Don't Get in a Rut: Raising the Suspension on a Toyota Corolla

measure the front springs and go to a wrecking yard and get longer springs and replace the strut inserts with a longer strut. For the rear fabricate shackles that will lift the same as you raised the rear, Also you will have to put on bigger tires to gain clearence.

Be careful, if the drive shafts are not lying in a straight line most of the time (and with bigger/longer springs they won't be), you could end up having to replace drive shafts quite often.....they are very expensive!!! drive shafts need to be as straight as possible 95% of the time....

The only way that might allow you to do this (purely theoretical only) is to fit larger wheels and tires, but you will then get problems with clearances and gearing......

If you don't have the right kit, I would say leave well alone!!

You could possibily raise your suspension just using a bag of washers. Using washers (or manufactured shim, which would be bettter) in between the chassis and the mounting studs of the coil springs (longer stud may be needed). This will affect you r Chamber. THis would be corrected to some extent by shiming the sub-fame.

You could then increase clearance by welding 16" wheels to the hubs of your origional wheels.

J.

Without knowing the year well, actually suspension design of your Corolla, we really can't accuratly tell you how to lift it. In order to truly gain ground clearance, you need to put taller tires on the car.

Now, making them fit.

Suspension lifts have been suggested so far. Those ideas bring on a myriad of problems from steering geometry to wheel camber to CV joint life, etc. Is your Corolla front wheel drive, rear whell drive or all wheel drive? They came in all three flavors. Is it IFS, IRS or solid rear axle? Coil springs, leafs or torsion bars?

Many variables and many pitfalls depending on what you have and how it is modified.

Some more info please.

Another idea. Just to fit taller tires. How about cutting the wheel wells?

If the car is a unibody, and I think all years Corolla may have been, you run into the problem of weakening the chassis if you cut body panels too much. You may be able to trim just a little to fit some more rubber under there or perhaps add (weld in maybe?) some stiffening members to compensate for the structural integrity lost cutting the body. That way you can cut more.

A great many issues modifying a car like this and if you don't appreciate the ramifications of them all you can make the car very dangerous. I personally have been involved in building a few of these redneck dunebuggies myself, so I know a little about what I am saying.

We will try to help as much as we can but we need to here more from you about the vehicle in question and the mods that you are contemplating.

If the Toyota has rear drive with a solid axle, you can use this trick. Hang the rear axle from under the rear leaf springs. It is probably sitting on top of the springs now. As the driveshaft angle gets steeper, universal joint life will shorten. You may have to weld a flat flange to the top of the axle to mount to the springs. This is where you can cut back on some of the universal joint angel. The front is still up to you. As you modify this vehicle, keep in mind what you told us. It is a farm vehicle. Do not drive the modified vehicle at highway speeds. Drive it in a careful manor.

So you think this is a rear wheel drive, I thought the opposite, but I don't know, because he forgot to tell us exactly!!!!

I was thinking "old" Corolla. Perhaps I was giving away my age.

Depends on how high you're raising it. If you raise it too much, the drive shaft will fall off. You could maybe raise it a few inches. You'll also have funny camber, top of wheel pointing out.

Hopefully your Corolla is 4WD. Not sure if the 1.6L engine has enough power for you.

Fabricate blocks to lift the body then use larger tires or cut out the fenders and extend the axles and use larger tires.

I have a Toyota Corolla that I want to use as a farm vehicle on rough tracks. Can anyone suggest a way of raising the suspension that doesn't involve using a kit as these are hard to get in Hungary.

Sorry for the delay and the obscurity but for those of you who have asked for more details its a Toyota Corolla DX estate, 1991, 1300 CC, front wheel drive.

Cheers Alan

Make a body lift kit yourself, wood works.

Extend the struts, cut out the strut mounting plate area on a spare parts car then use spacer to stand off close to the dimension used to lift the body. Add larger wheels or tires; all geometries should remain static.

"...its a Toyota Corolla DX estate, 1991, 1300 CC, front wheel drive."

So, for the suspension, would I be correct if I assume coil springs front and rear?

You could fabricate blocks to go under/over the coil springs. That could gain 2 to 5 cm that way. Note: You may need to find longer shocks or relocate the mounts to re-use your existing ones. It depends on how much travel the stock shocks/struts have.

Also, be carefull of your CV loint angle or you will be replacing them often. That can become ungodly expensive, fast.

Now that you have a few extra cm of suspension height you can fit taller tires, as that is the only way to truly increase ground clearance.

You may also want to trim the lower edges of the wheel wells for some more tire clearance. Your car should be a unibody, so you cant cut too much without weakening the stuctural integrity. Maybe you could take a hammer and roll the edges of the fenderwells instead. This mostly concerns the rear wheel well as the front fenders are usually removeable and are (typically) not structural elements. (On your car they may be, I have no idea) The front inner wheel wells are structural so leave them alone. You may even be able to take the front fenders off completely gaining you a lot of tire clearance up front. Not to mention that cool Frankenstein look. (I may just be warped )

The rear suspension height may be really only be limited by shock length, so you can get some good size tires there , too.

Many, many posibilities.

Let us know how you fare.