My Springs Are Too Low For Kyb Shockers... Any Suggestions?

[darkhorse]

Hello everyone~

I'm still toying with getting which shockers i need to get for my r33, and one of the options were kyb shockers... i found out that my springs are too low for the shockers, appearantley the kyb's can handle up too 50mm lowered( measured from centre to guard) but mine measures at 60mm... even if i buy the kyb's the warranty won't be coverd either because of the height.. still, i like the height and don't really wanna go for coilovers....

any good ideas? anyone?

Cheers~!!

[Hotwire]

Well if you want to maintain that height, I'm pretty sure the only other option may be Bilstein. What is your hub to guard measurement?

[darkhorse]

Well if you want to maintain that height, I'm pretty sure the only other option may be Bilstein. What is your hub to guard measurement?

hey lee~ how's it going? i wnet to car torque and they said that they don't have any bilstein that fits r33... not sure of hub to guard measurment... is it from the centre of the wheels to the guard? i'll get the measurment again... is your car lowered as well?

how's your front skirt? fixed it yet?

cheers

[Hotwire]

Bilstein are (used to be?) available through whiteline, so I'm surprised car torque said that. Either way Sydneykid on here sells them.. only thing is they are 2x the cost of KYB's.

By Hub to guard measurement, yes I meant the centre of the wheel to the guard. On my car it's 350mm front & rear. which is ~20mm lower than the standard 370mm. Any lower and you generally get detremental handling.... 350 front and 340-350 rear is supposed to give optimum handling.

Take the measurement again, as it seems you may have King Superlow springs, which may look good but won't do your handling/ride much good

[darkhorse]

Bilstein are (used to be?) available through whiteline, so I'm surprised car torque said that. Either way Sydneykid on here sells them.. only thing is they are 2x the cost of KYB's.

By Hub to guard measurement, yes I meant the centre of the wheel to the guard. On my car it's 350mm front & rear. which is ~20mm lower than the standard 370mm. Any lower and you generally get detremental handling.... 350 front and 340-350 rear is supposed to give optimum handling.

Take the measurement again, as it seems you may have King Superlow springs, which may look good but won't do your handling/ride much good

yeah~ which means that i might need to changed the springs as well~? .... then maybe i should look at going to coilovers...? Bilsteins are 2x more then kyb = means similar price to coilovers...

awh~~~ i'm gonna get the exact measurement now~~

Thanks heaps for the informations man~~ appreciated~!!

[Hotwire]

Even if you get brand new Whiteline springs and new KYB shocks, you should still be only up for around $1k, around $300 cheaper than the cheapest coilovers. Of course its up to you if you want to pay the extra, but remember you will be getting whiteline springs which have a lot of development behind them to improve the handling FOR AUSTRALIAN ROADS and brand new quality shocks. By getting the cheapest coilovers, you can say "i've got coilovers" but guaranteed they wont be designed for use on Australian roads.

If you plan to go to the track often, different story but if the hills is where you spend your "quiet" drives, a good spring shock combination will perform just as well if not better than coilovers

Alternatively, you can get the KYB's, but yes, be warned that they won't last as long on superlow springs.

[kralster]

imo a top of the line spring/shock combo will outpreform a coilover anyday.

[darkhorse]

Even if you get brand new Whiteline springs and new KYB shocks, you should still be only up for around $1k, around $300 cheaper than the cheapest coilovers. Of course its up to you if you want to pay the extra, but remember you will be getting whiteline springs which have a lot of development behind them to improve the handling FOR AUSTRALIAN ROADS and brand new quality shocks. By getting the cheapest coilovers, you can say "i've got coilovers" but guaranteed they wont be designed for use on Australian roads.

If you plan to go to the track often, different story but if the hills is where you spend your "quiet" drives, a good spring shock combination will perform just as well if not better than coilovers

Alternatively, you can get the KYB's, but yes, be warned that they won't last as long on superlow springs.

does make sense~!! and i don't wanna get a set of brand new shockers on the superlow springs and that they stuff up in a year.... might have to invest in getting the springs as well... also i'll be lucky if i get to track once a year,, not even then... so there is no point in spending extra and getting coilovers.....

do you know how much the whitline springs will lower my car? by about 30mm from the original ride height? at the moment with my superlow springs i'm sitting about 60mm lower then the original ride height which is about 310 mm from hub to the guard....

thanks again for your advise lee~~ cheers~

[Hotwire]

I'm fairly certain that Whiteline springs give the perfect 350/340 heights when combined with shocks with the stock height mounts - ie. the KYB's. So your car will have a the same stance as this:

This was my car when I first bought it, it had Tein coilovers which were rat shit for the adelaide hills. The height was right but they were far too stiff. The spring I have now give 350/350 not 350/340 unfortunately but the ride is 100x better.

