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No worries, I'm off for a while so my sleep schedule has gone kaput! The 265s are close to the 28.5" diameter of the stock 225/65R17s and the 255s are closer to the 235/55R18 diameter of the sport models. I'm not sure if the speedo is calibrated differently between the two trims but I doubt it. 265s might give you a more accurate reading in that case, but the difference is negligible between the two. With 265s your wider rims will be able to handle it. I would explore your options with both sizes and see which size has the better tires. I think it should look pretty cool! Keep us updated!
If you like the looks of 19s better though, I wouldn't forget about them. There's still lots of options with those, although I'm not sure if you have as much of a variety. What rims are you considering? Just curious
No worries, I'm off for a while so my sleep schedule has gone kaput! The 265s are close to the 28.5" diameter of the stock 225/65R17s and the 255s are closer to the 235/55R18 diameter of the sport models. I'm not sure if the speedo is calibrated differently between the two trims but I doubt it. 265s might give you a more accurate reading in that case, but the difference is negligible between the two. With 265s your wider rims will be able to handle it. I would explore your options with both sizes and see which size has the better tires. I think it should look pretty cool! Keep us updated!
If you like the looks of 19s better though, I wouldn't forget about them. There's still lots of options with those, although I'm not sure if you have as much of a variety. What rims are you considering? Just curious
ok well that sounds good. Yeah I’m gonna look at tires and maybe ask around while I’m at work tomorrow about the tires but yeah I’m glad I know atleast what to look for now. But no I think I’m done looking at 19’s because from the beginning I always wanted to keep it close to stock but I wanted to know at least what was out there. And yeah I’m wanting gram lights 57cr gun blue for my RX. My RX is silver and I think these would look good but then again I’m also looking at the eternal blue color as well as an option. I like these because i think they’re affordable compared to others and reliable and also my thing was I wanted to keep it Japanese from the car to the wheels and also the tires. I’m going to look for good Japanese wheel brands. I will definitely keep an update but for these wheels I’ve already called around and they are all back ordered and will take several months before I can get them but they will be worth the wait since they’re my first set o f wheels and I’m just excited for it
NICE man! Those would look killer on an RX! Good choice! Should be lighter than stock too for sure. I'd be torn between those and TE37s, I love them both but I think 5-spokers look fantastic on these. Can't wait to see how they look with some nice wide tires as well, it'll be worth the wait.
NICE man! Those would look killer on an RX! Good choice! Should be lighter than stock too for sure. I'd be torn between those and TE37s, I love them both but I think 5-spokers look fantastic on these. Can't wait to see how they look with some nice wide tires as well, it'll be worth the wait.
thanks brother! Yeah I know I like these wheels a lot there super simple but really good looking and yeah I know the te37s are really cool too. There’s a big difference in the 57crs and te’s like price and for me it was the sizes because I couldn’t find any rays wheels that had 18’ wheels and I looked at other ones like work and enkei but idk I really like rays wheels because too me they’re really cool looking simple but nice looking compared to the other ones personally. But yeah thanks I’m going to have to decide on which color and then from there is just ordering them and waiting for them to come in. I also changed the rear tail lights to the spyder black led ones. Idk if you’ve seen them?
I’ve seen the Spyder ones, I went with RX400h hybrid ones on mine. Funny enough we have the TE37s on our M3 and they’re great looking for sure! Probably my favourite wheel of all time and it seems to look good on just about everything!
I might have to get some of those for my RX one day if I ever get sick of the 4th gen 18x8s. Are those 57crs hub-centric? Man, those are total classics.
I know it’s hard not to go down the rabbit hole, but I think a Cusco rear sway bar would be a good finishing touch. These cars could really use it.
I’ve seen the Spyder ones, I went with RX400h hybrid ones on mine. Funny enough we have the TE37s on our M3 and they’re great looking for sure! Probably my favourite wheel of all time and it seems to look good on just about everything!
