LS14Winter

If money grew on tree's id be all over some peddlers coil over kit, but im living check to check ... eeking by.

I bought this GTO a few months ago, wife and i love it -- but im looking to restore its handling. It feels really sloppy in the corners, the rear sags pretty bad...

Though I dont have huge respect for autozone quality, typically the parts are very affordable with decent warranty. In this case they dont carry rear suspension parts for the GTO... or at least i cant find it on their website.

For someone on a budget what do you guys recommend ?

Right now i was thinking about doing eibach lowering pro-kit from maryland speed, then some new bushings / tie rod ends up front to get started. id love to do struts at the same time, but i doubt its in the budget until tax return time.

I honestly dont care about lowering my car, but im willing to bet the eibach kit will at least raise the rear. I have long tube headers and would like to avoid scraping when leaving some parking lots.

eibach kit is 1" lower up front, .8 lower in the back. Currently 76,300 miles on the clock. Any input appreciated!

svede1212

iTrader: (3)

I'd pass on Eibach. They have a good rep with other cars but are less than stellar on ours. Lovells (Kollar Racing Products) makes some great springs. Honestly to do this car right with springs and dampers you're looking at dropping a grand. They also sell BC coilovers if that's your needs too. This is the wrong car for someone to want to go cheap. Front radius rod bushings, struts bushings and bearings along with bumps stops are the minimum for bushings.

409CISecondGen

iTrader: (2)

I wouldn't count on that Eibach kit raising your car up. If I were in your position I would do all the bushings in polyuerethane, get some stock height drag springs for the rear, and an alignment.

If there is money left over, sway bars (and be sure to get end links as the stock ones are prone to bending) will help handling alot while being a third the cost of a coilover kit and not limiting your height (at least like the BC coilovers do).

svede1212

iTrader: (3)

There's no reason to raise the back end and some reasons like improved handling to actually lower it. I'm at 20mm drop all around. The lower center of gravity, even though it doesn't seem like a lot, helps handling. If you want a stiffer rear for drag days drag bags are the way to go.

I also think that although sways are nice (I have Hotchkis sways) they don't make that dramatic of a change especially on the front. The rear makes more difference than the front. Springs and dampers should be #1 with the associated strut parts and the front RR bushings.

409CISecondGen

iTrader: (2)

Well he said he wanted to raise the vehicle for ground clearance from it's current sagging state and Drag bags seem like a bandaid, that's why I suggested the stock height springs.

Sure, coilovers and lowering the car would be great, it's what I want to do and what I have done on my last car. But he seems like he doesn't want to spend that much money, and from reading lots of boards (granted, not all GTO boards) sway bars seem like a relatively cheap and extremely effective way to not only improve handling, but change the handling characteristics of the car. Unless his shocks are blown, I would stick with replacing the sagging springs, fixing the undoubtedly trashed bushings, and putting some sways on to make it corner flat. While they may not make it empirically much faster around the corner, sways will make it 'feel' faster which is what it sounds like he wants: fun.

gconnoyer

iTrader: (1)

Forget about pedders. Overpriced "gucci" suspension parts.

Look at BC Coilovers from Marylandspeed.
$1200 to fix the **** stock front bushings(RR Bushings, Strut Mount, Strut Bushing), replace the front and rear struts with coilovers.

You could also do what I'm planning on doing,
Redoing the front with the BC/Whiteline kit for the front for around $650
and then replacing the rear springs with something stiffer. I don't know what kind of condition my stock rear shocks are in, but I don't notice any problems like I have on the front blown struts so I just have drag springs and bags out back.

Robofuzz

Energy Suspension makes a nice bushing kit for the GTOs. You'll also need front radius rod bushings.

svede1212

iTrader: (3)

My experience wasn't from the boards, I've done the whole thing in stages. I replaced the rear sway bar and didn't get around to the front sway (with endlinks) until the next year. After springs, shocks, etc I didn't notice any big difference swapping the stock front sway to the Hotchkis. The stock front is pretty stout.

Lowering springs are the same price as stock height, give a better look and better ride. For a normal car coil overs in the end don't do anything that lowering springs do. Most of the people that I've seen with them play with them a bunch at first and then just settle on a dropped height of 3/4" to an inch. They do give more clearance in the front for specialized wheel/tire combos but there are other issues with that. Drag bags can be added to the springs to gain height if really necessary or for drag days.

The front and rear struts/shocks are different types which is a no-no. The front is oil filled and the rears are gas filled. My rear shocks at 20K or so could be expanded and compressed by hand with ease. As I've said they were about as weak as a screen door closer. New ones were not like that. Springs/struts/shocks are the first things I'd replace. The strut mount/bearings and bump stops go in the same time as the struts.

When you get around to bushings the front radius rod bushes are first that should be done. The rear inner/outer control arm and subframe bushes are done as a group at the same time next. Then you can get around to the other stuff. The Energy kit does contain a selection but the two biggest weak spots, the strut bushes and front RR bushes are not included.