greyghostred1

I have an 05 that I recently bought and your questions are what have been going through my mind. It sounds like if there is occasion to have 3-4 people in the car that lowering the height by about 1 inch will be quite uncomfortable and provide more bottoming out opportunities, although I agree that the looks are great.

Do I understand that just changing out to Koni's will make a better difference and keep the stock springs?

VerginaStang

My apologies.... I meant 18x9.5- not sure what possesed me to put 9 those are the correcttire sizes though.

scoots

Simon1,

I am planning on going with your exact setup, plus an upper 3rd link. What do think of this setup? Anything you would change?

Thanks,

Scott

F1Fan

Hi VerginaStang,

The only reason I suggested the Steeda HD strut mounts and Steeda billet camber plates for your car is long term durability and the ability to hold alignmentlonger with the poor roads in NYC. If you don't mind the possibilityofstock strut bearingsmakingthewell knownpopping noises and the increased chances of your tires wearingout a a little bit odd and a bit sooner than they should these parts are not necessary. But I can assure that that byinstalling these part properly you will not encounter these common problems that folks with rough roads and sport springs and dampers seem to encounter with regularity. I'm not trying to scare you, I'mtrying to help you avoid common problemspeople like yourself have encountered. As to the Steeda PB brace being lower, no dice same location same basic height as the stock stamped steel brace.

The choice between the D-Specs and Koni Sport dampers isIMO a toss up. Samfeels there is a difference and that for him he prefers the Koni Sports. I don't disagree with him on this point based on my long term relationship (30+ years)with Koni Sport and Racing dampers. But based on the last 30K miles of driving on a set of D-Specs and regular teardowns of the suspension(during testing of various different brands of suspension component combinations)and inspection of the damper piston rods and strut shafts the D-Specs appear to beevery bit as durable as the Koni Sports I've been using for so many years. As to the differences in damping that's a personal thing and a lot depends on thetype of springs (progressive, linear, two or threepiece spring stacks)used, ride height,bump and droop limitsand the type of roads the car is driven on.

Technically the D-Specs are adouble adjustable damper but the twist is that the realationship between compression and rebound are notindependently adjustable butfixed at the time of assembly. Now this is not atall a bad thing in the case of the D-Specs as Steeda did the development work for Tokico for the S197 D-Spec dampersusing (no surprise) Steeda Sport springs.Knowing this I can assure you that Steeda isvery familar with the way the D-Spec damperswork. Technically the Koni dampers are aregular single adjustable damper with the adjustment being on the rebound side only. The compression ratehas been fixed at assembly time and the adjusterhas no influence on the damper'scompression rate. Now while this may sound like it can make a difference, on a street car this is arelatively smalldifference and you will likely not notice it unless you are adrag racer in which case the Tokicos will have an advantage in tunability of weigh transfer. Let's just say that ona street car both will work very well for a car withroad course handling as a focus. If you are serious about adjustability I'm sure Sam can fab up some Koni DA race struts for you and the necessary rear chassis reinforcements needed to run a set of KoniDA coilovers out back. Then you will have decent dampers.

But based on what you written maybe you don't realize just how much is involved in a max. performance suspension system. The items in the first phase were well considered for what you posted you hoped to achive. These components are a very good basis to build a nice reliable street chassis and as I mentioned might bee all you find you really need once you have driven the car with this setup.

HTH!

VerginaStang

Thanks F1Fan,

Do you have any input on the PB that are lower than the OEM part? I believe BMRhas a lower one, or maybe its CHE- but I'm not too sure.

I willmost likely not skimp out on the mounts and the camber plates, as its probably a worthwhile investment, especially when I'll beprematurely wearing out my $800 set of tires [:@]The reason I ask is bcI'll probably be taking this to a shop for installation.Can you give me anestimate on how long you thinkthe job would take for installation of the springs, d-specs or koni's, camber plates, PHB & Brace- your stage 1

Thanks again.

Margarita Girl

Hi,
I went with the Roush 3/4" drop in front and rear and the Koni adjustable struts and shocks. I did not switch my front mounts, per the advice of my installer,and have had no issues. To be honest, the suspension mod that made the most improvementon my convertible was my Edelbrock 3-point strut tower brace.[8D]

My installer did my 4.10 gears, springs, struts and shocks in one day, but there were two guys working on the car. Cost me $300.00 for the spring & damper install. (not parts)

VerginaStang

I think $300 seems a little high for just shocks and springs, no? I could be off, but thats 3 hours at a rate of $100/hr- experienced shops should be able to do it in half the time? Anyone else have any insight?

F1Fan

Hi VerginaStang,

$300? I can do just springs and dampers in less than 3 hours on the floor of my garage! The L.A. rate for goodmechanical labor is $65-$75 per hour. $100 an hour? Is this a Porsche mechanic from Germany?

HTH!

VerginaStang

haha... it better be. And he better wash and wax my car after too!

Quick question for you guys- whats involved in installing a panhard bar, and panhard brace? The reason I am asking is that my mid muffler system seems to vibrating against my stock setup, and I was thinking of purchasing a lower one to kind of rid myself of this issue. Should I just wait until Im ready to buy all the suspension components that I want (springs, dampers, CC plates, strut mounts, etc), or does the installation of a PHB & brace really have nothing to do with these components. In other words, I dont want to have to pay to install it twice if you catch my drift.

Thanks!

F1Fan

Hi VerginaStang,

Installing an adjustablePanhard bar is an easy install and affects no other suspension components. There are only two fasteners for the Panhard bar itself and four fasteners for the Panhard bar brace. But make sure that you have a 1/2 drive torque wrench to torque the fastenrs back to stock specs as all of the suspension components need a fair amount of torque applied and most 3/8" torque wrenchs cannot measure over 100ft/lb. and many folks of the fair genderhave a hard time with a typical 3/8" torque wrenches shorterlever lengthabove 75-80ft/lb. torque.The only issue is that whenyou get around toyour spring install down the road and havetorqued the LCA's and lower rear dampers bolts back to spec. in a LOADED condition you will need to adjust your Panhard bar to re-center the axle in the chassis. This is not a big deal you just need to put the car up on stands in back and loosen the Panhard bar adjusterjam nuts, make your adjustment and drop the car to confirm that the axle is recentered. Then put the car back up on stands,snug up the jam nuts, drop the car and you are done.

HTH!


OPPS! Forgot, is there no way to adjust the muffler hangers to raise the over axle pipes to avoide the mechanical interferience between the brace and pipe? If not you may want to have your muffler shoppress an indentataion in the areawhere the interferencehappens.