I might have to get some of those for my RX one day if I ever get sick of the 4th gen 18x8s. Are those 57crs hub-centric? Man, those are total classics.
I know it’s hard not to go down the rabbit hole, but I think a Cusco rear sway bar would be a good finishing touch. These cars could really use it.
oh ok cool yeah it’s weird because I’m my area I hardly see anyone with moded RXs like no tail lights and about one custom wheel RX every once and a long while. But yeah congrats on the te’s I bet they look good forsure and that’s a good pick for the m3. I always see bmws with other wheels and hardly ever see rays on them but yeah if I could I’d put them on my RX those or other rays wheels. But yeah I’m not really sure if they are or not. I’ve seen forums and some say yes and some say no but idk honestly. Well they say you don’t need to and I didn’t really know about it til just now maybe I’ll ask when ordering them. But yeah I’m glad I found them because I like the look so much I was so close to getting reps exactly a like but it would’ve been a shame. And yeah I never heard of a rear sway bar. I just looked it up and I’m thinking yeah I’d really be cool to have one of those and like on any car really because it’s about safety at the end of the day. Where did you get yours from? I looked it up online and sometimes the car part websites look a little sketchy to me and I don’t really trust it until I know it’s legit.
I hardly see modded ones either where I live and I seem them every day. Usually the Highlanders are the modded ones and often times are done in poor taste. Crap wheels, crap wheel fitment, crap exhaust (straight piped or ricer muffler) and cheap parts!
Changing the rear sway bar will reduce body roll and understeer which our cars are heavily set up with from the factory for the soccer moms. On my RX I don’t have a big one yet, just the 26mm front and brackets in preparation for it. On the other hand my ‘02 Highlander (pretty much the same car) has an Addco 2109 22.2mm rear one which made the oversteer excessive so I countered it with a stock 3rd gen RX 26mm front sway bar vs 23mm factory one. As it sits now, the thing handles like a sporty wagon now especially with the 245s from my RX. Good enough to take it auto-crossing where it performed admirably. Just the right size too not to take away a big amount of suspension articulation. The handling is very neutral with a touch of throttle-off oversteer.
When you go that large though on the AWDs the wimpy stock brackets are bound to break, so I had to make some custom heavy duty brackets. Changing it to the 18mm Cusco rear however won’t cause issues with the factory brackets and you won’t need to change the front sway bar due to oversteer. @MheityRX got the Cusco bar for his RX but he has a FWD, they sell an AWD version too. I’m not sure what site he bought it from. The rear bar can be changed in 15-20 minutes, but the front bar required me to remove the steering rack, struts and rear engine mount on my Highlander and RX.
I made this post a few yrs back for 2001-2007 Highlanders, but most of the info here incl all suspension & brake stuff directly applies to the 2004-2009 RX. It includes part numbers for all the bars and more.
I hardly see modded ones either where I live and I seem them every day. Usually the Highlanders are the modded ones and often times are done in poor taste. Crap wheels, crap wheel fitment, crap exhaust (straight piped or ricer muffler) and cheap parts!
Changing the rear sway bar will reduce body roll and understeer which our cars are heavily set up with from the factory for the soccer moms. On my RX I don’t have a big one yet, just the 26mm front and brackets in preparation for it. On the other hand my ‘02 Highlander (pretty much the same car) has an Addco 2109 22.2mm rear one which made the oversteer excessive so I countered it with a stock 3rd gen RX 26mm front sway bar vs 23mm factory one. As it sits now, the thing handles like a sporty wagon now especially with the 245s from my RX. Good enough to take it auto-crossing where it performed admirably. Just the right size too not to take away a big amount of suspension articulation. The handling is very neutral with a touch of throttle-off oversteer.
When you go that large though on the AWDs the wimpy stock brackets are bound to break, so I had to make some custom heavy duty brackets. Changing it to the 18mm Cusco rear however won’t cause issues with the factory brackets and you won’t need to change the front sway bar due to oversteer. @MheityRX got the Cusco bar for his RX but he has a FWD, they sell an AWD version too. I’m not sure what site he bought it from. The rear bar can be changed in 15-20 minutes, but the front bar required me to remove the steering rack, struts and rear engine mount on my Highlander and RX.
