I was looking at my car today while it was being driven. The front end was bottoming out when it would go over the littlest of bumps. And of course anything a little bit bigger was much more affective of how much it went down. What would i look to buy to stop the bottoming out, knowing that i dont need it lowered at all?
just curious but why do you say he needs new stock springs?
no mention anywhere of what the car even is
'03 Cavalier. sorry about that
ToBoGgAn wrote:just curious but why do you say he needs new stock springs?
no mention anywhere of what the car even is
its pretty obvious that if the car is bottoming out over every little bump, the struts are pretty much gone.
struts i fully understand, but why he diagnosed springs from that i am flabbergasted.
also if it bottoms out on little bumps, how is it affected more by bigger bumps? bottomed out is bottomed out, after that you are in broke something range.
ToBoGgAn wrote:struts i fully understand, but why he diagnosed springs from that i am flabbergasted.
also if it bottoms out on little bumps, how is it affected more by bigger bumps? bottomed out is bottomed out, after that you are in broke something range.
lol i see what you mean. i didnt even notice he said springs. bigger bumps it would bottom out harder
exactly. so struts. im going to guess theres a post on quality struts somewhere on this page.
in the faqs there is which says the following
FAQ wrote:
4) Strut Choices
Now that you have a base on what choices to choose from, start thinking and prepping to spend extra money on some struts if need be applies. Air struts are specially made with either bags on them or an air cylinder inside. So you don’t need lowering struts for those. However, on springs and coilovers, struts should be your first buy. Once you have struts, you can put almost anything on them and not have to worry about the struts failing. Once the struts fail, so has the stability of your car. The struts are the mainstay of mechanical suspension. They control the motion of the spring. The spring is there to help the car stay suspended, while the strut is to control the smoothness. Remember the POGO stick from childhood. It was fun cause you kept bouncing, but imagine how hard it would have been if pressurized oil was inside and controlled motion. It would have sucked then, but now with a car its what you look for. CONTROL…
Strut choices for the cavalier are not as limited as they used to be, but still only a handful. And since there isn’t that big of a market, they will stay high in price. With the j-body platform, you might as well get used to it. We have alot of people who want everything their buddies have with other cars and other companies, but when it comes time to put of or shut up, most people simply shut up and as a result companies lose interest in this market.
Out of the choices available:
OEM REPLACEMENT struts, are just as that. OEM STYLE replacement struts. Sure some say, valved stiffer etc, but when it boils down to it, they are not valved for lowering. Many have argued that KYB are not oem replacement struts, but if you take a few minutes out of your day and contact KYB AMERICA by phone, they themselves, will tell you that they WILL NOT honor the warranty these struts if on a lowered vehicle. So much for the ability of them to be lowered. Granted some do and have lowered on them for a while, don’t be shocked if yours don’t last long. Generally a strut should last well up to 5 years or more if not abused. But choosing a strut from this category and lowering past 1.5 inches or so, and you are definitely chancing it. If it does blow before time, then that’s more money to spend on new struts, alignment (you will need an alignment after every major suspension component change), and time wasted changing them, or time and money wasted for a shop to do so. These however have proved to be good for springs like the 1.2 inch lowering springs by progressive technologies and stracing. Anything more than that and you are chancing it.
A list of all the OEM style replacement are:
-KYB Gr2’s
-Gabriel VST’s
-Monroe (Sensatracs included)
-GM stock or upgraded suspension packages.
-Tokico HP series
LOWERING STRUTS
These struts are valved stiffer to handle stiffer springs and increase the stability of a lowered car. They aren’t cheap. Our struts on the J platform generally cost around 500$ or higher. besides the mantapart sport struts, most all of them are adjustable manually. The only self adjusting struts alone are the billsteins, converted for our cars by mantapart and the ones found on the rksport prostreets or the B+G coilovers (same thing)
The most popular strut choice for these cars are without a doubt Koni. They are two selections, the Reds and the Yellows. Both are pretty much good for whatever you plan to do, the yellow just go to stiffer damping rate than the Reds and are adjustable while they are on the car. With the Reds, you have to take them off the car to adjust them and guess what…another alignment as well. Granted once most people find a good setting for them, they usually stick with it. Now you can use other struts. ANY strut when its new and freshly installed will work good for a while. Hell a 10 matchsticks can hold up 50-100lbs, but after a while they fatigue and wear. Obviously, 10 sticks of the same size in metal would be better, or even of a better wood, would be better, but once again the fact prevails, quality you pay more for. You get what you pay for in this area. You get cheap struts, the don’t last as long. Some have been for 2 weeks, some 2 years. But most don’t have that warranty like koni and other warrantied struts. Learn from others experience and losses, get the right thing upfront and don’t wast time changing cheaper struts, and spending more money replacing things and more alignments. Although some will not listen.
Lowering Struts are as listed:
-Koni (Red and Yellow)
-Mantapart Sport struts
-Mantapart Billstein
-KYB AGX— while listed as a lowering strut, its only made for 1.5 inch drops of less, KYB has stated this numerous times and its also on their website for their products. -some people do otherwise, HOWEVER, thats at expense of their own warranty.
-Tokico D Spec Struts
"just wanted to add: KYB will honor lifetime warranty on blown struts on vehicles lowered up to 1.5 nothing lower. call Troy at 1-630-620-5555 ex 40 (KYB shock tech support)"
***********KYB struts (GR2 NOR AGX)arent made for over 1.5 inch drops*************
if your not planning on dropping the car and keeping it stock height. i would recommened either the kyb gr2's or the tokico hps
thanks alot man. all the help is appreciated.
