shock /strut recommendations?

[heff]

Hey guys, I just put matrix coilovers on my 98 eclipse gs, and i put it down about 1.5 inches , nothing radical, but it doesn't ride very good, a little bouncy. I assume this is because of the stock struts, what are some good aftermarket struts that aren't too expensive? also, will this help my ride quality I don't fully understand why an aftermarket strut with the same travel would be any better, but that's what everybody recomends.
thanks,
Rob

 

[wastefuldreamer]

i ride kgb agx's 4 and 8 way adjustable got them used for 200$ and they ride real good

 

[jtmcinder]

Shocks produce non-linear velocity-dependent levels of force. In a dream world, when the shock shaft moves slowly (i.e., the car is pitching from acceleration or braking or is rolling from cornering), the shock produces lots of force to resist the movement. Still in the dream world, these same shocks, when the shaft moves fast (i.e., that wheel hit a bump or pot-hole), the shock produces little or no force so the bump isn't transmitted to the frame.

We don't live in this dream-world (although some people with electronic shocks do!), but we can try to get close.

That's half of what you're paying for when you buy good shocks. The key issues here are low- vs high-speed damping.

Shocks also need to be matched to the car and to the springs. The desired amount of rebound and compression damping changes as you put stiffer and stiffer springs on the same car. In particular, the desired amount of rebound damping goes up and the desired amount of compression damping goes down. Shocks that worked with the stock 260/170 springs will not work with the spring rates that are needed to keep a lowered car off the bumpstops, such as 500/400. (Not that most OTS coil-overs come with spring rates anywhere near this high, but that's another story.)

Making a shock that has separate and, preferably, independently adjustable rebound and compression damping is hard. Therefore, they are very expensive and don't sell very well. That's why most makers cut corners and either have the one adjustment affect both rebound and compression - which isn't good - or only affect rebound - which is much better, but still not as good as double adjustables. And just making a shock that can control a 500# spring without breaking is difficult, so even the non-adjustables aren't cheap.

That's the second half of what you're paying for: damping rates near what you need for your springs with maybe some adjustability thrown in.

You really have to think about this as a package. You need to decide what kind of spring rates you're going to run (based maybe on an amount of lowering you want; preferably on a total amount of stiffness and some intelligent decisions about front vs rear weight transfer) and then find the right shocks for those rates. Great springs are almost worthless on crappy shocks. Great shocks don't do that much good on lousy springs (but it's better than the opposite mis-match).

- Jtoby