Sway Bar Sizes

[Vibraphone]

Hello, I'm a newbie -- my first Asian car, after decades working on Benz, BMW, VW & Volvo.

I'm doing the suspension work on my newly acquired '06 Vibe. It looks like 2009-10 Vibes got a significant rear sway bar upgrade: 17.2mm to 29.97mm. Wow! If this is correct [I'm basing my info on MOOG: Rear to Frame Sway Bar Bushing Kit - 29.97 mm (1.18 Inch) k201446then]. If I acquire a later gen rear sway bar, it will correct a lot of my '06 pathetic understeer. Anyone out there done this? If true, I can only assume Toyota increased the diameter of the rear sway bar for a reason: 69%.... that's a huge difference--on basically the same car.

[vibedrivermatt]

Hi the site isn't what isnused to be. Many of the users have moved into different cars and no longer post here. I also no longer post here frequently but used to post quite a bit back around 2009.

Anyway, concerning the TRD parts for your car, these are for the most part no longer available for sale anywhere. You might get lucky and find some parts listed on ebay or elsewhere. I suspect most the these TRD sway bars ended up in a scrap heap along with the cars, most of which may have been scrapped. If not they may have been shipped to central America. A lot of old toyotas tend to get shipped there.

There are a few other aftermarket type subframe stiffening parts I've seen on ebay that are suppsed to fit second generation vibes. I'm not at all familiar with how well they fit or work though.

[SeattleJeremy]

I don't recommend using a rear bar that much larger than stock.
I installed the Progress Tech 24mm bar on my 06 Vibe, and it was great until the suspension was warn from 200k+ miles. Then it got a little sketchy when it rained. However, it worked pretty well in autocross to pick up the rear inside wheel during heavy braking.

Going from a 17mm to 30mm bar will result in an unbalanced suspension. Especially, if that's the only thing you change.

To resolve the understeer, you will need to upgrade and replace all of the suspension. New struts in front, new shocks in rear, the TRD sway bars, new bushings (rubber ones, polyurethane, and other interesting materials, make the ride uncomfortable.)