Superstrut Suspension, ST202 - ST205 suspention Options

[Rusty]

...Superslut...

lol

I am so stoked, Hey Rusty I'll show u how a real Celi handles if you come up to Auckland

I dont know, yours would feel more like a boat more than mine when are you going to put springs/coilovers in?

[Cuts_the_Pilot]

put in the kyb super special yesterday, and fnck me the difference is crazy.
words, noise, rapid movements, flatulance or anything else cannot explain how much better it handles, heaps smoother, better traction. Its such an epic improvement,
i reccommend.

[Rusty]

load some pics up Mr Cuts

[Cuts_the_Pilot]

[Rusty]

Wow that was quick

Very nice

[paul_gt4]

i duno about it being better handling man, compared to a shagged ss setup i would agree, but superstrut in its full working potential is a better strut type. Multi links in general are superior, just the extra cost and a bit of weight and complexity sometimes doesnt get outweighed by the benefits.

202/204 and 205 use all the same suspension attachment points so its simply a matter of swapping it over. That was a stipulation toyota put on the engineers when they designed the 6th gen.

what did you do for your stoppers? custom brackets for the calipers? did you sacrifice 10-15mm of rotor diameter like most do when they do a 185/202/204 to 205 brake conversion?

I'll have to get pics of the set up when i get the car back from getting the rebuild done, but i still have the same ST205 braking set up which will be binned in the near future for some 10pots, from driving my mates car with the same KYB set up as mines i notice that mines holds the corners better and doesn't understeer in comparison to my mates car, maybe because my car is alot lighter up front could be the difference but i'm glad i have the set up i have

[coneyre]

put in the kyb super special yesterday, and fnck me the difference is crazy.
words, noise, rapid movements, flatulance or anything else cannot explain how much better it handles, heaps smoother, better traction. Its such an epic improvement,
i reccommend.

Sounds good man, very interested. How much did they set you back? Have you got the part number or site where I can get a set?

[playr158]

without going and reading all the replies, my car with the previous owner removed the useless superstrut set up, go onto any gt4 forum and thats all you'll hear of the members there crying about (its failure and the cost of repair with genuine parts and look at the price of coilovers compared to any other car), its a curse and i'm glad its been removed on mines and fitted with a ST202 set up (Macpherson) including subframe, the initial plan was for set it up with a ST185 set up but the ST202 is supposively very similar with less fabrication. Anyone who i know who has done this has smiled from ear to ear with better handling and less failures and i think that TTE is agreeing with me or i'm agreeing with them more like as the TTE ST205 WRC had the similar Macpherson setup.

going by this post.

I'm assuming we can run Mcpherson suspension with the AWD system in our celicas?

[GEpower]

I love it that my new Celica has Superstrut. However it started knocking, it seems the figure 8 isn't OK. I'm not sure though, if it's the figure 8. But the figure 8 is looking rusty, while on the good side of the car the figure 8 is not rusty at al. (might even have been replaced already)

[97celiman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPherson_strut

so i read this article....

does macpherson have a sort of stock "coilover"...they are just non adjuststable?

[Cuts_the_Pilot]

Coneyre I got them through a mate of mine who deals directly with a japanese workshop who gets them from the manufactuers. They were around $1900 AUD to my door about 6 months ago. Umm ill find a link for you.

Apparently a stipulation toyota put on the engineers is that they use the same pickup points. so in theory a macpherson strut setup should bolt straight up.


KYB WEBSITE

celiman, the macpherson strut is just like most modern suspension setups, with a shock inside a coil spring. So yeah its a kind of coilovers, but usually people use the term coilovers for aftermarket adjustable types.

This post has been edited by Cuts_the_Pilot: Dec 7, 2008 - 7:44 PM

[WALKER]

I think I was able to find the part numbers for the KYB Super Special for Street for ST205 from your link to the KYB website.

SST9002R (Front Right)
SST90002L (Front Left)
SST5123R (Rear Right)
SST5123L (Rear Left)

Can anyone confirm if those are correct?

This post has been edited by WALKER: Mar 17, 2009 - 11:22 AM

[yorkie]

I have a 94 Superstrut Celica and as you have explained it so well i now know the difference between regulaar celicas and my own which is an ST202, i struggle to find parts in the uk so if anyone has useful links it would be much apreciated. Im looking for the ball joints that are described in this post and the upper ball joint as well, failed mot on both sides of the car for suspension. Great piece of info though. Thanks.

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.

[Cuts_the_Pilot]

assuming you mean the fig 6 and the upper ball joint (mounted on the strut)

you have 3 options. Toyota, Fensport, and there is some online toyota place that sell these parts cheaper then both of those others. Im pretty sure its uk based.
Since your in the uk you best bet is signing up to www.gt4oc.net and becomming a member, you get discounts and there is many knowledgeable people there...and their reasonably local.

[Nial]

I dont see the problem with superstrut suspension......although expensive to replace it lasts around 60,000 miles...not many have a car for that many miles....

Try cheap toyota parts or TCB (toyota celica breakers) both for new parts

Susperstrut is fine and works well.

[kaz_st202]

hi, having a huge problem. need to know if my car is superstrut or not. as the toyota dealers gave me false information saying that only gt4's have superstrut.

i have a 1995 celica gt st202 ssIII , i think its ssIII. superstrut or not?

kaz

[Ronan]

hi, having a huge problem. need to know if my car is superstrut or not. as the toyota dealers gave me false information saying that only gt4's have superstrut.

i have a 1995 celica gt st202 ssIII , i think its ssIII. superstrut or not?

kaz

SS-III are super strut yes. Has the Beams engine yes? If not its not a SS-III.

An easy way to see if you have super strut is to simply look at your front shocks.

These are SS:


These are what my SS TRD coilover look like:


On non super strut both the front and back shocks will look like the rears above, the one on the bottom.

[Tech-Nics]

I head there is a difference in the suspension between the ST & GT version. I heard the GT has a slightly better suspension. Yes?

[95CelicaST]

I head there is a difference in the suspension between the ST & GT version. I heard the GT has a slightly better suspension. Yes?

No.

There is, however, a difference between factory option sport suspension that I believe came factory on the GT-S models. The struts are sealed up front, so you can't replace the shock like you can in the standard strut setups.

[delusionz]

SS-III are super strut yes. Has the Beams engine yes? If not its not a SS-III.

Beams doesn't mean anything except its definitely not an SS-I.

SS-III in '96 - '97 have gen3 3s-ge just the same as SS-II

Both the SS-II and SS-III got the Beams 3s-ge in 1998 and '99

It's the Superstrut, standard F+R strutbraces & All high performance options + bodykit options included as standard that sets it apart from SS-II

It just sucks that VVT-i wasn't available in 1996, and the high spoiler wasn't available for neither the SS-III nor the GT-Four.