suspension question

[ChI-GsX]

Hey guys I wanted to get suggestions on which suspension i should get. I have a 2g AWD that I drive almost everyday and I live in Chicago so the roads are messed up, with a lot of snow. I was planning on getting the eibach pro-kits with tokico illuminas, or ground control coilovers, or the tein ss dampers. The only thing is I don't auot x at all but would like to try it and I have yet to take the car to the track, but ride quality is very important but don't want to spend to much $$$$.

Please help plan on doing it soon rear shocks are leaking already

thanks Ken

 

[jtmcinder]

If the roads are really awful, then I'd get spring rates of 450/375 and Koni Yellow shocks. If you can handle a bit more bumping from the rears, then take it up to 500/450, because the car will autoX much better. If you are not ready for some oversteer and really fear a bumpy ride, then you can take it down to 400/300, but that will not allow you to drop the car as much.

The key suggestion buried in here is the Koni Sports ... you'll really want these for autoXing a 2G.

- Jtoby

 

[hoffman]

since ride quality is very important, stay stock. since you don't plan on racing this car but every 5th bluemoon, stay stock. and what do you consider alot of money?

when you drop in 400+lb spring rates, adjustable shocks, etc......the ride quailty changes. its gets very stiff.

oh, and don't worry about suspension and snow, its tires and snow that matter.

but, if you have your heart set on one of the following listed, koni/gc is the best combo. tokicos are, ehh, go with koni sports. i'm thinking those spring rates are still going to be too still. 450# is still a tad much for a car that will never get track use. 400fr/350rr rates should give you more of this "ride quality" thing.

 

[jtmcinder]

Originally posted by hoffman
oh, and don't worry about suspension and snow, its tires and snow that matter.

Where do people get these ideas? Does it not snow in Asia? Springs and shocks are just as important on snow as on asphalt. You need to take out a ton of HSC damping and back off the LSR as well. Yes, you get an effective reduction in HSC for free by switching to tires with softer sidewalls, but even that is not enough. I go so far as to return to the stock suspension in the winter ... and it's not just to keep salt off the good stuff.

- Jtoby

 

[hoffman]

ok,ok. maybe i should have gone into a little more detail. maybe experience also helps. but in the short 15years i have been driving in snow and ice i have never had a problem with handling with cars that have upgraded suspensions. the best improvements i have had have been switching to a slimmer tire. no suspension/tire setup is going to be good enough if you drive like an idiot, but from my experience (again) tires have made the biggest difference in driving on snow/ice.

 

[jtmcinder]

Yeah. And I shouldn't have bitten your head off. Sorry about that. (My five-day-old son is not letting me sleep much; the deal with my wife is that she does input and I do output and even the smell of boobie makes him let one rip.) Anyway, my summer springs are 500/450, which is above average on this list, so my saying that you have to back off should be taken with this baseline in mind. If you're on OTS lowering springs, going back down to stock won't help very much (other than preventing the front airdam from becoming a snow-plough). But if you want to get an AWD stuck in snow, high spring rates and stiff shocks are two of the ingredients. And if you're on 500/450 with near-dead Kumho 712s and the signs say "chains required beyond this point," then it's time to turn around. (Although it was a heck of a lot of fun and I'm still here to write about it.)

- Jtoby

 

[hoffman]

don't worry, i didn't take it personally.

look at it this way. does the WRC go to stock suspensions for their winter rallys?

just feeding the discussion.

 

[jtmcinder]

Cool.

Going on ... no, WRC teams don't go with a stock suspension on snow or gravel stages, but they also don't continue to run their dry tarmac set-up. For both of the low-grip situations, they add height, soften the springs, and reduce damping, especially HSC. Keep in mind that the budget of a WRC team is just slightly higher than most of the budgets of people on this list. [tee hee] And I, for one, don't drive around with an extra set of shocks in the trunk. Plus, WRC cars almost always have struts, while I have a 2G.

None of this, however, is stopping me from rallying my car. What stops me is my wife. And the prohibition ends in 17 years, 11 months, and 24 days. Not that I'm counting.

- Jtoby <- father of a six-day-old