Well I am leaning towards the H&R sport springs wich are about a 1.5" drop. I'm getting my new 17" wheels next week, and i have enought money for only the springs for now. How will the ride be with the stock struts? I know that they won't last long wich is ok, and i will only need several more months to have the cash for some struts. I will be doing all the work myself, using a car lift and air tools, so i dont really care about the labor of taking the stuff apart a few times. So will the stockers be fine for a little while, and will the ride be ok also? What do you guys think?

yeah its cool, i did it for 2 years :)

Yup I got some Skunk2 coilovers now for 2 years and I am still on stock struts.

mah cheep a$$ is still on the stockerstruts and droppd on intrax for a few months.

ride is harsh, but the corners are much more fun

Dropped 2" on stockers for a couple of days now... those corners are much more fun!

I think you should just go ahead and save all the money up and do it all at once just so you dont have to take everything apart again

thats what im going to do this summer

go for it!! Ive been riding on my stock struts since about august '01, w/ no probs.

Sweet thanks for the input guys. By the middle of next week, i'll be sportin some new wheels and goin low..hell yeah :)

Post some pics when you're done! What springs are you going to get? I suggest the H&R Race springs though. I just dropped 2" and my front camber is -1.8 degrees in the front. If you go 2" then make sure you do the $15 rear camber mod and get an extreme grade front correction kit.

Yeah i'll def be postin some new pix, but i'm not tellin what wheels i'm gettin :) Its nothing fancy, or new design or anything, but they are 17" siver painted racing wheels. They will look very good on the car. I didn't want anyting too flashy, cause i wanna keep my exterior on the down-low so to speak. I'm going with the H&R sport springs, i believe 1.7 drop in front, and 1.4 in rear. I don't want any lower, cause we have shitty roads here in MI. I am looking forward to it :)
And get this, total spent on rims and tires= around 800 buucks..It really pays to work for a shop that gets REAL wholesale discounts..

wanna sell your 16's? email me. craigd887@aol.com

Haha, i wish i had 16's :) I got the crappy 14's man...plus i'm keepin those for the winter if i cant get a winter beater by next winter..

Stock struts will ride okay if thats all you ever had like me for the 1rst 3yrs on em (springs were my 1rst mod after wheels). When I 1rst got springs they rode as good as stock for a while. Then just a yr or two ago I put on AGX and big bumps that had me bottoming out and bouncing had me running over em faster than usual intentionally in amazement. Bumpy fast corners that caused my steering wheel to kick back when I hit the bumps suddenly didn't even disturb the steering. Body roll control, springs wont cut it like adj struts.

To sum it up you can live with stock struts easily for a long time with lowering springs but until you get good struts you'll never know your missing anything. Had I known I'd had done it yrs ago. Referring to adjustable struts. I probably would bitch about non adjustables as well seeing as I have my front and rear set at a click away from full stiff.

I would also wait until you have the springs and the shocks, so you only have to do the install once instead of twice.

Also, I don't reccomend running on stock shocks with lower, stiffer springs. Eventually they'll break, it might be a month, or two years for some people, but they will.

Don't forget, after you lower a car you need to have an alignment done. You are changing the geometry of the suspension setup, so the camber, caster, toe in and toe out will change. You need to re-aling the car to get it back the way it should be.

With an independent suspension car, as the suspension travels through full bump and full droop, the camber, toe in, ect.. all change. So, if you lower your car, you are forcing the suspension to be in a position which it normally is under bump. The camber, toe in and such will also be in this new position all the time, which the car isn't designed to be in. Your ride quality will not be as good as it should be, the car could "track" funny on the highway, and you'll wear your tires out faster.

Thanks to all for the insight, i really appreciate it. I am still prob going to just drop on the stock struts for now, and see how long i can get away with it. I should be able to have the cash for some adjustable struts before too long, i hope :) But as far as taking things apart all over again, i really don't care. I have a car lift and air tools at my shop, and personally, i like the greese under my fingernails; i am in my element when i'm working on my car. No place i'd rather be :) Plus it gives me more experience and wrench time on my ride..Thanks y'all..

I just put on my H&R Race springs about three days ago and will be ordering struts immediately. It is the worst damn ride I have ever experienced. It feels like you are driving a trampoline. The springs make the car height awesome and I love the corners, but if you hit a bump hold on to your shit. I would strongely recommend getting the struts first. I have a 97 and my struts are shot so if your car is older, then you can propably expect the same if not worse. I also have front upper, rear upper and rear lower strut bars. This has really hurt my cornering capability, hell a freakin cavalier kept up with me on the interstate today because I was afraid to get all the way in it because I might take flight.
Just my two cents,
Michael

All show, and soon to be all go. Thanks to Hahn Stage 5.

I just put my Pro-kit on Friday and it rides great with the stockers. Not to much bounce at all. Ride is nice and not to much different from stock. Looks great too..... Got a hook up on some Illumina's though so I'll probably get those this weekend and put them on in the near future... But you should be fine with the stockers for a while IMO....

i'm in the same situation as you XtremeRS...my 17''s are on their way and i know there will be some wheel gap, so im probably gonna go with just the springs to start since my cash is low now...
what exactly is involved in replacing the stock springs?
can i do it myself or should i take it in to a shop?
Thanks guys


________________________________________________________
Aem cai
17" Enkei's
custom headliner w/ raised graphic
next:
cat-back
new suspension

>i'm in the same situation as you XtremeRS...my 17''s are on
>their way and i know there will be some wheel gap, so im
>probably gonna go with just the springs to start since my
>cash is low now...
>what exactly is involved in replacing the stock springs?
>can i do it myself or should i take it in to a shop?
>Thanks guys
>
>
>________________________________________________________
>Aem cai
>17" Enkei's
>custom headliner w/ raised graphic
> next:
>cat-back
>new suspension


Wow this post is a little old, but to answer your question, it is pretty simple to do the springs/struts yourself. If you are good with tools, and have some common sense, I'm sure you can do it. You will need a strut spring compressor, i rented one from autozone for 40 bucks. You will only need the compressor for taking off stock springs, you won't need it to put on the new ones, or taking those off either. Check out the main page on this site. Go under the mods section, and you will find a link to the strut install. Follow this, i did, and the pics are pretty good to. It took me about 5 hours to do mine, most of the time was for the fronts, and some rusted bolts. About 20 minutes a piece for each rear. You will need some sockets and box end wrenches,. mostly 14 mm, 17mm, and a few others. You will also need an allen wrench for holding the anti-sway bar end lind bolt from turning while taking off the end link nut. There is an allen wrench hole in the end of the end link bolt to hold it still while using a 14mm box end wrench to loosen the nut. I hope this helps, and if in doubt of your skills, don't worry, just get someone to help. I wouldn't pay for this to be done, although i'm a pretty good wrench..

Thanks, i appreciate the responce and your help...i'll let you know how it turns out when i do it
mike


________________________________________________________
Aem cai
17" Enkei's
custom headliner w/ raised graphic
next:
cat-back
new suspension

I didn't need a spring compressor. There's almost no pressure behind the stock ones. I just turned it upside down, stepped on the wrench, and pushed down a little while I turned the assembly.