solid rear axle....what's the problem with it...

solid rear axle....what's the problem with it...

The 03+ Corolla (mine) has the torsion bar rear suspension. Are there other names for this? Such as solid rear axle, semi-independent rear axle....something to that effect? What's the problems with it? I've heard people say it's not so good for performance. Why? What makes it suck? I suppose the better option is independent MacPherson struts? I'm familiar with the front suspension setup (MacPherson just means the coil spring is ON the strut, right?) How is it different.

Trav

fully independent suspension allows for better traction.

supposedly double-wishbone suspension is best and supposedly it came from racing technology.

my xA has a semi-rigid rear axle, meaning i do not have a coilover macpherson style suspension in the rear. not much of a problem, except rear sway is a bit more evident.. meaning, the further the spring is from the actual contact point with the pavement, the more likely it is to compress under load (high forces during turning)

this has all been corrected with swaybars, tho....

The 93-97's come with fully independent suspensions, right?

Nothing wrong with the torsion bar rear suspension - sometimes called semi-rigid, twist-beam, solid, etc. The use it for compactness and overall cost. Better units are called multi-link beam suspension and have been used on cars like the Infinity G20 and others.

Nice thing about the the MacPherson strut suspension are their vertical compactness and simplicity (coil over strut replaces upper arm). Compared to a double-wishbone or A-arm suspension - MacPherson systems generally have fewer parts and is lighter.

A fully independent system may give you more flexibility (build wise) than a semi-dependent suspension - depends on what you want to do with the car. Most cases in our FWD cars - we will probably never notice - unless you take it out to auto-x somewhere.

93-97 has 4 Wheel MacPherson Strut Suspension, so they ARE fully indipendent compared to double wishbone..

There are alot of debait on which is better, macpherson or double wishbone (mostly seen on hondas but the newer toyotas have them as well).

weight savings comes to mind here too

So, with the torsion beam rear, the wheels can't actually move away from each other. Like with MacPherson independent setup, the rear wheels will move out and back when compressed (the outside wheel in a curve). But with the torsion beam, if the wheel is compressed, it can move back, but not outward (right?) When going around a curve, the torsion beam acts as a stabilizer bar? If so, then what is the point of having a stabilizer bar AND torsion beam. It's just confusing, I guess. It's easy to look at a MacPherson independent suspension and see what happens, but not so much with the torsion beam design. I've heard something about asymmetrical bushings and extra refinement Toyota put into developing the rear suspension and blah blah blah....just curious how it all works I guess.

Trav