I made this post a few yrs back for 2001-2007 Highlanders, but most of the info here incl all suspension & brake stuff directly applies to the 2004-2009 RX. It includes part numbers for all the bars and more.
yeah same here. Once and a blue moon I’ll see an RX with custom wheels and you know it’s just like random wheels. That’s why I wanna put cool wheels to show that the RX can be cool.
wow you know I never really knew about the sway bar. They come with factory ones right? And your talking about putting bigger ones or do they not come with it at all? They do sound interesting and I think it’d be cool that have those on my RX.
i think my RX is FWD too. I’m not too sure but I don’t really think it’s all wheel drive. Maybe he’ll have the website on his forum? I’ll check out his page to see if it’s on there
Glad to see another person that thinks an RX can be cool, these definitely have some potential. These all come with a 23mm front bar and a 14mm (base model) or 16mm rear bar (premium / sport models), but the rear is still far too small on the sport models. 2001-2007 Highlanders are already a little more "sporty" out of the factory and by default come with a 16mm rear bar and the 23mm front bar as well as stiffer springs and shock valving. These sizes for the F&R bars are the same as the equivalent Lexus ES or Camry as they're on the same suspension & platform.
Easiest way to tell if you have AWD is to look underneath the rear of the car and check if you see CV axles going to each rear wheel, either that or a driveshaft & rear differential. Up front, you can also see a transfer case if it is an AWD. AWD cars also have a much beefier rear subframe and rear control arms. AWD models also use an ecentric cam bolt to adjust rear toe instead of threaded rods on the rear control arm. Finally, the VIN number of your car will also indicate if your car is AWD or not. Another way to tell is if you burn rubber if you floor it, even with my stock skinny 225s, the car barely squeals and it hooks up nicely. On my Highlander with the smaller 3.0 L V6, you can forget about peeling out as it ain't gonna happen lol.
Even though the AWDs are heavier, they have a better weight distribution because there is more weight in the back because of the beefier knuckles, subframe, CV axles and rear diff. Not to mention the great AWD system on these lets you rotate the car harder, especially if you have a stiffer rear suspension + rear sway bar.
Glad to see another person that thinks an RX can be cool, these definitely have some potential. These all come with a 23mm front bar and a 14mm (base model) or 16mm rear bar (premium / sport models), but the rear is still far too small on the sport models. 2001-2007 Highlanders are already a little more "sporty" out of the factory and by default come with a 16mm rear bar and the 23mm front bar as well as stiffer springs and shock valving. These sizes for the F&R bars are the same as the equivalent Lexus ES or Camry as they're on the same suspension & platform.
Easiest way to tell if you have AWD is to look underneath the rear of the car and check if you see CV axles going to each rear wheel, either that or a driveshaft & rear differential. Up front, you can also see a transfer case if it is an AWD. AWD cars also have a much beefier rear subframe and rear control arms. AWD models also use an ecentric cam bolt to adjust rear toe instead of threaded rods on the rear control arm. Finally, the VIN number of your car will also indicate if your car is AWD or not. Another way to tell is if you burn rubber if you floor it, even with my stock skinny 225s, the car barely squeals and it hooks up nicely. On my Highlander with the smaller 3.0 L V6, you can forget about peeling out as it ain't gonna happen lol.
Even though the AWDs are heavier, they have a better weight distribution because there is more weight in the back because of the beefier knuckles, subframe, CV axles and rear diff. Not to mention the great AWD system on these lets you rotate the car harder, especially if you have a stiffer rear suspension + rear sway bar.
