Ok, so my suspension sucks. it always has. more body roll than a sumo fat bitch, and the front suspension creaks like a bed on a wedding night.

i want the Bilstein Touring class struts and shocks but springs are another story.

what is spring rate, rebound and shit like that?

and do i have to have springs made for my car? or can i get springs from any car that are about the same weight? and if i want to cut springs should i find springs that were made for a heavier car so when i cut em they will still be able to support the weight of mine?

I'd suggest picking up some books. I recommend "Tune to Win" and some others by Carroll Smith. Try searching google for the specific equations (double wishbone, leaf, etc). You will need to know the weight of your car, specifically each corner.

You can call Koni for the shock, they'll do custom body length and valving. Ground Control does custom springs. You'll only need to know your desired spring rate, progressive or linear, spring height and inner diameter.

I wouldn't suggest cutting springs, you'll never get it right that way. I'll see if I can dig up more info for you.

...what?

Suspension is withcraft.


Just sacrifice a small goat near your car and you'll have an Enzo-killer in no time.

It might be easier to take these steps... Find the weight of your car (front and rear have to be listed on the door jam on most cars). Call Bilstien and tell them you want to buy from them but you need to know what springs to get. Call whoever they recommend and tell them the weight of your car. They should be able to tell you what exactly they need from you. I think you will still have to get the physical dimesions of your current springs.


There is alot to suspension, we haven't even started with motion rates, wheel rates, center of gravity, center of motion, roll axis, suspension geometry, camber, caster, etc.

suspension...bah...just weld in steel bars between the shock towers and the spindle...you'll never worry about body roll again!

Do not cut your springs. And spring rate is just how stiff the springs are. There are progressive rate springs and constant rate springs. I'm sure you know what I am talking about and what the differences between them are. The stiffest springs won't necessarily make your car handle great either. And when you get lowering springs, make sure you get shocks made for lowering springs, or else you won't have enough travel and you will just hit the bump stops everywhere like a ricer. Suspension is complicated as hell and every car is different. It's not all shocks and springs either. Think about ways you can stiffen your chassis. I don't know what kind you have but if it's like an f body, with your chassis being basically in two pieces front and rear, some subframe connectors will work wonders for stability. As for sway bars, they will help a lot with body roll. You can have the stiffest shocks and springs in the world and your car still may have some body roll because of chassis flex, which can be helped by sway bars. As for other suspension components, I don't know what your car has, but there is a lot that lies in between your shocks and your chassis and wheel.

One thing you can be sure of when you try to do suspension work is that getting everything right will be a royal pain in the ass. Sometimes you may get lucky though and all the parts you buy will work great together, like me. But you have to make sure not to buy crap.

i am attracted to the bilstein TC, not too hard but they say they are 30% stiffer than my stock shocks, and they are made for my car. i would like lowering springs, but IPD only offers a 1.25 inch drop.. the look wouldnt be worth the money in my opinion. i've seen a guy with springs from this place called "Jumboz" and they offer as much as 4 inch drop springs for 240's. i dont want a fucking ROCK hard ride, and i certainly dont want it 4 inches lower. i was thinking like 2.5 inches then when i get some larger wheels it'll look even better.

2.5 is actually a lot of lowering...you'd be surprised how much an inch or an inch and a half will do for your car. Black RSX's car, for instance, is lowered about 1.5 inches.

As for getting stiffer shocks with stock springs, I would avoid it...though being overdamped isn't as bad as being underdamped, it's still best to match spring and shock stiffnesses as closely as possible.

i would'nt one on without the other.

RSXs are already pretty low stock...240s are not. i bet i could lower my Accord 3 inches without it being too low

yeah exactly, my car doesnt exactly have that "low to the ground" look.

Well, I'm not one to want to lower much. The GTI is a bit of a 4x4 and I wouldn't want to lower it anymore than 1.5.

If you lowered your car 1.5 inches, you'd hardly notice it. Honda has a factory lowering kit for my car that lowers it 1.5 inches. I've seen it on some Accords and I could barely see the difference, I had to sit there and study the damn car to see that it was lower.

That's kinda the point. I like when a car is lowered but doesn't really LOOK lowered. You look at it and go "hey, that car looks good" and it takes a good hard look for you to say "hey, that's not stock".

In other words, I like it to look OEM but...nicer. That's my prerogative. Most cars that are lowered a lot come off as looking tacky to me (with some notable exceptions, of course).

Plus there's always the practical side...my driveway approach is none-too-friendly to lower cars, so I wouldn't want to lower it much for fear of scraping the crap out of my lower front airdam thingy.

I dropped my Golf 2.5" in the font and and 1.5" in the rear. My old roomate has exact the same car as Jordan's (his is an 82) and I think he is running stock suspension... I can see that car with a 2" drop maximum, after that it would look odd.

Also, not to knock on the beloved 242 here, I have driven one and I don't think that they were meant to be nimble

mine is a 1982 as well, but i have four doors (244). they arent MEANT to be nimble, but i can make em nimble.

Yeah, you will have to put a lot of money into it though. Does yours have a lot rust?

why dont you just get the bose suspension that uses electromagnets to create a bump-free ride? i mean, thats the obvious choice here.