Plain Jane struts and Eibachs?

[BlueBaron]

Is it really worth the expense of alternate Koni struts, and the labour to make them fit our cars? Or is that simply to make the car handle well on a track as well as the street?

I really don't plan to race my car much. It's more of a daily driver. I have Eibach springs to install, simply for the better look.

So would a standard KYB GR2 strut (or the like) work for street use? Or is there an issue with the stiffer spring, that the struts would fail early?

[5sp. mini]

i,v ran almost everry kide of strut. they just controll the spring movement,for a dd i run them.

[Mopar318]

Thats what I had on my daytona. SUPER bouncy, and rides like a bus. better handling that stock though.

[shackwrrr]

Thats what I had on my daytona. SUPER bouncy, and rides like a bus. better handling that stock though.

Unless you get a rough "track". Rode in a neon with eibachs and tokicos and those were awesome. I wish I could get a set of the bilstein HD's for my shadow. I dont need umpteen million adjustments on the side of the shock but I would have umpteen million choices for valving when you can change out the shims yourself.

[contraption22]

IMHO, Eibachs don't ride that well no matter what you do.

[shackwrrr]

IMHO, Eibachs don't ride that well no matter what you do.

I wouldn't want any performance spring to ride well, then it wouldnt be that well of a performer. There are always drawbacks to performance.

Eibach doesn't make a sportline for our cars, those are for the people that want the looks without the harsh ride. Plus they usually lower the car beyond ideal suspension geometry.

[Force Fed Mopar]

It will be bouncy. Bozo's car has Eibachs and Monroe Sensatracs and it's bouncy. Not real bad, kinda like it's got that one bounce after the bump.

[contraption22]

I wouldn't want any performance spring to ride well, then it wouldnt be that well of a performer. There are always drawbacks to performance.

Eibach doesn't make a sportline for our cars, those are for the people that want the looks without the harsh ride. Plus they usually lower the car beyond ideal suspension geometry.

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with you there. I have ridden in plenty of cars with firm springs that don't ride like crap. A friend of mine has coil-overs on his SRT-4 with 500lb springs in the front. It rides fine.

The problem with Eibach replacement springs is that they are variable rate. So there is no way to correctly match it to a damper.

[shackwrrr]

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with you there. I have ridden in plenty of cars with firm springs that don't ride like crap. A friend of mine has coil-overs on his SRT-4 with 500lb springs in the front. It rides fine.

The problem with Eibach replacement springs is that they are variable rate. So there is no way to correctly match it to a damper.

[MNmopar]

^ Ummm, yeah....

[BlueBaron]

Well, the Blue Baron (once upon a time) received MP 'road race' springs. When I got them, there was a slip of paper warning me that the shocks I have may not last long with these springs. "We recommend Mopar part #....."
So I added the MP struts and shocks they offered to match the springs. Well... bouncy bouncy.
Usually the front end just made a loud bang sound as a vertebrae fractured in my spine, and the back suspension was fine. That's over a curb, pot hole, large crack etc. If it's just worn pavement like ruts from large trucks or a sunken spot, that's when you'd feel the car bounce back and forth like a horsey ride in the park. You know the rides mounted on a single coil spring?

The front end goes up over the hump, then down as the back goes up over it... then the front would go up a second time. I assume that's what you refer to Rob M?

[Mopar318]

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with you there. I have ridden in plenty of cars with firm springs that don't ride like crap. A friend of mine has coil-overs on his SRT-4 with 500lb springs in the front. It rides fine.

The problem with Eibach replacement springs is that they are variable rate. So there is no way to correctly match it to a damper.

Yep, My 98 acr has 140k mile konis matched with mopar high rate springs. Its rides very nice, and no bouncing! As everybody should know konis handle awsome as well.

[shackwrrr]

And just to clear it up, "Ride well" isnt a very good term. Does it "ride well" like a caddy or is it like a high dollar sports car. Different people think different things ride well. A good ride to me is feeling the road which a performance spring can provide but I am a mechanic so hearing someone say something doesn't ride well means it doesn't ride like a waterbed.

[Mopar318]

And just to clear it up, "Ride well" isnt a very good term. Does it "ride well" like a caddy or is it like a high dollar sports car. Different people think different things ride well. A good ride to me is feeling the road which a performance spring can provide but I am a mechanic so hearing someone say something doesn't ride well means it doesn't ride like a waterbed.

Riding well as in it rides like a normal car in everyday use. Konis and high rates in a neon does not feel much different just driving around. When you take turns its a different story.

[Vigo]

Well, maybe it's easier to say that anything that bounces after a bump, ever, does NOT ride well.

BlueBaron, you either got bad struts or they were not a good match for the spring. Since mopar recommended them id guess they were just bad. I recently bought some GR-2s (now excel-g) from ebay that were bad right out of the box. They sent me another set.. also bad. By hand, they feel the same as some oem kyb take-offs i took off a forester that had 150k. I replaced those with GR-2s as well and those were NOT bad and made a big difference. They feel less stiff than an older, used gr-2 that has 20k on it. So it's possible to get bad parts.

Also, you can banish the BANG forever, just get some poly strut bumpstops from polybushings.com. Fantastic parts for ~$20.

I wouldnt put the eibachs on a gr-2, personally. They will be bouncy, which as i said automatically = ride bad.

[BlueBaron]

Also, you can banish the BANG forever, just get some poly strut bumpstops from polybushings.com. Fantastic parts for ~$20.

Well besides being in the urethane business myself...

I don't mean that it was bottoming out. The springs are simply very, very stiff. I weigh about 210 lbs. If I stand on the front bumper, the front end goes down about an inch.
Simply pushing on the bumper with my hands (like you're testing the struts) really doesn't do much of anything.

[Vigo]

That has nothing to do with "a loud bang sound". That would be your struts bottoming out with no bumpstops.

[BlueBaron]

So they can go from barely moving to bottoming out?
I should point out, this happened on railway tracks and places, that other cars I've driven have no problems with. So it wasn't a severe bump in the road that someone would complain to the town about or such.

[Pat]

If it's really just the lowered look you're going for, why not cut stock springs? You would have less to worry about regarding too high a spring rate with cheaper dampers.

[Force Fed Mopar]

Well, the Blue Baron (once upon a time) received MP 'road race' springs. When I got them, there was a slip of paper warning me that the shocks I have may not last long with these springs. "We recommend Mopar part #....."
So I added the MP struts and shocks they offered to match the springs. Well... bouncy bouncy.
Usually the front end just made a loud bang sound as a vertebrae fractured in my spine, and the back suspension was fine. That's over a curb, pot hole, large crack etc. If it's just worn pavement like ruts from large trucks or a sunken spot, that's when you'd feel the car bounce back and forth like a horsey ride in the park. You know the rides mounted on a single coil spring?

The front end goes up over the hump, then down as the back goes up over it... then the front would go up a second time. I assume that's what you refer to Rob M?

Yep, sounds like the same thing.

The bang is probably bad strut mounts. Or it could be broken k-frame mounts.