Alright thanks man, looks like some H&R SS's and some bilsteins are in the near future for me. When i bought my car it had some eibach lowering springs, they are black and i dont know what eibachs they are but the ride is very stiff and feels like i am on solid pipes instead of springs. I feel every little bump possible. I am on stock struts and shocks tho. And i do have gripps CC plates, anyone hear of them before?

 

I was looking at the second picture and mine looked nothing like that (http://www.google.com/imgres?q=progr...1&tx=30&ty=212)
Where there's space between the coils at the bottom, mine were stacked right on top of each other with no space between any of the coils (from top to bottom). I'm thinking maybe it's because the struts were dead in the front and the weight of the car compressed them? Because I have always heard good things about HR Supersports.

Well I still have the springs and tokico struts sitting here on my bedroom floor. The springs are uncoiled and look new, the struts however feel too weak. I push them in with my arms and it takes about 3 to 4 seconds for it to expand again.

 

Hmmmm. Well either way the springs are what control the ride height... A shock just controls the bounce of the spring for a smooth ride... If you totally removed your shocks/struts, the car may sag slightly, but overall it's going to stay close to the same ride height. The shocks/struts just stop the osolation of the springs when driving.

As for compressing your struts easily by hand... Some dampers, like the tokicos, should get harder to compress the further you push them down. The bilsteins should be the same difficulty to push down no matter what. Make sense? It's gotta do with the type of dampers... Monotube vs oil dampers or whatever they are

If your springs really are stacking ALL coils on top of each other, I'd give h&r a call...

a lot of people run h$r ss with tokico hp's and have no problem so idk what could be wrong :/ wish I could see the stuff in person and help out

 

Oh and yes the struts are going to be MUCH harder to compress compared to the shocks. The struts are meant to take much higher spring ratings then the rear so they need the extra dampening.

Ever notice that when you buy springs, the ratings will be like 500+ front and 150-300 rear? Thats why the front struts need to be much stronger then the rear shocks

 

Think I found the problem then, because my front struts were very easy to compress by hand. After inspecting the shocks they still seem pretty good. Also I noticed something, I've only had problems with the front suspension. The rear springs had space between the coils when sitting and the shocks were good. Maybe something with the control arms was causing the front suspension problems? I'm stumped.

 

I have tokico front struts I could sell you. They are used but are still in good shape from when I took em off a few months ago. But make sure it's not a spring problem first...

If your struts are compressing easily, they are shot... Compress them like 10 full times and see if it gets any harder from the first time to the tenth

 

With the fronts, if the strut is shot, then the full weight of the car could be resting on the spring more than it should. Dampers and springs are not independent of each other in the fact that they manage each other. When not paired right, you get bad ride characteristics as well as poor handling. I do have to warn you that you'll probably have to replace those front springs as they may be worn out completely due to the struts being dead. That may cause an issue here. It might be best to buy new springs.

 

Thanks teej I was about to ask if the springs were any good but you answered it already. And thanks HP for the advice!

 

I really don't fully agree with teej. I just don't see a spring getting worn out, especially if you only had them on for a few thousand miles. The spring is still going to get abused. It's made to "spring" up and down. The dampers control just how much that spring bounces. Is the integrity of the steel in the spring severely compromised when running blown dampers? I personally don't think so, but this is what teej is saying. I've done no research on this. Maybe teej has. So take my opinion as a grain of salt.

I've never had a spring weaken on me, even after i blew my shocks and rode on cut mach 1 springs for X amount of miles. But i didn't run them thousand of miles so i'm just talking out of speculation waiting for teej or someone else with some research to come and prove my argument wrong.

What i can tell you though is that people DO run tokico HP's with H&R SS. Is it the best combo? Absolutely not. Does it get the job done? Most people think their cars ride just fine. My HP's handled my 700+ spring rating up front, but i could tell they were at their limit.

I really don't see your spring being the problem. This would be the first time i've heard of this...

 

There doesnt seem to be any info out there about this, but it makes sense to me that with poor dampening qualities, that the springs could fatigue and cause them to develop issues. With the springs not having any space between the coils, those springs are not fit to be used on a vehicle. That, and it wont ride for crap. Springs are made from metal, and when fatigued, the metal wont hold its proper shape. Nah mean? Thats why I think that new springs should be ordered.

Thats just me though.