[FuLIsh]

ok..so i was driving a few of my brothers friends home a few hours ago and one of em asked me how long i had my car dropped so i told him like 3 months. he says "its time for new shocks" i said i know..my shocks are nearly dead. he then tells me that "i gotta replace em right away" because i can "damage the gears on my tranny" and screw up my "engine internals with the harsh vibrations" of the bumps. he says the gears can come out of place when i hit harsh bumps. is there any truth to this?

also, by riding on dying shocks, what other suspension parts am i causing damage to if any? thanks

BTW, 00 SE, stock shocks 52k miles (but progress springs installed at 49k)

 

[Silver_Slug]

Nope. You will not damage anything by having worn out shocks/struts. They only effect the performance of the vechicle.

Dan

 

[FuLIsh]

thats what i had assumed.. but by running worn shocks what other suspension parts am i damaging?

 

[n666z]

3 months and ur s.hit is shot? thats nuts u must rally race alot or somthing

 

[FuLIsh]

^nah..i had the stock shocks on there which had seen nearly 50k anyway so they were slowly dying with the stock springs, i just helped em get to heaven quicker

 

[david]

if they are really blown you can start wearing out bushings in the control arms, ball joints, tie rods, etc etc.

 

[FuLIsh]

^thanks david, im looking at some spec v struts. hope to get em by by the end of september so hopefully i wont cause too much damage with the dying struts.

 

[2KBlackSE]

i dont understand why people spend money to "upgrade" their shocks and then go and get spec-v struts. spec-v struts will die also with springs just not AS QUICK! get a kyb, koni, etc. if u really wanna "upgrade"

 

[NiceGuy]

Your brothers friends are morons.

 

[lawngn0mex]

i dont understand why people spend money to "upgrade" their shocks and then go and get spec-v struts. spec-v struts will die also with springs just not AS QUICK! get a kyb, koni, etc. if u really wanna "upgrade"

Agreed.. I've had my spec dropped for a few months and I can feel the difference from the struts now.. They are a little more bouncy. Time to save up for some konis I guess.

 

[FuLIsh]

blackse, not a lot of people can shell out $400 + for new shocks right now. and from what i heard from damper gods like cowboydren, the progress springs pair up nicely with the spec v dampers. plus, the spring rates on the progress are lower than the stock springs which equals longer life on the spec struts than if i would have used the stock spring. eventually i will get the koni yellows but for now im gonna settle for the spec struts. even if they last me 20k miles, thats still a pretty good deal.

niceguy, lol yea i kinda figured somebody would say that..maybe there were drunk or something. haha the funny thing is that the same guy who said there would be damaged offered to buy my SE. im like uhm..thats ok.

 

[lawngn0mex]

The drop on the progress springs is higher than most, which I think will hurt more than the springrates. The dampers will have to work extra hard to stop the soft springs from bouncing.

 

[NiceGuy]

The progress springs suck, do not get them.

 

[rcflyer25_2]

Geez

I got 118,000 on my stock suspension and it still sseems to be doing just fine. MAybe a little more wear on the inside of my tires but thats about it so maybe there getting a little week.

Unless lowering the severly shortens the life of the shocks then I'll jsut say ignore this post. 00 se by the way

 

[lawngn0mex]

I got 118,000 on my stock suspension and it still sseems to be doing just fine. MAybe a little more wear on the inside of my tires but thats about it so maybe there getting a little week.

Unless lowering the severly shortens the life of the shocks then I'll jsut say ignore this post. 00 se by the way

Yeah, dropping your car does wonders for the life of stock dampers... not the nicest thing for them to go through. You can think of it as a quintouple bypass. It's only a matter of time.

 

[FuLIsh]

The progress springs suck, do not get them.

i already have em, honestly i like em, its not dropped too much and it was a nice ride on unworn shocks..what would you recommend

 

[NiceGuy]

The latest revision of the Eibach prokit.

 

[Dangling Fury]

from what i heard from damper gods like cowboydren, the progress springs pair up nicely with the spec v dampers

You are right, Jon did say that, but I think that was like almost 2 years ago (most of 2002) when Progress was more popular because the alternatives were lackluster compared to today. Intrax, Eibach Prokit Gen1, Eibach Sportline Gen1, and Sprint were pretty much the only other alternatives.

It wasn't really until March of 2003 that we finally got confirmation from chickracer on what the stock spring rates were. Up until that point, older members here will remember that we went by Kojima's guess that the stock rates were in the 300s, much higher than what it really was (154F/247R).

 

[Dangling Fury]

I think curb weight is sometimes overlooked when looking at suspension spring choices. Fulish has an SE, which iirc weighs 2500lbs, 200 less than your typical specv. This would result in the car sitting slightly higher compared to a specv, increasing wheel travel and putting the resting point of the piston stroke range back closer to the middle or 'sweet spot'. This is why aftermarket dampers like Konis or KYB are recommended when lowering because the entire stroke range is essentially one big sweet spot due to uniform damper strength throughout the entire piston travel.

One extreme example is Tony's former fluidmobile. His '01 GXE was so completely gutted that we estimated the weight conservatively at ~2300lbs. For those that remember, he literally took almost everything out of that car. Interestingly, he was using Gen1 Eibach Sportlines, and it was remarkable how high the car sat at rest compared to specv's that had the same springs. The car also hardly ever bottomed out, even during aggressive autox runs, no bumpsteer or anything...on gxe dampers nonetheless, although we switched to spec dampers and noticed a huge improvement. A lighter b15 using the same lowering springs as a heavier car will regain wheel travel and exert less forces on all corners during acceleration, braking and cornering...resulting in less damper wear and longer life.

Edited because my parents forced me to spell 100% correctly at a very early age...

 

[FuLIsh]

so let me just make sure were on the same page here. youre saying that since the se is a few hundred pounds lighter, the car will sit higher than a spec which would reduce the strain on the dampers..correct? so with the lower weight and with the spec spring rates at 154F/247R and the rates for the progress are 190F/240R then the progress wouldnt severly affect the life of the spec dampers. am i right so far?