JTMartin

Newbie question I know, but I couldn't find an answer thru search. If I install GTWork lowering springs on my '08 GSR do I have to change struts, or can the stockers handle it? Thoughts, opinions, and facts wanted! Thanks.

JT

Kracka

iTrader: (49)

They were designed for stock.

lannym

Any time you use a spring that is shorter than the stock spring on the stock strut, you are compressing the strut, adding pressure, more than it was designed for. It may work okay, but it will reduce the life of the strut.

Overall, the "engineering" that goes into something like that is drop it like 3/4" and add 20% to the spring rate. That way, the strut life is not compromised too much, and it rides just a little stiffer than stock.

A coilover can (and I'm not saying that all are) be designed in such a way that the spring and strut are designed to work in conjunction with each other and with the car.

And this would be a better choice than springs and the factory struts, or than springs and some random struts...

07outty

iTrader: (5)

i would be willing to bet 99% of the people on this forum

that have lowered their evo with springs have NOT (including me) changed the struts

......i have not seen numerous threads about evos with "blown" struts.

go ahead and lower your car with a quality spring of your choice and.......

........when the struts wear out replace them.

GTWORX.com

iTrader: (35)

Designed specifically for the standard GSR and Bilstein struts.

- Andrew

JTMartin

Thanks for the advice guys. A second question is whether or not I need to purchase a camber kit to be sure I can re-align the car with with these springs installed. I assume I will need a four wheel alignment after the install, correct?

GTWORX.com

iTrader: (35)

Alignment needed but no additional parts like a camber kit required.

unclecomfort

iTrader: (7)

Hi Andrew, in case the stock shocks went dead, are you aware of any alternative aftermarket solution right now? Anything from KYB etc?

GTWORX.com

iTrader: (35)

As far as I know there are no other aftermarket shocks available. Just the OEM KYB and Bilstein shocks, with the Bilsteins being rebuildable.

- Andrew

4B11AWD

iTrader: (1)

What's the max amount of negative camber you can get with these springs and the stock shock?

awhitesti

iTrader: (1)

Get an alignment afterwards definitely, all wheels. And yes a camber kit will help but I didn't get a camber kit when i installed my tein s-techs. They said the only small problem i'll have is when i'm on a slanted road it will pull a little more than usual which isn't really a big deal for me since I dont drive on slanted roads very often..

lannym

The factory sees fit to use different springs on the KYB and the Billstein struts. They are two entirely different struts, and obviously are valved differently. How can one spring be specific to two different struts?

In any event, I'm not saying your spring does not work well one or the other strut. Maybe your tuning is better than Mitsubishis. I do fail to understand how either of the struts can run at 1"+ lower than stock and not suffer to some degree from that.

sgtr275

iTrader: (6)

The height of the shock should not affect its damping ability unless it runs out of travel.

GTWORX.com

iTrader: (35)

If you looked, the rates on the two OEM springs are almost exactly the same.

Shock valving can be quite complicated. Two shocks can be designed for the same spring, or support the same spring rate, and yet behave completely differently. In the case of the EVO X, the two shocks are indeed different in how they react to inputs, but the spring rate they can safely support is similar. We actually wanted to go stiffer, as both shocks still have some headroom, but the physical limitations of the spring you can put in between the perches meant we would have had to slam the car very very low to do that or else the spring would coilbind. The rates and drops we chose are safely within what both shocks can handle. Mitsubishi had their own design goals and limitations and they've done a pretty good job. We just did things a little differently.

- Andrew

lannym

I did look. That's kinda my point- the factory could have used the same spring, but chose different ones because the spring has to be precisely matched to the strut.

You are talking about increasing the spring rates by about 50% without revalving the struts. I would normally think this is outside the parameters of what the struts were designed for, but the feedback to your product has been good, so they must match up fairly well.

But my original point had more to do with strut life. Bilstein told me no more than 1/2" drop on their OEM strut. Beyond that, the piston is too long. Now, with the bigger rate, that may not prove to be an issue. But, the fact that the strut is under considerably more pressure all of the time will lead to an earlier demise. I'm not saying tomorrow, or even in a year; but I know Bilstein won't warranty it, because it's outside of the design specs.