.

 

I guess anyone who owns an Aurion Series 50 (2011 to 2017), knows about the understeer, nothing fixes it. Until now. Just had installed

1.    Control Arm Lower-Inner Rear Bush Kit - Double Offset (too create more caster)

A Double Offset kit is used for enhanced handling performance and will deliver positive caster to both sides of the vehicle. The vehicle will have improved directional stability, crisper, more responsive steering and improved 'return to centre' feel. This is a non-tyre wearing geometry change that has a substantial effect on a vehicles handling characteristics.

 

https://superpro.com.au/find/superpro-suspension-parts-and-poly-bushings-for-toyota-aurion-2011-on-acv5-gsv5-/cid-999501509

 

2    For those who hate the understeer as much as I did, knows that getting an up graded rear sway bar is nearly impossible. Until now. I have just had my rear bar of 16mm upgraded to an adjustable 22 mm. The company builds sway bars in Aust. They put 21 mm on the TRD but chose to go to 22 mm on my stock Presara. The difference is beyond belief. Many would know that the back ends on Series 50’s always felt weird, it felt like the shocks worked hard all day and tyre pressures needed to be lower than normal just to be comfortable. ALL FIXED. The whole car drives, corners and balances so much better.

 

Drive Industries at Somersby, near Gosford made it happen. https://www.driveindustries.com.au/ Talk to Doug or Andrew to make your ride go like it should have from the day it was made.

 

The thing that impressed me the most at Drive Industries was their PASSION and PRIDE at every stage or the transformation. Be warned, this will sound ridiculous but the car goes faster on the same foot throttle position. Watch the speedo. It’s smoother and with less rolling resistance. When their amazing wheel aligning machine can set up zero THRUST through the centre of the vehicle it changes everything.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Geoff Toyota Aurion
spelling

[Tony Prodigy]

Wow ! What an entrance Geoff. Hello and welcome to the Forum mate.

I must say that I wasn't aware of any understeer issues associated with the 50 as I don't drive it hard. I pussy foot it around to quite honest so I don't degrade it prematurely. But It would be plausible with all that weight over the front axles for it to understeer. I did recently post up a thread to ask if anyone had done a poly bushing upgrade because I have noticed my left front wheel always goes out of whack and this tyre wears the edges out far more than the right. I then have to do the tyre swap dance, left to right, then eventually front to rear to maximise the life cycles. Usually two fronts to one set of rears.

I do hear you though on the rear, being unweighted too has some definite peculiarity to it, especially when the tyres wear and get harder with age AND with the alignment always seemingly going off. 

I would definitely be interested in the kit. I could install it myself but then I'd have to take it to Gosford to have it adjusted and aligned. Gosford is quite a hike from Western Sydney.

What sort of money are we looking at for this ? ( you can send me a p.m. if you like)

Do you have more pics you can post up ?

[Geoff Toyota Aurion]

Hello Tony

Thank you for the welcome. My ride has very low kms and I always felt that left and right hand turns that happen at traffic lights always needed a lot more steering wheel action just to go around the corner. Initially I thought it may have been the type of steering system. I experimented with tyre pressures – no real advantage there. I put four Michelin’s on and that made a difference but not as good as I had liked. The tyres are now at 32,000 kms and half worn, running 36F/32R and wearing flat. A little outside edge and inside edge wear on the F/L. As the tyres are now half done the right-angle corners were showing up even more to understeer or having to use a lot of steering wheel. Originally, I thought it was because my daily driver is a Subaru AWD and it’s just the feel you get with AWD. Makes sense. Wanting a solution, I checked everywhere and always suspected the rear sway bar. Aurion’s with no weight in the boot feel “wrong” in the back. Put 50 to 75kgs in the boot, between the wheels and the rear end feels “nice.”

