Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods When I'm lowering my car do I also want to ugrade my struts or my shocks? Help!

I want to lower my car either with H&R's or Eibachs. I keep on reading that it is smart to upgrade to Koni's or KYB's as well. When I go to Websites like Shox or tirerack I see that Koni's are shocks abd KYB's are struts what is the difference. Can someone please clarify this!

Shocks and struts are different types of devices used to accomplish a similar task. Unfortunately many people use the terms interchangeably. Both shocks and struts are used to "dampen" a vehicles ride, that is make verticle movment of the suspension less harsh. Struts are essentially shocks that have perches built into them to hold the spring for the vehicles suspesion. Shocks on the other hand do not have these perches, and are used on vehicles that have a spring mechanism located elswhere within the suspension.

Contiques use struts on all four corners. The difference in terminology you see on the different sites is simply due to the fact that the terms are often incorrectly used.

- Brian

I would recommend upgrading your struts at the same time. Lowering springs put extra stress on struts and the stock units will not last as long with the springs on. The reason I say to do the struts with the springs is to avoid having to replace the springs now and then in a few thousand miles replace the struts, which will cost double the money if you have someone else install them. If your struts are pretty new(less than 15k or so) you can try and run the stock struts with the springs and try your luck, I know of one or two guys that have run stock struts with springs with no probs so far. For cost and time sake though, change both at the same time.

The difference between Koni's and KYB's is that the Koni's are adjustable and are supposedly a more performance oriented strut. From what I have read, the KYB's aren't worth the money, just spend the extra money and get the quality Koni's.

BTW...next time you are stuck with a problem, use the search function at the top of the screen first and see if you can find an answer before you post a topic. Some of the members(Perry ) get a little "upset" when people don't put the legwork in to try to find the answers for themselves.

HTH

The KYB GR2's are not a performance strut. They are a stock replacement strut. A very high quality piece I might add, but still basically stock. They may be improvements of some cars, but the Contour is not one of them.

The Contours stock shocks are made by Tokico (very good quality) However Tokico has decided to ignore us and not release their performance line (illuminas) for our car!

The only performance struts available are Konis, Sach's, and don't forget to check out BAT's selection (which include Sachs)...

...and yes... Upgrade your struts when lowering your car...

Yes upgrade!!!!!!!!!!!! Mine went out after 6 months, konis are on the way now (the fronts anyway) But i do have 87K on the original struts, they lasted 12K with the car lowered with the H&Rs.