Coilovers for '95 cav.? - Suspension and Brake Forum

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Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 6:34 AM
I bought these dropzone coilovers for my cavalier for $300, then I looked at the springs on my car and the coilovers from dropzone, and noticed that the radius is much much smaller, and this kinda raises a red flag for me, and I don't really wanna mess around with it until I get advice. I started doing research on many forums, but not this one I don't believe. One guy back in 2006 said that he almost got killed using them. another guy said they sent his strut straight through his hood Others say they are bouncy, but I also met another guy using a complete dropzone suspension system, and has been for 2 years. It's stiff as a rock with no bouncing, nothing has broken, and so forth. My question is:
-Is it even worth a try?
-Should I turn around and sell them, and buy something else?
-If I should sell them, what should I buy to lower my car for performance?

Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 6:43 AM
I will give you my story for a similar style of coilovers and let you make your own decision.

I had Skunk2 Coilovers matched up with Koni red's. The car looked amazing and sat on the ground. My Koni red's lasted about 4-6 months and then the pistons bottomed out. Long story short the car rode like absolute crap and I wasted $500 on the Koni's and $300 on the Skunk2's.

I have been flirting with the idea of going to the Tein SS full coilover system but honestly after the Skunk2's I am a bit leary about using coilovers on a daily driven car ever again.

To each their own, some have better luck than others...





Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 6:54 AM
I've thought about full coil-overs myself, they seem to get the best ratings. I have also thought about just selling the coil-overs, and going to just springs. I've never met anyone who has had problems with straight springs. Opinion??
Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 6:57 AM
A complete coilover set will be more then fine for a DD.

The struts are designed to be used with the coils on them unlike the dropzones or the skunk2's where you mix and match crap.

Go out buy a good quality coilover setup, tein basics, tein ss, STD's, etc. Don't cheap out when it comes to suspension parts.

I myself have Tein Basics and absolutely love them, great ride and quality for DD use. I will be switching up to the STD's though as the car isn't a DD anymore.


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Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 7:04 AM
I'll try and take a look around, money is hard for me, while in school still...
Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 7:30 AM
you spent $300 on drop zone coilovers? how? dont they go for like $40 bucks shipped on ebay?

as the saying goes... "you get what you pay for".

josh g - i too used skunk 2's once apon a time but with stock struts. it rode like it had absolutely no suspension, what a waste of time they were LOL. but just because those coilovers were crap doesnt mean others will be. ive personally ridden in j-body cars with ground controls/koni yellows, tein ssp's as well as basic's, and STD's, they all rode pretty damn decent. nice and firm but not jaw jarring firm and if you turned them to full soft it was actually a nice ride for the most part.

if you look at the trend the most expensive ones you get are much better and actually designed for our cars. the cheapie units are mass fab CRAP with universal application in mind. more than likely designed for much lighter cars like hondas, not heavy ass pig's like ours so the spring rates are much too high for us.



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Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 8:28 AM
Yeah typical rule of thumb is that if your car is not made by Honda, stay far away from Dropzones.

Like Z yaaaa said, they're not made for our cars. My buddy had dropzones on his Del Sol and Civic years ago and they rode great. i threw the dropzone coilovers on my car years ago, before I knew the proper way to drop a J, and blew my struts in less than 500 miles.

A quality suspension is going to set you back a little, but keep an eye out in the classifieds and regional forums. People let go of good used setups at really reasonable prices.






Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 10:15 AM
Real coil overs, that come with the strut, when left in the proper adjustment range (IE not dropped to the ground) will not bottom the strut out. Though any suspension with properly set bump stops will not bottom the strut out. I would either stick to static lowering springs and lowering dampers from a reputable company, or get true coil overs.


1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by: Kronos Performance

WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 11:33 AM
I would really love to get full coil-overs, and I plan on it eventually. I really wanna get rid of my 3 inch wheel gap!!! the struts on the car now have 98k on them. and have been jumped on 5' ramps apparently -__- dumb dumb dumb, lol. I just need a suspension that is adjustable to lower from 0" to 2.50" that is stiff and takes corners well. And I would love it to last at least 20,000 miles to 30,000miles. By then I'll have the money to completely rebuild the suspension.
Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 12:58 PM
You wont get what you are looking for out of the cheap coil-overs. The smartest option would be to save your money for a set of good coil-overs and live with the wheel gap until then. The second smartest option would be to try to score a used spring/strut combo from someone who is parting out, then save for the coil-overs. It took me over a year between deciding on a set of coil-overs to being in a position to buy them. The wait was worth every second, i love my Tein SS's.


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Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Friday, December 30, 2011 4:45 PM
Josh G. wrote:I will give you my story for a similar style of coilovers and let you make your own decision.

I had Skunk2 Coilovers matched up with Koni red's. The car looked amazing and sat on the ground. My Koni red's lasted about 4-6 months and then the pistons bottomed out. Long story short the car rode like absolute crap and I wasted $500 on the Koni's and $300 on the Skunk2's.

I have been flirting with the idea of going to the Tein SS full coilover system but honestly after the Skunk2's I am a bit leary about using coilovers on a daily driven car ever again.

To each their own, some have better luck than others...


You will change you mind once you ride in a car with a true quality coilover system. I daily my car as is with no issue.




Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Saturday, December 31, 2011 5:47 AM
I'm not going to install anything quite yet. I may just wait till I come across $1500 and get some of the best off horsepowerfreaks.com. On my 240sx i'm running greddy type-s coilovers from them and they ride beautiful, no bounce at all. Completely stiff and nothing has gone wrong for the past 50,000 miles on them. What are all your opinions on these?
http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/partdetails/BG_Suspension/Suspension/Coilovers/RS2/11205
Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Saturday, December 31, 2011 6:32 AM
Christopher Yohn wrote:I'm not going to install anything quite yet. I may just wait till I come across $1500 and get some of the best off horsepowerfreaks.com. On my 240sx i'm running greddy type-s coilovers from them and they ride beautiful, no bounce at all. Completely stiff and nothing has gone wrong for the past 50,000 miles on them. What are all your opinions on these?
http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/partdetails/BG_Suspension/Suspension/Coilovers/RS2/11205


those are the exact coils im running actually. i love them.



Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Saturday, December 31, 2011 9:09 AM
azncav wrote:
Christopher Yohn wrote:I'm not going to install anything quite yet. I may just wait till I come across $1500 and get some of the best off horsepowerfreaks.com. On my 240sx i'm running greddy type-s coilovers from them and they ride beautiful, no bounce at all. Completely stiff and nothing has gone wrong for the past 50,000 miles on them. What are all your opinions on these?
http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/partdetails/BG_Suspension/Suspension/Coilovers/RS2/11205


those are the exact coils im running actually. i love them.


You still need to buy mounts with those right? Is OEM still make front and rear ones?


1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by: Kronos Performance

WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Saturday, December 31, 2011 4:38 PM
yea you have to use your STOCK mounts.. but oem does have his mounts



Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Saturday, December 31, 2011 5:02 PM
I'm looking at your red cavalier there, you brought that car a long way! Haha its awesome i'm very jelious
Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Saturday, December 31, 2011 5:19 PM
oh lol. this old thing?



Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Saturday, December 31, 2011 5:48 PM
Yes!!! I love convertibles.. I've never seen a convertible Cav look so good
Re: Coilovers for '95 cav.?
Saturday, December 31, 2011 8:55 PM
There are plenty on the org.



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