Since I have had cars, every car has either had a rear bar installed or up rated, makes a world of difference. So that is what started the process and finding Drive Industries to manufacture a 50 series adjustable rear bar. They checked the car and found a split R/H side caster bush. At this point I would say, the car with just 63k’s, drove straight, never wandered and the steering wheel was always centred. Enter the new Caster urethane bushes, double offset, installed both in the lower control arms.

The transformation with L/H and R/H turns is remarkable with more caster out of the packet. Add an up rated rear sway bar and the grin is still on my face. Two front adjustable camber bolts were always part of the install, just to give the opportunity to a precision wheel alignment and as I found out, small adjustments in caster, camber and toe, front and rear make a big difference towards zero thrust through the centre of the car.

Open road cornering is flat and as precise as it gets and “apexing” the corners is just fun.

I have had wheel alignments, both 2-wheel and 4-wheel alignments done for centuries and many of my vehicles have been independent suspensions from way back with the Cooper S and the 240 (still two of my all-time favourites.)

Rather than quote my price, please give them a call. This firm makes things happen.

[campbeam]

16 hours ago, Geoff Toyota Aurion said:

The transformation with L/H and R/H turns is remarkable with more caster out of the packet. Add an up rated rear sway bar and the grin is still on my face.

Very interested to see a follow up post in a few months time to see whether the grin is still there or even wider.

[Tony Prodigy]

17 hours ago, Geoff Toyota Aurion said:

Rather than quote my price, please give them a call. This firm makes things happen.

Not even a ballpark ? Do I have to be seated for the price ?

[campbeam]

On 6/9/2020 at 6:39 AM, Tony Prodigy said:

Not even a ballpark ?

This post has been on my mind about how this outlay would have improved the driving experience.

I have previously considered a rear sway bar but not gone further. This time I did a bit more research and an internet comment about upgrading sway bars was like a band aid approach for worn suspension got my attention. It is not applicable for Geoff's vehicle. However, I am sure that it would be relevant for my Oct.2006 Aurion ATX now at 215K on the odometer and I know that the car has a lot of rear body roll through a roundabout. 

I also like apexing corners.

I have just order a set of front and rear standard height King springs and a set of Sachs shock absorbers for a total outlay of $950 using 3 different sellers. I have also got some adjustable camber bolts [previous purchase] so might as well fit them to both front and rear.

Certainly expecting that body roll to be greatly diminished and hopefully not need to also upgrade the rear sway bar or fit a front strut bar.   

[Tony Prodigy]

1 hour ago, campbeam said:

I also like apexing corners

Haha, I drive like that too Ashley.

I have to ask though, back on the subject of suspension, what condition are your bushes in ?

I think I'd start with replacing all the bushes before doing the shocks or perhaps just do the whole lot when the time comes. I'm on the hunt for a decent press to have on hand and have all the appropriate tools ready to be able to carry out this work. Doesn't seem like a hard job, just a bit fiddly i reckon and maybe some cursing in there for good measure too 

[campbeam]

1 hour ago, Tony Prodigy said:

what condition are your bushes in ?

I think I'd start with replacing all the bushes before doing the shocks or perhaps just do the whole lot when the time comes.

As far as I can tell the bushes are in good condition. I have been meaning to reinforce them using Sikaflex so will add them to the list.

[ZZT86]

On 6/5/2020 at 11:21 AM, Geoff Toyota Aurion said:

" it felt like the shocks worked hard all day and tyre pressures needed to be lower than normal just to be comfortable."

 

What exactly do you mean ? What was uncomfortable about the stock setup ?

 

 

[Geoff Toyota Aurion]

Hello ZZT86

Thank you for the question, a little background. The car is a 2013 with about 63K’s. The suspension felt tight all over and many of the suspension components still have the manufacturing stickers on them from the factory. The car always understeered at L and R traffic lights. In a straight line or when cornering on uneven surface the back shocks seemed harsh, something that has been said in previous posts. So, I dropped the tyre pressures. The car runs empty all the time, nothing in the boot. As soon as the boot is loaded or 40 to 70 kgs put in the boot between the wheel arches, the harsh feel goes. I didn’t notice it when we bought the car at 31K’s two years ago, because I sat in the back during one of the test drives. When driving without anyone in the back seat, the shocks or tyres seemed to go, bump, bump, bump at every opportunity over the smallest crap road surfaces. I also noticed that the sway bar directly linked to the half way point up the struts/shock absorbers, a little different to traditional sway bar set ups that link to the trailing arms in many cars.

