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Struts, Springs, or both?

T

Tourige

CEG's Resident Jackass
Joined
May 25, 2004
Messages
3,484
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
My car feels like crap.. Driving the thing is terrible. I had the chance to drive my brothers CSVT(stock) for a week or 2 while mine was down.. and MAN.. talk about great. It cornered amazing, had little body roll, the steering was tight and responsive.. basically it was perfect.

Got my car up and running.. took it for a spin.. wanted to shoot myself. The steering is lazy and crappy, to much body roll, i feel every bump in the road.. very very very not fun...

Now my car sits about 1/2" lower on the back.. im guessing my struts are toast.. and apparently when i spray.. my car sits down SOOOO much in back... not good.

No oil from the struts that i can see. When i press down on the back it still pops back up.. this is really starting to get at me.. Anyone got any insight?
 
I replaced my stock struts/springs @ about 80k miles, they were crap. It made a huge difference, but I replaced them with the BAT kit, so I don't know. Mine also popped back up, and there was no oil leaking, they just slowly quit, so I didn't notice how bad they had gotten. Are you sure a spring isn't broke?
 
maybe both the rears are screwed.. the ass sits down way to much..

Ill jack it up and look.

Ever since my track day they have looked and felt worse and worse.. its sad.


Did your steering inporve with the new suspension?
 
what is the expected mileage life out of the stock setup?

Mine makes funny noises when I go over speedbumps that I don't recall making before.
 
TourDeForce said:
80k is a reasonable time to start thinking about replacement struts.

Sagging in the back is due to worn/broken springs or strut mounts, not the struts.
Click to expand...


NOoooooooooooooooooo, It looks like I have some suspension work to do. My back end is saging quit a bit. When I have one person in the back it rubs on my 16 inch rims. It looks cool but its not good to have.
 
I understand that, but at least you will notice a substantially better ride & handling. For me, that made it worth it. I guess it's up to you. Plus, it will be quite a while till you need ever mess with the susp. again.
 
Before i bought my car i had the guy get it inspected first since it was due for inspection in less than a month and it turned out that the front struts and springs were shot @ 80k miles. If i only knew about all the various aftermarket struts and springs then i would have gotten them, but i didnt.

Just wanted to say mine were done @ 80k.
 
I recommend doing all four at once with mounts and springs. I did the front and rear separately on my 95 and the feel of the ride never recovered. I also believe that the lack of balance may have accelerated wear on other suspension/steering components.

Don't sit on this issue even if it's costly to fix. By driving on bad struts, you can increase overall wear on the car rapidly.
 
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