rocky321

08 GT 89,000 miles. All stock. Time to upgrade the OEM shocks, struts, rotors and pads. I am also considering lowering springs all around. I have 20" rims with 315/35/20 rear and 275/40/20 up front. I respect the opinions on this forum. Hit me!

Sleeper_08

OK - I'll be the first to ask the standard questions.

How do you plan on using the car and what are you looking for it to do better after the upgrades than what it does now?

The more information you provide the better the suggestions you will receive.

rocky321

Right now the handling on the turnpike is getting sloppy. Rear ends bounces. Wanting a better profile, stiffer and more controlled handling. Lots of highway speeding.

Norm Peterson

Fixing sloppy, bouncy, and lack of control is mostly a shock/strut issue. At 89,000 miles, the difference just changing them should be huge. With that much driving, I'd point you more toward Konis or Bilsteins.

Your tires are about an inch and a half taller than any of the OE sizes and quite a bit wider, so you're already using up some of the available clearance just to fit the tires in the wheel wells. Even if I knew what width and offset the wheels were, I'd be hesitant about lowering more than about an inch.


Norm

rocky321

Exactly how I was leaning. All within an 1". Spot on about eating up the clearance. Next tire change I'm going with a smaller profile to get them tucked in better.

Derf00

Rear end bouncing, I'd recommend PU (polyurethane bushings) for the OEM Upper and Lower control arm or going with aftermarket ones.

All of the OEM bushings are rubber which is fine for comfyness but do not control bounce as much as PU. The downside to PU is that they can get noisey (Squeaky) and will require some type of annual lubbing. The high end aftermarket UCA and LCA will have zerk fittings to grease em.

Norm Peterson

PU will also shift the handling balance kind of like the way swapping to a stiffer rear sta-bar does. Depending on the individual's driving and on what else has been done with the suspension (and tires), this can be anywhere from a slightly good thing to a rather bad thing.

Short of welding the suspension solid, you really can't keep the suspension movement from happening. Best you can do is control that motion with damping (shocks/struts). Stiffer springs and bars limit how far the suspension will move, but will then feed the energy that's stored as spring compression right back into the rebound motion, which is what comes through as "bouncy", "sloppy", "floaty", or "not stuck down".


Norm