By where I live the streets seem as if they are in a war zone. While driving around I feel like I'd be better off just driving through the yards on the side of the street. But something I haven't done is upgrade the shocks or bushings. I would guess the shocks have about 30k on them and the bushing have 100k+. I'm sure my low profile tires are not helping anything but I was wondering if anyone had luck making the ride not so harsh by upgrading those 2 things.

 

upgrading will make the ride harsher, in the typical sense of the word 'upgrade.'

am i correct to assume you have aftermarket springs on stock shocks?

 

Yeah I do and I relize those are not helping my problem at all. It just seems to be extremely harsh. I wasn't sure if upgrading would allow me to get adjustable ones that I could soften for my normal trips around town.

 

it depends.

if the ride is harsh because it is too bouncy, it could be the stock shocks are not adequate for whatever springs you have. in that case, it may be beneficial to move on to a aftermarket shock.

on the other hand, it could just be that your roads suck ***, and anything stiffer than stock will be uncomfortable period. hell, stock could be uncomfortable if you are on the right road.

 

stock (or Konis) shocks and springs ride very nicely.

bushings help keep things nice and quiet rather than clunking and making loud noises. you won't notice an improved ride quality in terms of comfort.

 

Luke, a majority of your ride problems are from your wheels/tires. The lower the profile, the less sidewall for the tires to absorb the road shock. Its one of the reasons I stay at 17" wheels for the FD.

If you kept your stock springs and adding some adjustable shocks, that would at least let you dial down the dampening a little. For what you are looking to do, I would recommend Tokicos as they are a little softer than Koni's.

 

If you choose to change shocks, shop carefully. My car came with GAB 8-way adjustables, and even on the softest setting they keep my dentist in business. All 8 of its settings are really track-only damping rates, and I'm sure many other shocks can be similarly rough riding.

Dave

 

what springs are on this car? You said the shocks have 30k on em, does your FD really have that low of mileage or were they replaced not long ago. If replaced what brand and model did you replace them with.

Rishie

 

I have Tein S tech springs. The 30k number is coming from when I was looking through the receipts and I believe I remember seeing that the previous owner had replaced the shocks about 5k before I had purchased the car. From all my times working on the car the shocks look stock and wouldn't be surprised if there were OEM replacements.

 

Ah, that's the problem (or another part of it). IMO, the stock shocks are not near valved to deal with the spring rates of the Tein's.

 

So do you still suggest the Tokicos?

 

For your application, yes.

I'm running that exact combo right now. While it's good for the street I'll probably switch to something a little more suited for the track in a year or so.

 

Either Tokicos or Konis will work. So will stock if they're in good shape and it sounds like yours are.

At the softest setting, the Konis are just slightly less stiff than stock shocks (I think that was documented on fd3s.net also). I also know this b/c I was running stock shocks with H&R springs and when I installed the Konis with the same springs adjusted to full soft it felt less damped.

I personally think the stock shocks are great. I wouldn't change them if they have such low mileage (under 100k) and aren't leaking. I would however change your springs to something less aggressive like the stock springs or the old PFS comfort springs (blue in color use search button or PM me for more).

H&R springs ride reasonably well but the ride quality is still stiffer than the stock springs. FWIW DamonB and lots of autox guys use stock springs with Koni shocks.

Good luck.