Shocks

[Jarp]

Ladies and Gents. I lowered my car a while back with Pedders coils (yes flame away and am still using the OEM shocks. They are OK and I like the height but is a little harsh on a bumpy road and pot holes are truly disturbing. Was thinking a change of shock might be in order and was going to go Bilstein. Was wondering if it is OK to mix and match like this ie will the Bilsteins bolt in under the Pedders coil ok and secondly will this resolve my issues. Was also thinking might swap in some sturdier roll bars and was wondering you folks thoughts on doing this?

Cheers
Jarp

 

[greenacc]

Mixing brands is normal, and actually a wise move as you can then choose the best of both.
Bilsteins are good but very firm and expensive so you can go a bit cheaper if you wish. Just stay away from no name rubbish...

 

[saroadie]

Lowering the car reduces available suspension travel.
To cope with this the spring manufacturer ensures the spring rate gets higher so the travel of the suspension is somewhat limited. This is done to try to maintain the suspension's margin not to bottom out whilst driving.
This results in increased harshness over bumps because there is more energy required to deflect the suspension resulting in more car body movement over a bump. This is the harshness you feel.
Shocks control the spring movement primarily and will not alter the abovementioned harshness any where near as much as I think you are hoping.
The roll stiffness of your car will already be increased with the springs you have now. Increasing it further with thicker roll bars may be a handling gain on a racetrack but on the road may well make the car have less grip over mid corner bumps and increase harshness.

Edit: lowering like any modification is a compromise. Some increased harshness is the price we pay for the lowered appearance.

 

[panhead]

If you want to fix your problem you'll need to swap out those springs.

Is there are reason why you initially choose the springs you now have fitted?


I wouldn't change the sway bars as you may find you have even more problems.

They are right for the street and it's unlikely you'd even change them for the track unless you were getting really serious and thicker/firmer isn't always better when it comes to sway bars.

When swapping out sway bars trial and error to find the perfect combo with your spring rates and shocks is usually the key or seek out a professional who done it all before.

 

[07GTS]

sway bars are a good change because they are so small for the size of the car but unless your going to use them i wouldn't change them better off going a good spring/shock combo to suit how u use the vehicle

 

[Jarp]

Thanks for the replies gents. Just thought a good set of shocks might smooth out things a tad and particularly from a rebound perspective. Advice on the sway bars very useful as I'm not planning on regular track days so guess I will can that and put the $ towards the brakes and powerplant.

Cheers

 

[NewbC4KE]

Thanks for the replies gents. Just thought a good set of shocks might smooth out things a tad and particularly from a rebound perspective. Advice on the sway bars very useful as I'm not planning on regular track days so guess I will can that and put the $ towards the brakes and powerplant.

Cheers

Hey mate,

Just wondering if you changed your mind at all? If so, what change did you make?