I went with the Eibach Pro-kit/Tokico Illumina adjustables route. Let me just say, the car is very responsive now:

-Very minimal body roll on sharp turns (i'm only on 3 out of 5 stiffness for the shocks too).
-More responsive feel when shifting.
-Car is more stable at higher speeds, kind of a bad thing since i go 80+ without noticing now.
-Car doesn't sit too low, which imo is a good thing, since i'm in philly (crappy streets). And I still clear most shops lift ramps.

Here are some tips for those who are going to do the springs/shocks themselves:

-Corbin's spring/strut write-up is EXCELLENT for walking you through everything. Thanks Corbin for your awesome work!

-Work with a friend, hell, work with 2 friends. It's definately something that is very difficult to do with only one pair of hands and no power/air tools.

-Expect to spend a whole day (mine was 10 hours) doing everything if it's your first time. Unless of course, you are lucky enough to know someone who's done it before, because i'm pretty sure if i had to do this again, it would only take me 3-4 hours.

-WD-40 is a godsend, make sure you spray everything and let it sit for a while. BE PREPARED FOR RUSTED PARTS.

-Definately definately have a breaker bar, or a very big socket wrench to loosen some of the nuts and bolts. I ended up using my beastly sized torque wrench for leverage.

-One thing of note: The one bolt where the swaybar linker (sorry don't know the technical term off the top of my head) is attached to the damper fork (when you go do it, you'll understand) was rusted in for me, would not come out for its life. Don't worry though, on the other side of the linker where it attaches to the sway bar, there is another bolt that can come off and you'll get the same results of getting the damn thing detached from the damper fork to take out the whole strut assembly.

-I had a spring compressor but I seriously don't think they are needed to take of the stock springs. It might just be because my old shocks were blown, but my springs didn't feel compressed at all. Don't take my word for it though, it's always good to be safe instead of sorry.

-With 15 Dollar camber mod, it may be a good idea to use 5 washers on each bolt instead of 4. With 4 washers (they're pretty thick too), my car barely made it to -2 degrees which is just within specs.

-A bolt cutter (or something like that) would have been nice. The stock bolts holding the spring to the shock were rusted to hell on my shocks. We literally spent 2 hours chiselling and drilling one of the bolts before it finally came off. And since tokico's give you new nuts with the shocks and you don't really care about your stock shocks (do you???), destroying the old shocks is not a problem.

-While your under there, examine the bolts and nuts for the toe adjuster. If they're in bad shape, spray some wd-40 on them so that the alignment shop's job will be easier.. or you might be in a situation i'm in right now where they'll break that bolt and have to have you buy a whole new assembly to replace it. Yea, i know, it's an usual circumstance, but hey, doesn't hurt to be prepared right?


Thanks to Chris W. on the ASOG north east boards for helping me out. 9+ hours of labor and he didn't complain at all!

If you have any questions, feel free to follow up in a reply and ask me. It's still fresh in my mind and I wouldn't want anyone else to go through the crap that I went through.

Sounds good man. Yeah the instalation is not that hard at all... I had my first set installed but when I went back to stock I changed the springs myself. Took me 4 hours by myself with no air tools ( and no spring compressor :P ) Its not worth paying someone for IMO.

Good write-up man. You pretty much covered it.

My hands are still pretty chewed up from Mystic's struts of evil and pain but it was a cool learning experience.

One thing I'd like to add though. If you're doing this, invest in some nice mechanic's gloves. ;)

Oh yea, i second that. My hands are bashed ugly from slipping wrenches and what not. :P

I agree with the Mechanix gloves, they have saved my hands MANY times in the last 3 weeks that I have had them. Also you guys should have used a hacksaw to cut the old stock shock, mine took about 5 minutes to cut through when mine was rusted solid.


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Project: Baby on the way


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my suggestion....Compressor with high torque ratchet and impact wrench and a Sawzall.

I thought I broke my finger when I slipped with the breaker bar and smashed right into the fender wall..all in all a great learning experience

OMG ALLEN U FINALLY LOWERED YOUR CAR. SWEET. I remember back in the day you got made fun of cause of your stock height and in your sig pic it look like you could go offroading. haha, look forward to you coming back down to MD some weekend. Lemme know when ya do.
-Dave

Man, i look like im lifted off the ground... I had to get rid of my springs because of these shitty roads in maryland. I couldnt drive anywhere without ripping my N1 off the bottom of the car.

Congrats, man. It is always cool when you can do the mods to your car yourself. Not to mention the money saved. ;)

Just last night I helped install some Eibach Sportlines on a '99 2gnt. If you've seen it done once before, or done it once before yourself, it is very easy. We did both rears in like 30 minutes. Of course we had four people working on it. :)

Chris

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Please, please, please don't ever use your torque wrench for that again. Using a torque wrench as a breaker bar can seriously throw it out of spec. If you have the means I would get it checked.

Una salus victus.
He will triumph, who knows when to fight, and when not to fight. - Sun Tzu

Michael J. Kulaga
e-mail: Michael_97RS@2gntDSM.zzn.com aol IM: MJKulga
http://highlander.dsmpower.com/

All motor in the making.

Injen CAI, P&P Intake Manifold, Crower Stage 2 Cams, Hooker Header, GS-T Muffler, AFX UDP, S-AFC, 8.5mm Magnecor Wires, Crane Fireball HI-6DI2, FU/RU/RL STBs, TSW Blade 17x7.5, Bridgestone Potenza RE730, Front KVR Cross-Drilled Rotors & Carbon Fiber Pads

To Be Installed: P&P Milled Head, Rear Disc Brakes, Rear KVR Cross Drilled Rotors & Carbon Fiber Kevlar Pads, SS Brake Lines, AFX 55mm TB (re-installed once exhaust is done, intake was outflowing exhaust)