What's better or does it really matter? Are the spring lengths different, thus affecting travel? Does one make for a better ride? Thanks

Coil overs pretty much result in a horrible, bouncy ride that eventually destroys struts.

I don't think it's a question as to which is better, the question is what type of ride and adjustability is the driver looking for? I have coilovers, and purchased them because I couldn't come to a decision as to what height I wanted my car lowered to. So I got the coilovers and set the drop to what I wanted. With that adjustability comes a price and that is a stiff ride.

Thanks for the heads up guys. I don't mind the stiff ride but this is a daily driver too that already scares the crap out of dear old Mom. No need to bump her around too; much as I'd like to sometimes. Again, thanks for the imput.
Paul

Originally posted by 740 turbo brick
Coil overs pretty much result in a horrible, bouncy ride that eventually destroys struts.

A sleeve over does, a TRUE coil over does not and gives you the best performance. Most of the time with suspension mods the money is well spent, don't cheap out on suspension because you will pay for it later.

That's a good point Slo. I have a true coilover setup to clarify.

Thanks for clearing that up. Yes I was referring to the $15 shipped Ebay coil overs. A true coil over setup will ride much better.
As always, you get what you pay for.

I thank you all for the clarification on that. Honestly I saw the cheap $32 Ebay ones and was wondering. My gut tells me to go with name brand quality too. That'll put me off a few months but I'd hate to do it twice!

Some kind person here, I won't name names, lol, has offered me yellow Konis with an Eibach spring kit so that's going to be my set up. I'm pretty sure I'll add a 3pc strut bar set too. Yea! I'll let you know how it is in a few months. ($ thing, ya know?)

I have struts and I like

+5, the person that owned my car before me went cheap on springs and now they are so fucked up. Im swaying every where and sometimes i get scared, in the rain is the worst.
Right now im looking at tein flex so i can use that automatic adjustment thing, that would be sweet. i have a question tho, what does that pillowball upper mount do... will i need it
http://www.tein.com/products/upper_mount.html

Don't know about the pillowball but all you guys save me from going cheap. I had to put my suspension way down on my to do list but that's way better than screwing myself. Thanks again for all your opinions. :-)

i got my car with ebay dropzone coilovers with dropzone struts worst ride in my hole life! i like lowering springs personally.

Yeah, I was looking at that Dropzone set up, hoping to hear someone's opinion about them. Their ad is pretty good but I knew they were a fairly new outfit. Thanks for the warning.

Whenever I finally get around to suspension I think the lowering springs will be my option. Besides, the car rides really good at the moment. I'm getting a little ahead of myself here wanting to do tires, rims & suspension when I need to focus on the mechanical first. :-)

Originally posted by Nemo
Whenever I finally get around to suspension I think the lowering springs will be my option.

Just remember to keep it to a minimal drop so that you don't blow out the struts if you stick with springs. I've had decent luck with 1.5" or less drop. more than that I've found tends to blow out struts quite rapidly

Thanks for the tip Erik. I was thinking a 1.0 front and 1.5 rear drop just to flatten it out a bit. There's no way I want 2.0 or anything.

I thought I read that with some lowering springs they sold the proper length strut together as a complete setup.

I have H&R sport springs that ride nice, I have had them on for about a year and they ride awesome.

Thanks. I see those around for a decent price at times. :-)

Originally posted by Nemo
Thanks for the tip Erik. I was thinking a 1.0 front and 1.5 rear drop just to flatten it out a bit. There's no way I want 2.0 or anything. I thought I read that with some lowering springs they sold the proper length strut together as a complete setup.

tokico sells a few sets with struts and springs that are the proper length, I think it's the HP and Illumina kits. the HP is just a high performance strut and spring, Illumina has adjustable struts and I believe a lower drop than the HP.

it's been a while since I looked them up so I don't remember the cost.

The Tokico Illuminas has a 1" shorter shock body. I think I paid $469 shipped for mine.

Yeah, those Illuminas are nice. A guy down the street from me has some on his ricer. You can really feel the difference between the settings.

I looked at those Tokico blues w/springs (forget what kind but a big brand name)at a place called Suspension Max in Orange County here in SoCal. They offer a set w/1.5 drop under $400 installed. That's the way I'm leaning at the moment.

Are they going to do an alignment after they drop your car? If not, you need to take it some place immediately afterward to have them correct the toe problems you will have.

Thanks Clay, I had no idea about that. I doubt they do the alignment, or at least that price. Must be pretty bad if it needs immediate attention. I have a lifetime alignment at a Goodyear place about 10 miles away. Will a short drive hurt anything? Thank you.

10 miles won't hurt anything, but keep in mind with the toe being screwy the car will be a little squirrely any time you hit a bump or drive on a rutted road

Thanks, I'll stay aware. Be like stone cold sober drunk driving, lol. There are dips about evey 1/2 mile on the route I'll take so I don't do freeway speed til I get it set. :-)

Originally posted by Nemo
Be like stone cold sober drunk driving, lol.

That's the best description I think anyone could give of driving with the toe screwy

Pretty much. Definitely be aware. Bad alignments can do weird things. Aggressive alignments can be just as bad. Trust me I know. I run a fairly aggressive alignment and I need to have it redone this year because it does weird things. My roommate refuses to drive my car because he hates how it tracks.

I'll be careful. Sounds like this will be something I've never experienced before.

I've had bad alignment but I'm not sure what "aggresive" alignment is. How does it track? Is it that you can really feel it set up going in and out of curves or what please?

Originally posted by Nemo
I'll be careful. Sounds like this will be something I've never experienced before. I've had bad alignment but I'm not sure what "aggresive" alignment is. How does it track? Is it that you can really feel it set up going in and out of curves or what please?

An agressive alignment is mostly an alignment that's designed for the best track handeling possible, usually odd toe adjustments to kill understeer and a healthy dose of negative camber for good grip through tight turns, sometimes even adjusting the caster more positive for that little extra bit of steering angle. Done right it makes for a car that will go exactly where you steer it, but it takes all the "grey area" that the engineers designed into the system for ease of driving on sub par streets out. basically it makes for a car that's awesome to drive on the track but twitchy and uncivil on normal city streets

Ronin hit it on the head. Some older roads here in town that have wear grooves from traffic cause me car to jerk side to side. There isn't anything I can do about it except lose some caster/camber, but I really don't want to. So I'm going to make a couple small changes and see how driveability is affected.