Coilovers
- Thread starter Frazzles
- Start date
What car is it for?
Caporegime
- Joined
- 11 Mar 2005
- Posts
- 32,250
- Location
- Leafy Cheshire
Mine crash over bumps more than stock, but this is to be expected, the car has more mechanical grip and better steering reponse following fitting the coilovers, long as you expect the ride to crash slightly more then its not an issue, on long motorway trips i've had 0 problems.
Associate
- Joined
- 8 Nov 2006
- Posts
- 1,441
I have Spax rsx, very good so far (3 years) the Avo's I had before only lasted about 2 years before they started to leak oil and a rebuild would have cost as much as the shocks! Adjustable ride height is essential when putting a larger engine in as its very difficult to get the car to sit level.
There seems to be this myth that coil overs are some kind of magic suspension item that will transform the handling of any car, and will always give a hard ride. This is due to the cheap (and not so cheap) crap suspension kits that come with springs and damping far too heavy for road use.
A McPherson strut i.e. the bit supporting most cars on the road is a "coil over", i.e. it has a coil over the damper. Aftermarket coil-overs use exactly the same principal, the differences being that the spring seats are usually adjustable, and they take standard sized springs which can easily be bought in different lengths and rates. The dampers are usually adjustable, or can be valved for as specific application but decent inserts for McPherson struts often provide this feature anyway. The whole point of coil-overs is to provide lots of scope for adjustment to suit the use of the car, so it's hardly surprising that one-size-fits-all coil-over kits are often a massive compromise.
A McPherson strut i.e. the bit supporting most cars on the road is a "coil over", i.e. it has a coil over the damper. Aftermarket coil-overs use exactly the same principal, the differences being that the spring seats are usually adjustable, and they take standard sized springs which can easily be bought in different lengths and rates. The dampers are usually adjustable, or can be valved for as specific application but decent inserts for McPherson struts often provide this feature anyway. The whole point of coil-overs is to provide lots of scope for adjustment to suit the use of the car, so it's hardly surprising that one-size-fits-all coil-over kits are often a massive compromise.