Superstrut Suspension, ST202 - ST205 suspention Options

[celi94]

In Europe we also have celica's with Superstrut Suspension.
Thats wy i'm sharing this information!


The ST205 GT-Four uses a system of front suspension design unique to Toyota. It moves away from the MacPherson strut used on all other Celicas and is much more complex. This system is used on the GT-Four, some Japanese spec Corollas and the higher spec Japanese fwd Celicas (SSII and SSIII). It was available in Europe on the Carina GTi and was an option on the ST202 (thanks Dirk for the info).

My understanding of the system is that the geometry does not give the same camber and castor changes during cornering that occur with MacPherson strut. Is it better? Well, it is different. There are reliability problems if maintenance isn't kept up, TTE had continual problems and I believe they swapped the rally cars back to MacPherson strut.

A brief description of MacPherson strut is in order. The Toyota system uses a lower A arm with rubber bushings front and rear. This has only one degree of motion (ie. it rotates on the bushings). At the outer point of the A arm is a balljoint which connects to the steering knuckle and allows for rotation (steering) and pivot (shock compression). The steering knuckle is rigidly bolted to the bottom of the strut. The whole strut turns when steering, twisting in the roller bearing in the top mount. Fairly simple and cheap, used by most manufacturers.

So what is Superstrut suspension? It is a hybrid between normal MacPherson strut and a multilink setup. One of the requirements of the design brief was that the system would fit existing suspension mount locations. Therefore the system can be fitted into export Celicas as well as the Japanese lower spec SSI! The late production cars even share the same subframe.

The photo below shows the lower part of the system. This consists of a front and rear lower arm, connected (by rodends) to a connector plate. The rear arm has a rubber bushing at the inner end (the only rubber bushing at the front except swaybar D-bushings), the front arm has a balljoint. This system allows the arms to pivot as the suspension turns.



The steering knuckle is quite different to that of the MacPherson strut cars. It bolts securely to the connector plate joining the lower arms (see photo below). The top end connects to the strut part way up using a balljoint (see red arrow in left picture and upper arrow in right picture below. The strut mounts to the body in the normal way, but the lower end is secured to the front lower arm using another pivoting arm visible at the right in the photo above. This arm is near vertical in the photos, it is actually about 150mm long and pivots at each end.



The photo of the assembled suspension below shows that the strut rotates minimally when steering ( the same amount as the front lower arm as it is rigidly connected). The steering knuckle moves instead. While the outboard strut moves rearwards slightly when the car turns in (turning left in the photo), it can be seen that the hub moves forward. But because of the strut movement the actual movement at the wheel is minimised.

The second photo shows the mounting points for the lower arms on the subframe.



All the info from: gtfour.supras.org.nz

[BonzaiCelica]

hmm good stuff edophus! the only way to get my hands on a Superstrut suspension would be off an engine swap that came with the whole front clip! although most places never sell you the front brakes or the suspension, why is that?

what are the available superstrut coilover kits for the celica? tein i know for a fact they make them, http://www.nengun.com/tein/super-street omg why SO much!!!

and then I found these http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/performanc...nsion/Coilovers


This post has been edited by BonzaiCelica: Nov 26, 2013 - 12:26 AM

[Edophus]

hmm good stuff edophus! the only way to get my hands on a Superstrut suspension would be off an engine swap that came with the whole front clip! although most places never sell you the front brakes or the suspension, why is that?

what are the available superstrut coilover kits for the celica? tein i know for a fact they make them, http://www.nengun.com/tein/super-street omg why SO much!!!

J-Speed coilovers kits for the ST202 and ST205 what the hell. and i thought teins were alot!! http://www.rhdjapan.com/j-speed-type-h-coi...per-strut-56463

and then I found these http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/performanc...nsion/Coilovers

how about C-One and JIC superstrut kits, dont make them?

i think they dont sell you the struts and brakes because i think those parts will sell fairly well seperate, not really sure though. For coilovers i only used the TRD coilovers, there shortened and use KYB inserts so very tough and oem quality. I imported them from japan auctions, quite expensive, but i trust TRD stuff, not sure about other brands. If i can get superstrut fitted to my gen 5 then i will hopefully go with custom shocks, theres really no different between the macstrut/superstrut in terms of fitting up custom coillovers so thats an option, it will cost me about the same as importing another set of trd coilovers but will give me both rebound and bound adjustement. for example the TRD coilovers for both superstrut/mac strut use the same shocks, with same overall body length and stroke length, and use the same springs.

delusionz i can see your not convinced about the helical lsd but they did come with the helica after 95, i sold my ss3 gearbox and its since been opened and confirmed as having the helical diff, also the helical diff that comes in the later mk3 mr2, or spyder as its called some places is the same diff and can be retrofitted into s54 gearboxes as long as you use the bearings from the s54.

This post has been edited by Edophus: Mar 27, 2010 - 4:55 PM