I started to wonder if the rear sway bar maybe too soft and there may have been a rebound type of action. Think of playing a piano, using two fingers. One finger on each key (side by side) and just tap on the keys, one finger up, one finger down and continue. Think now of the possibility that these were the two rear shocks, going up and down with no sway bar. Now add a soft sway bar and the result is basically the same. Now add a stiffer bar and the shocks don’t go down as far in the travel. I read a couple of reports about people who put a 19mm bar on the back and they said it was better. I was given the opportunity for a 22mm bar to be made, and it made all the difference. In the three random google photos, notice the back wheel how the shock is extended during cornering, one off the ground when the car is in ‘hurry mode.’ A lot of travel happens with a lot of compression on the opposite side of the car.

Got me thinking that maybe the shocks were working hard against the sway bar and there was a type of bounce back, not in this driving style but just round town mode.

In any case I put the 22mm bar on and hey presto the harsh bump, bump is gone, the cornering is amazing and with the urethane caster bushes, all the understeer has disappeared. The car is completely different. Oh what a feeling – still smiling.

[yoshi2015]

Nice write up!

I've got a 2012 GSV50 Aurion Touring and wanted to share some mods.

I bought an Ultra Racing 19mm rear sway (UR-AR19-159) bar last year or year before, it was about $314 delivered (Sydney to Melbourne).

The same bar fits on the 50 series camry, https://ultraracingaustralia.com.au/product-category/toyota/camry-aurion-xv50-asv50r-gsv50r-avv50r-11-17/ comes with the stronger polyurethane bushes. Took about 3-4 weeks delivery, not sure how it will work with COVID atm.

Other mods:

• Upgraded brakes to 2 piston kluger, pretty much straight swap of caliper + new disc and pads following a guide that was on this forum? I think.
• Running bendix rotors / qfm pads.
• Have KYB shocks all 4 corners
• Springs have been changed to King Spring Low (~25mm drop), only really scrape on super steep driveways
• Running Bridgestone S007a (changed tyre to 225/50/17 from 215/55/17 on stock rim) - Don't recommend going to a lower profile unless your car is lowered, the car looks funny, really big wheel gap.
• K&N filter - (with drilled holes in airbox for more noise, very obvious on WOT) doesn't do too much.. but has nice induction noise

I've owned since the car since 2017, did the upgrades slowly over ~16 months (did installation of the bar/springs and shocks in my garage), the 19mm rear sway bar wasn't that great on it's own, but once I had new shocks + stiffer springs and better tyres, it's definitely a lot nicer to drive.

Had a trip to the Yarra Ranges in Victoria last year with a few mates who had some pretty quick cars (2013 Megane RS265 / 2011 wrx) and through the hilly parts, there was no problem keeping up within the 90-100km/h+ zones.

Obviously at higher speeds they'll pull away, but keeping it within the country speed limits through the sweeping corners, they found it hard to pull away (did most of the hilly parts in 2nd/3rd gear, used about 20L/100 lol), 80-120km/h was very similar for all 3 cars. 

I'll definitely be seeing how much it'll cost for the double offset kit, probably last thing I do to this car before I give it to my wife and I move on haha.

Edited July 28, 2020 by yoshi2015

[campbeam]

I did a previous post in early June saying that I would be replacing/upgrading the struts and springs rather than upgrading the rear sway bar. Front struts arrived very quickly. KIng springs took longer because they were a special order and they arrived. Well Karma must have decided to get involved and it has taken about 6 weeks to finally get the rear struts. 

