1BADASS35th

I recently purchased some vogtland lowering springs to give my ride a more aggressive feel. Im not to concerned with the smoothness of my ride. My question is i have 70,000 miles on my Bilstein shock and the car has been through some heavy street driving . Are they still good?

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

No, they certainly aren't ideal, and never were.... Bilstein's were never meant for lowering springs in general. Further, the springs you bought aren't close to the right rates. I have no issue with Vogtland (they make my springs for me), but I don't use their production springs and built my own because they run softer front and much stiffer rear rates than I do. They also lower the car too much.

Hey, you have them. If you want the car to work the best it can with the current shocks, I don't think those springs are what you want (regardless of what you tolerate for ride... the two are in fact linked and a car that rides like crap doesn't generally "handle" well. Ideally you'd be best served with more appropriate springs and shocks. But in lieu of that you need to at least give your shocks the best chance to do the job (overwhelm them by the least amount).

z28bryan

iTrader: (7)

Even Bilstien states that their shocks aren't meant for lowering springs

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

Well, they used to. Recent catalog revisions have dropped that message that used to be at the top of page 1... probably because they realized it was not helping sell BTS kits.

But that's true, in the past the Bilstein catalog said that HD's were "not suitable" for lowering springs... and that's all they make for a 4th gen. Meanwhile, if you have a BMW, Vette, Mustang, Honda and a lot of other cars, you can get Sports or HD's.

Omec

iTrader: (2)

Sam, whats a good combo for good street manners. not anything thats going to brake the bank. but just for the every other day cruiser that doesnt want to bounce all over the road w/ stock suspension. TA need a drop too, bad.

Redlinez

iTrader: (5)

Nothing works "well" that won't break the bank. He would say his springs and Koni SA shocks. The "best" budget combo is Eibach LT1 prokits and KYB AGX shocks.

1BADASS35th

Sam I actually just spoke with you earlier yesterday on the phone about a few purchases I made with your company. (My names Robbie, I spoke with you about engineering.) What would you suggest I do at this point? I have a very minimal knowledge of suspension setups which is obvious... Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for you time.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

It tends to be true that what you spend equates to how it works. My springs aren't really any more expensive than a typical going rate on Eibach's (remember @ $275 my springs also included the shipping). And you can team them up with AGX's or Tokico's and have a setup for around $625 (currently both shocks are on sale, but won't be for long).

The car needs, relies on, and basically has the way it works and rides dictated by the shocks. You can absolutely do a less expensive setup on the shock side, but I want to make sure folks know the differences between say an AGX and a Koni'. I wouldn't sell AGX's if there wasn't a market or they weren't useful in some way. They are, they can control the springs and they don't cost a lot. But they are more fragile and just don't work in nearly the same composed manner where particularly sharp impacts are found. Make sense?