Yeah same here I didn’t know I was going to find anyone who modded their RX’s here so I’m glad I started this thread I’m learning new things here which is a good thing. Above are the websites where I found the sway bars. They seem a little bigger than the sizes you mentioned that came from factory. Im thinking maybe they’re big enough to make some sort of difference. And I looked up my vin and it said 2WD so yeah it’s gotta be FWD. I’m interested in adding and upgraded sway bar. It says in the website that those replace factory and are like an upgrade with benefits but I’m not sure if there’s bigger ones to add for the RX or those are as good as it gets?
Even when I went from the dinky 14mm to the less dinky but still dinky 16mm, there was a slight but noticeable difference. I don't consider sway bars an upgrade because the ones you choose are completely determined by what you want the car to do. Ideally you'd never need sway bars on any car, but you can only make the springs so stiff without killing the ride quality or blowing out the shocks, so it helps to have sway bars on our cars. Even if the Cusco is only 2mm larger than a sport package stock bar at 18mm, the Cusco bar is going to be made out of superior materials (probably chromoly vs regular spring steel) so that'll help with the extra rigidity it'll provide excluding the size difference.
Being that the FWDs don't have that push from the rear wheels, you might need a larger rear sway bar to achieve the same affect as I would on my AWD. It might be worth getting a custom rear bar made depending on how crazy you want to go with your RX. If you were switching the front sway bar, I'd get a 2008-2019 Highlander or 2010-2015 RX one as it is 26mm, beefy and super cheap. 2000-2011 Ford Focus front sway bar end links are a great upgrade over the factory ones. They're cast aluminum, super strong and light.
Even when I went from the dinky 14mm to the less dinky but still dinky 16mm, there was a slight but noticeable difference. I don't consider sway bars an upgrade because the ones you choose are completely determined by what you want the car to do. Ideally you'd never need sway bars on any car, but you can only make the springs so stiff without killing the ride quality or blowing out the shocks, so it helps to have sway bars on our cars. Even if the Cusco is only 2mm larger than a sport package stock bar at 18mm, the Cusco bar is going to be made out of superior materials (probably chromoly vs regular spring steel) so that'll help with the extra rigidity it'll provide excluding the size difference.
Being that the FWDs don't have that push from the rear wheels, you might need a larger rear sway bar to achieve the same affect as I would on my AWD. It might be worth getting a custom rear bar made depending on how crazy you want to go with your RX. If you were switching the front sway bar, I'd get a 2008-2019 Highlander or 2010-2015 RX one as it is 26mm, beefy and super cheap. 2000-2011 Ford Focus front sway bar end links are a great upgrade over the factory ones. They're cast aluminum, super strong and light.
okay yeah i think you’re right because there is a difference in the sizes of the two. So the bigger the sway the more it helps right? But is there a balance to it? Like not just going big but putting the right amount? Because sometimes the tinest changes have big differences but I guess you’d have to try them out and compare. I’m interested tho in changing it because I think of it as fun and then seeing the changes in the ride quality. If I do decide to change the sway bar I might go with that one the Cusco that’s for the RX because it is a change, not too great but it’s something and I’m willing to try it out
Yep, usually the bigger the more effective. To add to the mix, there are also hollow and solid bars, general rule of thumb is that a hollow tube bar is similar to a solid bar that is 3mm smaller. It depends on how thin/thick the tubing of the solid bar though and the material as well. Hollow bars provide more stiffness for their weight than solid ones though. I wouldn’t worry about it on a car this heavy though.
There is a balance to it because when I first put the 22mm on my Highlander, the rear end was way too tail happy and was robbing traction from the front. Putting a slightly larger 26mm up front was the perfect counter to that and allowed the car to corner noticeably harder and more predictably without reducing the ability for the car to rotate if I needed it to.
All sway bars for our cars are solid. Factory ones, Cusco and Ultra Racing are fully solid bars. These bars are about all we have to choose from. They’re going to make an appreciable difference, but I’m very picky about my RX and I want a very large rear bar that is two-way adjustable. One “softer” setting for the street / winter driving, and a harder setting for autocross or the track where I want as much rotation as possible. We don’t have any of these offered for our cars either, but I’ll get one custom made one day using the stock bar as a template.