During this wait period, I ended up going to wreckers and getting a rear sway bar off of a Sportivo; cost $50 and 2 hours time to remove. It has the same 16mm diameter but the bar is solid not hollow. In the meantime, I have been enjoying the improved handling with reduced body roll.

Looks like I will be leaving the upgrading of the struts and springs for a bit longer and wait for warmer morning weather without any wind.

[campbeam]

On 6/12/2020 at 8:18 PM, campbeam said:

As far as I can tell the bushes are in good condition. I have been meaning to reinforce them using Sikaflex so will add them to the list.

Previous weekend, I finally made the effort and used Sikaflex 227 to reinforce the bushes in the lower front control arms. Jacked up the car and removed the wheel to get better access to the rubber bushing. After refitting the wheels and back on the ground, I let it cure for most of the day before going for a short drive that evening. I did not notice any difference at that time and the vehicle was parked until Wednesday evening.

On Thursday evening, there was no noticable torque steering when taking off at the 1st set of traffic lights. Confirmed that at the next set of traffic lights. Steering is feeling a bit more direct so quite pleased with this outcome.

Good preparation step for fitting the new springs and struts.

[ZZT86]

@yoshi2015 how do find the 007's ? I've read they're a pretty awesome tyre. Cheers 

Edited December 12, 2020 by ZZT86

[yoshi2015]

On 12/12/2020 at 7:57 PM, ZZT86 said:

@yoshi2015 how do find the 007's ? I've read they're a pretty awesome tyre. Cheers 

Yeah great tyres, probably overkill for the car, body roll and understeer will get you before these tyres lose grip.

It's hard to get a good deal on them though, I'd go towards the RE003 if I have to replace these, since Bridgestone regularly do buy 3 get 1 free

[Tony Prodigy]

13 hours ago, yoshi2015 said:

Yeah great tyres, probably overkill for the car, body roll and understeer will get you before these tyres lose grip.

Yep, I agree. Total overkill for an Aurion. They are more for performance cars than a family sedan. Aurions handle like crap to really appreciate tyres like that.

I like the idea of the rear sway bar though. You've inspired me to look into this now.

[Sleeperau1]

I have just bought the Ultra racing Strut Brace & 19mm Rear Sway bar & about to fit them. I am already running 18x8 245/40/18 Tyres. I am interested in the double offset kit. I am about to fit the Brace & Sway bar to see the difference.

[ZZT86]

Great, let know what you think. Also, which model Aurion you have ? 

[Tony Prodigy]

10 hours ago, ZZT86 said:

Great, let know what you think. Also, which model Aurion you have ? 

That makes two of us.

[Sleeperau1]

I have an ATX, I just put the Ultra racing rear sway bar on & you do notice a definite difference, not as much as the tyre and wheel upgrade but it sits flatter through corners and roundabouts. I could not fit the strut brace as they sent the wrong one. Ultra Racing are getting their new batch in this month so I will fit it as see if it makes any difference. 

[ZZT86]

On 6/17/2020 at 12:51 PM, Geoff Toyota Aurion said:

The suspension felt tight all over and many of the suspension components still have the manufacturing stickers on them from the factory. The car always understeered at L and R traffic lights. In a straight line or when cornering on uneven surface the back shocks seemed harsh, something that has been said in previous posts. So, I dropped the tyre pressures. The car runs empty all the time, nothing in the boot. As soon as the boot is loaded or 40 to 70 kgs put in the boot between the wheel arches, the harsh feel goes. I didn’t notice it when we bought the car at 31K’s two years ago, because I sat in the back during one of the test drives. When driving without anyone in the back seat, the shocks or tyres seemed to go, bump, bump, bump at every opportunity over the smallest crap road surfaces. I also noticed that the sway bar directly linked to the half way point up the struts/shock absorbers, a little different to traditional sway bar set ups that link to the trailing arms in many cars.

