TTE parts feedback

[T Sport]

Hi,

I've recently purchased a couple of TTE parts, and had them installed on my Corolla T Sport. I just wanted to share my first impressions with you.

Lowering springs:

Mine aren't exactly from TTE, but from H&R with original dampers. My T Sport has been lowered by 30 mm. I assume the effect and feel of TTE lowering springs is pretty much the same. This should be standard on any T Sport, as they improve looks (by 100%) and handling. The car simply feels more solid, without being too hard and harsh. A must buy for every T Sport owner. 10/10 points.

TTE sports silencer:

Huge, polished twin tail pipes (2 x 90 mm) will be noticed. Looks is fantastic, as well as build quality. The exhaust note is deeper compared to original T Sport single exhaust pipe. In my opinion the car has now better throttle response, and in theory you may gain a couple additional horsepowers. The sound is not too loud or noisy, which is good at cruising speeds. 9/10 points (the silencer is a bit expensive I say).

TTE quick shift kit:

Aah, absolutely fantastic. A must buy for every Corolla T Sport owner. This kit is simply brilliant. The Corolla gear shift is now extremely quick and precise. Gone are somewhat "sticky" gear changes, now it's all very positive, clean engagement without hardly any extra "play". The travel is very, very short. At least in theory you could drop 0,1-0,2 sec from 0-100 km/h acceleration figures. 10/10 points.

TTE strut bar:

Is this really a worthwhile performance modification? While it may indeed reduce the flex associated with the body and suspension, it's difficult to see the benefits. One must drive on the track to see any performance advantage. It looks good in the engine bay, as it's well designed and made of polished aluminium. Is it worth it? The looks is worth every Euro. 8/10 points.

I'll post some new pictures in very near future.

Br Petri (from Finland)

[spwolf]

Cool - my TTE lowering springs are coming next tuesday...

About quick shift kit - is it harder now to use the car in the town? (stop and go traffic) - thats my only concern with that

[T Sport]

Hmm, a tough question.

All this is of course of personal taste, in most cases you anyway select a gear by instinct. I found T Sport original gear shift mechanism somewhat sticky to my personal taste. Anyway, I wouldn't say it's harder because there's big improvement in shift precision. Moving the shift lever from one gear into another feels "natural" and I just can't imagine missing a gear anymore (which I have done a couple times before the shift kit). The shift pattern is tight and firm, but I have a feeling that the movement of the gear shift lever requires maybe a bit more strength. I maybe be wrong here, but the lever *seems* to be shorter as well but I haven't been able to verify this yet.

I have found the fourth gear to be the most useful when cruising in town, and have adapted 1st, 2nd and then directly to 4th gear shifting pattern.

Br Petri

Originally posted by spwolf

Cool - my TTE lowering springs are coming next tuesday...

About quick shift kit - is it harder now to use the car in the town? (stop and go traffic) - thats my only concern with that

[spwolf]

Well, I will wait for all my accessories that I ordered right now to be fitted, and to go through another 800-1000 km, so I can see if I really need it... the thing is - my stock shifter is improving a lot as I am racking up few km (800 km so far)....

right now, i have few things ordered, which are coming next week

- TTE lowering springs

- TTE Roof spoiler

- alu pedals

- subwoofer

- alarm system

That will complete my 1st set of upgrades ;-)

[spwolf]

TTE lowering springs are awesome - they make the whole car look much much better... stock wheels finally look great as well... car is now just perfect..damn it looks fine

[John Barlow]

Hi Spwolf,

Ok, we all know the cars look much better lowered, but what does it handle like now? Is it much different? let us all know. Cheers

[spwolf]

Its a bit more stable, I dont notice it being any harsher on my back, even though roads here are horrible... however, I drive it mostly around town though so I dont know how much exactly has handling improved...

but the point was that lowering the car improves the look much better than gettin new wheels - and its a lot less expensive too... stock wheels now look tight

[John Barlow]

Hi Spwolf,

How much did the springs cost and how much were they to fit? Cheers.

[mytbyte]

I am looking into having the TTE springs fitted in Graz, Austria where they sell at 250 € (200 € VAT excluded), I'm going there tommorow to see how long and how much money it would take...SP Wolf, what would your service charge for the above?

Cheers...

[spwolf]

It would be like 300 Euro for original TTE springs (with VAT), and like 15 Euro for fitting (one hour)... so all together you are going to pay the same ;-)

of course, if you gonna do several things at the same time, I can give you a discount... I definetly reccomend getting TS shift knob as well... its 118 Euro's... I was driving 1.6 few days back and thats the first thing I noticed ;-)

Part No: 3350402050b0

(shift knob for TS)

Keep in mind that TS shift knob has been desgined for 6 speed, but it looks much better than leather knob that you can order as accessory for your 1.6

[spwolf]

john - I work in Toyota dealership, so I got it a lot cheaper ;-)

[John Barlow]

Hi Spwolf,

I work for Toyota also. I'd get a good discount over retail price and also cheap fitting, but how much are they retail and how much should they be to fit so that I can work out how much it is going to cost me. Cheers

[spwolf]

they cost anywhere from 250-350 Euro in Europe, I dont know exact MSRP in UK. You should be able to fit them in 1 hr, so whatever your shop charges you for 1 hr of labor is the fitting cost... whatever the cost is, its going to be worth it

[T Sport]

spwolf,

Did I understand that your TTE lowering springs installation took only one hour? I'm not sure about the T Sport suspension but in front there are MacPherson struts. What about rear, independent MacPherson struts or something else?

What's the process for rebuilding the suspension with lowering springs like?

a) remove the wheel

b) remove original spring and shock absorber (MacPherson strut)

c) disassemble suspension parts

d) install new spring and assemble back together

e) installation of strut back to T Sport

f) install wheel

You have to do this at least twice (4x?), and then check alignment of wheels, just to make sure they're correct. My shop used a computerized wheel alignment system.

Mine took close to 6 hours...did they cheat me?

Originally posted by spwolf

It would be like 300 Euro for original TTE springs (with VAT), and like 15 Euro for fitting (one hour)...

[mytbyte]

Graz is off for now (christmas madness)...springs will probably come into play in spring or summer 2003 together with the quickshift and some alloy wheels...we'll keep in touch, spwolf...maybe I drop by when I go on vacation in summer near you :-)

P.S. 118€ is rather steep for a knob, it'll have to wait :-)

[spwolf]

i will check with mechanics, i was not there when they were installing it, but i seriously doubt it would take 6 hours to do all that... maximum of 2-3 hours

keep in mind that shops like to charge close to 50% of the price of parts, in working hours... we dont do that, and plus i work there anyway ;-)

as to mytbyte - 118 Euro might be a little bit steep, but consider how much you paid for the car ;-)... and it is a big diff... also, leather shift knob from accessories for your corolla is like 95 Euro, so thats a little bit cheaper... and of course, drop anytime, I love giving people rides in my TS ;-)

[mytbyte]

spwolf, ;)

[spwolf]

Ok, it took around 2 hrs of non stop work to install springs... without aligment - that itself costs 15 Euro here, and is counted separatly... so really they should have charged you 3 hours, if they went by the actual working hours

[T Sport]

Installation was fixed price including wheel alignment. Doesn't really matter if they spent a couple of extra hours on it, lowering springs were worth every Euro.

[spwolf]

right - thats something else... lots of shop use fixed price for repairing something or installation of accessories...