Yep, usually the bigger the more effective. To add to the mix, there are also hollow and solid bars, general rule of thumb is that a hollow tube bar is similar to a solid bar that is 3mm smaller. It depends on how thin/thick the tubing of the solid bar though and the material as well. Hollow bars provide more stiffness for their weight than solid ones though. I wouldn’t worry about it on a car this heavy though.
There is a balance to it because when I first put the 22mm on my Highlander, the rear end was way too tail happy and was robbing traction from the front. Putting a slightly larger 26mm up front was the perfect counter to that and allowed the car to corner noticeably harder and more predictably without reducing the ability for the car to rotate if I needed it to.
All sway bars for our cars are solid. Factory ones, Cusco and Ultra Racing are fully solid bars. These bars are about all we have to choose from. They’re going to make an appreciable difference, but I’m very picky about my RX and I want a very large rear bar that is two-way adjustable. One “softer” setting for the street / winter driving, and a harder setting for autocross or the track where I want as much rotation as possible. We don’t have any of these offered for our cars either, but I’ll get one custom made one day using the stock bar as a template.
Ok yeah that makes sense that the bigger they go the more effective. That’s why the Cusco one on the website is bigger than the factory ones. The front sway bar is always bigger than the back ones right?
im Glad that there’s options for a bigger sway bar to help with our RX’s ride stability. For the stiffer and softer option do they all come like that with the 3 options or do they have to be customized?
what about coil overs? Have you added aftermarket ones to your RX? I’ve thought about it a long time ago but I didn’t know weather that’s a thing with RX’s/suvs because of how big suvs are compared to coupés and other smaller cars
Double adjustable ones are rare, triple adjustable is even more rare. Usually the front bar is bigger to keep excessive oversteer in check. Our cars are MacPherson strut front and surprisingly in the rear too so reducing body roll w/ stiffer springs and sway bars really helps prevent camber angles from going whack in a corner on these cars and the equivalent Camry. Since our cars have MacPherson rear struts vs a newer 2010+ RX, a smaller sway bar can be used to achieve a similar result. The bar has a greater mechanical advantage because it directly connects to the strut via end links, vs my 2014 RX where the 21mm rear bar is mounted to the control arms via end links. It has multi-link rear suspension w/ shock absorbers and control-arm spring perches instead of MacPherson struts. Despite the more advanced rear suspension on our 2014, it don't think it will ever handle as good or be as nimble as our cars because: It's heavier, bigger, taller and possibly more top heavy so our SUVs feel more car-like. The hydraulic steering and simplicity of these compared to the 3rd gen are some of the other things that make me feel that these are far superior to the 3rd gen + RX models. A stock 2nd gen may handle worse because the squishy, mush suspension will allow for more camber changes during a corner, but with the right suspension they will blow away an F-Sport 3rd gen like mine. My 2nd gen already handles far better than my 3rd gen and I haven't even done a proper rear sway bar or coilovers yet. It accelerates faster too with only 5 gears vs 8 too due to the weight difference.
As for me having coilovers, I only have Eibach lowering springs so far because I got them for a deal I couldn't refuse. Coilovers are coming up though! Maybe next year or sooner if I can find a deal on some. I'm torn between BC Racing and Fortune Auto 500. Surprisingly, there are various different coils to choose from, and we can even get camber bolts for the front & rear and more. These cars have a bigger aftermarket than most would be inclined to believe. The Fortune Autos will probably be more comfy and high quality, but the BC has lots of confirmed uses on our platform between Highlander and RX owners. Maybe I'll go with the 500s for the RX and BCs for the Highlander, I'd say those two suit their respective cars. I would ask @MheityRX about how he's enjoying his Ceika coilovers on his FWD RX330. There's a few threads from other users who have installed them on their 2RXs as well.
01-13-23, 12:28 AM