 

I started to wonder if the rear sway bar maybe too soft and there may have been a rebound type of action. Think of playing a piano, using two fingers. One finger on each key (side by side) and just tap on the keys, one finger up, one finger down and continue. Think now of the possibility that these were the two rear shocks, going up and down with no sway bar. Now add a soft sway bar and the result is basically the same. Now add a stiffer bar and the shocks don’t go down as far in the travel. I read a couple of reports about people who put a 19mm bar on the back and they said it was better. I was given the opportunity for a 22mm bar to be made, and it made all the difference. In the three random google photos, notice the back wheel how the shock is extended during cornering, one off the ground when the car is in ‘hurry mode.’ A lot of travel happens with a lot of compression on the opposite side of the car.

 

Got me thinking that maybe the shocks were working hard against the sway bar and there was a type of bounce back, not in this driving style but just round town mode.

 

In any case I put the 22mm bar on and hey presto the harsh bump, bump is gone, the cornering is amazing and with the urethane caster bushes, all the understeer has disappeared. The car is completely different. Oh what a feeling – still smiling.

 

Forgot to comment regarding this & I think I know now what Geoff is talking about. His is the Presara with the softer struts & mine is the Sportivo with the stiffer struts but I always thought the whole car was a little "brittle" on anything but a fairly smooth surface. But on 2 recent occasions I had an extra 2 occupants (circa 150kg) in the car & the whole enchilada felt very comfortable/perfect, I was amazed.

Not being a suspension expert, I reckon the struts have a stiff compression/soft rebound valving if I'm understanding it correctly. I also just stuck me nose under the rear of the car & measured the sway bar & was gob-smacked to learn it's the same 16mm Geoff quoted initially in his first post !

I'm afraid that by shoving even a 19mm bar that it would become even more brittle as it stiffens everything up?

 

 

[Tony Prodigy]

6 hours ago, ZZT86 said:

I'm afraid that by shoving even a 19mm bar that it would become even more brittle as it stiffens everything up?

I doubt it G. I believe the thicker sway bar would help keep it more level during cornering, less roll. Suspension is a difficult area to master, and it can get quite expensive if you get it wrong. There is a fine line between strut and sway bar management and if you have the time and money, I'm sure one can find the sweet spot.

For me, I'm happy with the stock set up. The car drives and rides nicely, especially with new tyres and that's really good enough for me. If anything, I'd probably consider upgrading the sway bars and keep the stock struts.

[Sleeperau1]

On 1/12/2021 at 2:39 AM, Tony Prodigy said:

I doubt it G. I believe the thicker sway bar would help keep it more level during cornering, less roll. Suspension is a difficult area to master, and it can get quite expensive if you get it wrong. There is a fine line between strut and sway bar management and if you have the time and money, I'm sure one can find the sweet spot.

For me, I'm happy with the stock set up. The car drives and rides nicely, especially with new tyres and that's really good enough for me. If anything, I'd probably consider upgrading the sway bars and keep the stock struts.

I have had the rear Ultra racing 19mm sway bar on for 2 weeks & highly recommend it. I too want to stick to stock struts as well, a great improvement in body roll with the sway bar.  

[yoshi2015]

On 1/26/2021 at 8:09 PM, Sleeperau1 said:

I have had the rear Ultra racing 19mm sway bar on for 2 weeks & highly recommend it. I too want to stick to stock struts as well, a great improvement in body roll with the sway bar.  

Good to hear, the rear sway bar on it's own really does make a difference, I drove a 50 series recently that was completely stock.. yeah nah, full boat.

New shocks also do make a difference if you're using like 5+ year old ones, upgrading to new ones with same stiffness still gives a noticeable improvement over worn ones

[Sleeperau1]

The front strut brace finally arrived and has been on for 6 weeks, It does not make the same difference as the rear bar or 245 18's but it does help. The car handles way better than stock now. Looking at Caster urethane bushes, double offset next. I am happy with the struts & springs at 120k at this stage.