I have noticed that the understeer in the Evo is pretty bad. What is the best way to eliminate this without destroying my wallet. I was thinking about a rear strut tower brace.

 

The easiest thing to do is to get the wheels realigned. Set the camber at the front to the maximum negative (about -1.8 degrees), the rear to about -0.6 degrees, and the toe to 0 at both ends. Typically this will give you pretty neutral handling with the stock suspension. My experience is that with these settings you can induce mild oversteer with trail braking or letting off the throttle during a turn.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I have JIC FLTA2 coilovers as well.

 

Did you get the car aligned after installation of the coilovers? If so, what are the settings?

If not, that is probably your problem.

 

What are your plans for the car? Are you using it on the street, or are you looking to use it for autocross as well?

The factory alignments are horrible. I would start with the alignment first. You can also put a little bit of toe out front for quicker turn-in. Maybe a 1/16"

 

Best way to reduce the understeer is a larger rear sway bar. Cusco has the 23 mm, stock is 22 mm. Then add more negative camber in the front.
Sport Compact Car has a short article this month on handling.

 

just throwing on a rear sway bar will cure the understeer problems, but it will give you oversteer problems with the stocker up front.

 

-2 degree camber on the front and -1 for the rear also increase rake (point the nose down)

 

Just curious, why suggest pointing the nose down?? The front suspension geometry is very sensitive to ride height....

 

When I picked up my car it understeered horribly. I was kinda bummed. Then I put it on an alignment rack. I had -.2 camber in the front and -1.3 in the rear with .14 toe in in the rear. I set the front at -1.6 and the rear at -.6 with 0 toe all around. Handles awesome now with a little throttle lift oversteer. Does not understeer at all anymore. Even at autocrosses. -Erik

 

You cure the understeer by increasing oversteer with a rear sway bar. There has to be a good balance to be had, so don't think you will cure one problem and create another. The Cusco is only 1 mm thicker (but noticably heavier). It has 3 settings, so one of them should balance the car out nicely.

 

try progress group.... see my post from before...
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...ghlight=mmlvmm

I am really happy with this part. It made a big difference. Hope that helps

m

 

Strut bars and sway bars should be used to stiffen the chassis and to increase rigidity - you should not use them to compensate for oversteer or understeer, or you will find yourself in trouble more often than not.

Do what some of these guys have suggested, play with your alignment and camber first.

If you are getting aftermarket sway bars, you need to get front/rear at the same time.

 

Sway bars don't stiffen the chassis and they are most definately used to fine tune under or oversteer. Don't replace the front sway bar or you will negate the tuning you intended by changing the rear.
I agree with the playing with the camber first, but the most effective way to change under/oversteer is sway bar changes.

 

Thanks for the quick responses now I have even more choices.