Suspension Ignorance!

[white90crxhf]

I am replacing my front & rear dampers(struts). i noticed my springs were rusting in some spots so i plan on replacing all of them since they're 17 years & 303,xxx miles old.

I see tire rack has some springs that will lower the car about 3/4" for the same price for a set of springs from honda. Do i need special dampers or will stock dampers work just fine? and will such a small drop require one of the alignment products?

i'll have to take a picture of my bump stops, there is almost nothing left of them.

[GasSavers_Ryland]

I have only heard of people blowing out struts after putting on lowering springs, but then 3/4" isn't alot to lower, so I suspect you might be fine, of course the lowering springs are likely to be stiffer, and when i went with lowering coilovers that came at a spring/strut package, the springs were much stiffer, and I really wish that they weren't, it makes for a rougher ride, and unless you are on a smooth flat track doing high speed cornering you don't need that stiffness, it will be harder on your cars body and the rest of the suspension linkage every time you hit a bump, so if I was to do it again I would tend to avoid stiffer springs for a compact car.

[Snax]

Absolutely do NOT put garden variety replacement struts on the car if you intend to use lowering springs. Monroe, Gabriel, or whatever is on sale is going to leave you feeling seasick with all of the bouncing around. Find a true high performance strut to use instead. You won't regret it.

[SL8Brick]

Originally Posted by white90crxhf

I see tire rack has some springs that will lower the car about 3/4" for the same price for a set of springs from honda.

I assume you're looking at the H&R OE Sport Spring set.
They would pair-up nicely w/ KYB AGX adjustables. A fellow co-worker has this exact set up on his VW Beetle TDi...he loves `em!

[GasSavers_bobski]

Lowering springs can kill shock absorbers in two ways.
First, you're reducing the suspension travel, so it's easier to reach the bottom of the shock's travel, especially with damaged or non-existant bumpstops. Doing so can easily kill it.
Second, lowering springs generally have a significantly higher spring rate than stock. This means that for a given magnitude of bump, a lowering spring will load and recoil in a much shorter distance and over a shorter period of time than a stock spring. These more violent impacts and rebounds can quickly wear out the shock's valving.

Significant lowering and/or spring rate changes should be accompanied by upgraded shocks. Those .75" drop H&R springs, IMO, aren't really a significant change. The Eibach 1.2/1.0 springs are borderline... You could probably get away with the stock shocks, but upgraded aftermarket shocks would be a good idea. Anything more, I would definately get performance shocks.

The same goes for suspension components. For the sake of your tire's longevity and maintaing low drag, get the toe-in adjusted after any ride height change. Replacement components to allow additional adjustment such as a camber kit is probably unnecessary up to around 2" drop. Stock CRXs have some positive camber from the factory; lowering makes the camber more negative, so you can just think of it as correcting the camber.

[omgwtfbyobbq]

If you end up blowing out your shocks from springs that are too short, you'll see it. That being said, I'm pretty sure anyone can get away with a couple links on newer struts and "conservative" driving.

[korax123]

Use KYB GR2's struts and don't lower the car anymore then 1 1/2" We have had the sprint springs with KYB GR2's for 2 years now and they are just fine still. And it rides pretty smooth no bouncing around at all. If you go lower then 1 1/2" you will have alignment problems and will blow out the struts if they aren't good performance ones.

[Snax]

Originally Posted by theclencher

I lowered about 1 1/2-2" by cutting stock springs, then I put the garden variety Gabriel struts on. I am curious about all this "bouncing around" I hear about, yet haven't felt.

It's a general statement. In short, most aftermarket non-high performance struts are not valved for higher spring rates and will fail to adequately control suspension travel - often creating a wallowy feeling. OTOH, if you cut the springs and removed tired dead shocks or struts at the same time, you might still percieve an improvement.

[baddog671]

KYB seems a real good company. Bought 4 shocks for my project car last fall for about 100 bucks.

[Snax]

The non-adjustable KYB GR-2s get high praise from me. Lifetime warranty too I believe.