Now sits like this:

[chops]

That looks like the perfect ride height to me.

Pity the law says it's still 10mm too low - but doesn't look low enough to get you pulled over.

[Hotwire]

^Then only thing I dont like, is when the rear was 340 I had no troubles with my front bar.. since the back came up 10mm, its just enough to make the front scrape on the driveway at work.. and as a result I cracked the bar Oh well... one day I'll have the $1400 required for a GTR style FRP bar instead of fibreglass...... not

[darkhorse]

^Then only thing I dont like, is when the rear was 340 I had no troubles with my front bar.. since the back came up 10mm, its just enough to make the front scrape on the driveway at work.. and as a result I cracked the bar Oh well... one day I'll have the $1400 required for a GTR style FRP bar instead of fibreglass...... not

hey lee~~ cheers for the pictures~~ the height looks good to me~~ i just goet my exact measurment of my car height. the fron is 340mm and back is 310mm.... i don't understand why the back is significantly lower then the front... worn out shockers contribute to the height of the car at all? anyway, at this stage, i'm thinking of changing the shockers all around with remainder of front springs and get new springs for the back.... this might work out.... donno... what do y

ou think?

cheers~

ps, gtr body kit would be nice.... but fibreglass is cheaper~~ your front gurad looks good anyway~!

[Hotwire]

Worn shocks won't make your car lower, just make it "bounce" when going over bumps as it cannot control the spring rate any more. Dont be fooled though, just because you cannot feel the bounce like a trampoline, dont think that they arent stuffed. If they are leaking they are done for.

The height would be due to VERY low springs, and unless there is short stroke shocks in there (which I doubt), there would be a chance the springs could fall out when your car gets to full drop, ie. up on a hoist or similar, so be careful of that.

Rear springs would be a definite I would say, but think about this; Unless you are doing the labour yourself, you might want to have the front springs done while changing the front shocks otherwise you will be up for the same labour twice as the whole shock/spring assembly needs to come out. If you are doing it yourself (and its not hard, I've done the suspension on all my cars) then the only issue is time not $$.

My suggestion to you is get the KYB's with a new set of whiteline springs and you'll be VERY happy for under $1k

[darkhorse]

Worn shocks won't make your car lower, just make it "bounce" when going over bumps as it cannot control the spring rate any more. Dont be fooled though, just because you cannot feel the bounce like a trampoline, dont think that they arent stuffed. If they are leaking they are done for.

The height would be due to VERY low springs, and unless there is short stroke shocks in there (which I doubt), there would be a chance the springs could fall out when your car gets to full drop, ie. up on a hoist or similar, so be careful of that.

Rear springs would be a definite I would say, but think about this; Unless you are doing the labour yourself, you might want to have the front springs done while changing the front shocks otherwise you will be up for the same labour twice as the whole shock/spring assembly needs to come out. If you are doing it yourself (and its not hard, I've done the suspension on all my cars) then the only issue is time not $$.

My suggestion to you is get the KYB's with a new set of whiteline springs and you'll be VERY happy for under $1k

hey mate~ yeah, thought about fitting it my self, but i need few more things done to my car things like brakes and radius rod needs to be changed etc... and if i do everything at once, then the labour would be cheaper like you said...

sounds like a real tight ass, but if i can save a little i would by buying secondhand springs? or is it just a waste or time....? it might be quite hard to find second hand set of whitline's huh......

l really wanna get this done asap and cheap as possible as i'm still a student, but i wanna do the right thing and do it properly.... and you have been a great help. cheers

[Hotwire]

^Nothing wrong with 2nd hand springs. My springs were 2nd hand of a member on here, picked them up for $50 for the whole set... most people ask about $100-150 for 2nd hand springs though. Be warned that you will be up for a wait for 2nd hand springs, I was looking for about 3 months before I found some (and I was lucky they were in Adelaide).

Brakes: if its pads (and even rotors) its easy too. Fluid flush takes a little while (& 2 people) but still not hard. Radius rods I've never done and would probably need susp shop to help with that... BUT whatever you can do yourself, DO IT. Even saving a bit of labour in changing springs, brakes etc will all be worth it. Pay for as little workshop labour as possible.