Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension BAT struts, stock springs?

My front struts are gone. The backs are great. As much as I like the whole BAT kit, $600 is not in my budget right now. My question is, the BAT Euro Sport struts are part of their kit, which lowers the car an inch, right? Would using the struts on their own with the stock SVT springs be a bad thing to do, as the ride height would be 1 inch higher than if used with the BAT springs. I was ready to do this, but my father said it would not be good because the rebounding, etc. points on the struts would not be optimized for the stock ride height. Any thoughts on this?

Also, this is a side question, but are the stock SVT struts different than non-SVT struts?

I think that if you read the BAT catalog carefully you will find that the BAT struts are factory european struts. The european strut is stiffer than the US strut, but the european factory springs provide a standard ride height, not a lowered ride height.

To make sure, call BAT and ask.

The early 98 SVT struts are the same as the non SVT struts. The late 98 (or E1) and newer SVT uses revised front struts that provide less front end lift on acceleration and less front end dive on braking. If you replace the struts with factory struts, you probably want the late front struts. Bill Jenkins would be a good source for those.

If you are trying to stiffen the ride without lowering the car (my SVT is as low as I want it due to the SVT ground effects) then you may want to consider the BAT european front springs and the early (95 to 97) stock SE springs. They would probably be less expensive than lowering springs.

Because of the duplication of labor, and there is a lot of it, if you want to change springs, you should really do it at the same time that you install struts. It is really the same job. Why do it twice?